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Post by Ex on Sept 15, 2021 0:56:13 GMT -5
Title: Mass Effect 3Platform: Xbox 360 Region release played: USA Year of release: 2012 Developer: BioWare Publisher: Electronic Arts Graphics: 4/5 Audio: 4/5 Challenge: 3/5 Fun factor: 3/5 Quick Thoughts: Mass Effect 3 brings the famed WRPG sci-fi trilogy to an end, no easy task. Eschewing the RPG-ness of ME1, and reducing the plot exposition of ME2, ME3 instead doubles down on cover shooting ad infinitum. The player will spend the majority of their time in combat with ME3, so if you like to shooty doot you will have dozens of hours of shooty dooting. The Mass Effect trilogy in total represents one of the greatest accomplishments in this medium. Mass Effect 3 on its own is the weakest of its brethren, but still manages to provide closure and catharsis. My femshep's final stats: I assure the actual HDTV screen doesn't look anywhere near that BLUE or out of color calibration. For some reason my digital camera refused to take a realistic representation of my HDTV screen. Whatever, you can read the stats. +Excellent graphical presentation. +OST intelligently hearkens back to the original ME1. +Cover shooting mechanics evolved over predecessors. +Some of the DLC is REALLY good. +I enjoyed the ending I got*, no problem with the ending. -Far too much focus on shooty dooting. -I kept having to swap discs despite the game being installed on my Xbox 360's hard drive. -The majority of the writing fails to match its predecessors' quality. -No free driving of land roving vehicles. -Some weird (and humorous) graphical glitches at times. Ex's time to beat: 41 hours (did all DLC and most side-missions) Ex's rating: 8/10 * I chose the "fuse organics and synthetics" ending. Everything seemed to work out well after that.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 15, 2021 9:26:22 GMT -5
8/10 is still dang good for some of the gripes you had, so I'm glad you still enjoyed it. That ending seems ideal from what I remember. I agree about the OST, it's better than ME2's to me, bringing back a bit of that new age/trance that was in ME1. I don't really know if this one is more action oriented than the others though. If you played them all back to back (daunting task heh), maybe you'd feel differently. That said I like ME3's combat a lot and it's better than ME2's, so maybe I just don't notice and have more fun with it. Not the main reason to play these though. Going on a huge adventure and hanging out with your crew on the ship, yeah the first two probably did that a bit better.
Wonder if you'll play Andromeda before I do. I still *think* I might try it one day and chances are I might like it more than any Dragon Age (Inquisition was solid and the one I finished), but yeah. There's probably a reason why Andromeda has its weak reputation and even Bioware seems to ignore nowadays. The current talk about the future of the series sounds like they'll just try again and move away from whatever Andromeda tried to do.
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Post by Ex on Sept 15, 2021 9:41:49 GMT -5
In total I've put 121 hours into finishing all three games, so I doubt I'll ever replay this series. It was great, but I'm done with it now. As for my ratings, ME1 = 9/10, ME2 = 9/10, and ME3 = 8/10. So yes 8/10 is a good score still and way above average, but ME3 still fell short of its predecessors for my tastes. However, I don't know what the big debacle was about ME3's ending(s). The ending I got was satisfying and I didn't feel cheated or whatever the issue was.
I own Andromeda and I intend to give it a fair chance. I remember reviewers harping on how buggy it was. By now it should have good patches available to remedy the worst bugs. Patches don't fix bad game design if that is the case, we'll see someday.
As for future studio releases, I don't have much faith in modern BioWare unfortunately.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 15, 2021 9:57:50 GMT -5
In total I've put 121 hours into finishing all three games, so I doubt I'll ever replay this series. It was great, but I'm done with it now. As for my ratings, ME1 = 9/10, ME2 = 9/10, and ME3 = 8/10. So yes 8/10 is a good score still and way above average, but ME3 still fell short of its predecessors for my tastes. However, I don't know what the big debacle was about ME3's ending(s). The ending I got was satisfying and I didn't feel cheated or whatever the issue was. I own Andromeda and I intend to give it a fair chance. I remember reviewers harping on how buggy it was. By now it should have good patches available to remedy the worst bugs. Patches don't fix bad game design if that is the case, we'll see someday. As for future studio releases, I don't have much faith in modern BioWare unfortunately. The endings were shorter at launch. Yes, this is one of the classic tales of a game getting its additional ending material patched in later.
Does it seem worse?
As for modern Bioware, yeah Anthem has to be one of the biggest jokes of the last gen. I don't have much faith in them anymore either. Total lack of leadership, split studio locations, etc, sounds terrible.
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Post by Ex on Sept 15, 2021 10:06:01 GMT -5
That was the same ending I got, except my ending had an additional epilogue provided by EDI that was two minutes long or so. I felt the epilogue wasn't needed, now I realize yeah it wasn't originally there.
BioWare got too ate up with MMO projects for a while (Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes (ended up being canceled), Command & Conquer: Generals 2 (canceled), Shadow Realms (canceled), Anthem). That said supposedly BioWare is working on both a new Dragon Age game and a new Mass Effect game. But given how much of the original talent has left the studio... I wouldn't put my hopes high on either.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 15, 2021 10:11:58 GMT -5
I guess I like the epilogues. But yeah, I think the ending drama was pretty overblown and never really minded them. Are they great endings? I don't know. But it's about the journey to me. I'm not going to let an ending ruin 120 hours of fun.
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Post by paulofthewest on Sept 17, 2021 20:06:26 GMT -5
The ending I got was satisfying and I didn't feel cheated or whatever the issue was. I thought all the endings were "good" endings. They are satisfying in what choice you want to make, which is why I found it interesting. I definitely went Red/Destroy: Just stop the craziness and let people be free. Although, this was influenced by the fact I don't believe in Strong AI.
My ending did imply the Shepard lived. I own Andromeda and I intend to give it a fair chance. I remember reviewers harping on how buggy it was. By now it should have good patches available to remedy the worst bugs. Patches don't fix bad game design if that is the case, we'll see someday. As for future studio releases, I don't have much faith in modern BioWare unfortunately. Sadly I must concur. Which is frustrating because, like you, I enjoyed ME1-3.
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Post by Ex on Sept 17, 2021 21:59:20 GMT -5
The thing about your ending paulofthewest was it would allow the cycle to repeat again, thus only delaying the inevitable. I chose the fusion ending to finally end the cycle. It's cool though that ME3 has as many drastically different endings as it does, reminds of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne in that regard.
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Post by paulofthewest on Sept 18, 2021 20:55:21 GMT -5
Hm, maybe I got my games mixed up. I thought the ending I received was perma-destroy. The control was allowing the cycle to continue. O-well. Hopefully a sequel will clear things up.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 20, 2021 13:43:21 GMT -5
Blaster Master Zero III is down for the count. True ending, yadda yadda yadda.
I have opinions, y'all. The core of the game is still here, but I feel most of the additions actually detract from the experience. So let's get the negative out of the way first.
- I don't like the limited use pickups that guard your health on foot and in the tank. Firstly, they still show up on the map, so you can never be sure if you're going for an expendable or a new upgrade. Secondly, it feels like they're an excuse to have some pretty cheap enemies and patterns to ratchet up the difficulty. - Keeping gun levels is really tough to do, and the lowest levels for all your weapons (you get five, all with various utility) except one feel actively bad to use. Getting them powered up is fine, but it still feels like there is only one true powerful weapon. - I don't like the counter mechanic much. Once again, it feels like a way to make things harder unless you engage with it, and that slows things down. Or, you know, you can just skip enemies entirely, which is often the best solution. - I also don't care for the alternate dimension/portal mechanic. I don't feel like the maps handle this very effectively, and it creates some navigation issues until it finally clicks with you. I admit, that took some time, but the game got a bit better once I grokked it. Note that there are some Metroid Prime 2 vibes with this - you don't have a constant life drain, but there is a limit to how long you can stay in "extra-dimensional" space. - The ending was... huh. I like the little twist leading up to the final fight, though. - Kanna, the plant girl with huge, umm, (literal?) melons feels really out of place still.
That's a lot of negatives! But let's balance that with some things that I liked.
- The recharge mechanic is still interesting; falling from heights is an intriguing way to handle that. - The true endgame, with spoiling anything, gives a couple of neat throwbacks that feel really good if the original BMZ is your favorite. - The action here is still solid - tank controls are weighty but satisfying, and you also get an alternate control mode that makes your movements much more precise. I wish there had been more of these! There's also an air dash ability that feels like it could have been utilized even more, but it feels good here, especially if you map it to your ZL or ZR shortcut. - While it's easy to lose your gun levels, it's also really easy to get them back if you're not in a boss battle. - Some of the music is really good. Reading the credits, it seems like they might have actually converted the music into actual NES format, so that rocks. - Quick warping at save points
On balance, I feel like this was a much weaker effort. Not enough for me to say it's bad or anything, but just so much of the new mechanics didn't really click for me, and it feels the further they stray from the original, the worse it gets. I'd probably give this a 7/10, perhaps a 7.5. BMZ still reigns supreme in the series. I still recommend series fans give it a go, though - your tastes might not align with mine, and you might love the new stuff.
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