I see "control" and "synthesis" as happy endings. "Destroy" not so much. Control and synthesis both result in lasting peace with the reapers. One by placing them under Shepard's control, the other by removing their <i>raison de guerre.</i> The mass relay network is gone in any case, but in lieu there is good reason to believe that the galactic community should soon have access to reaper-tech FTL (though more in the control ending than the synthesis one), which is so fast that it turns mass relays from necessity into convenience. Getting around the galaxy will be slower, but the galactic community will continue to exist. Furthermore, new mass relays could possibly be built. If the reapers don't have access to that kind of tech, who would?
The only one who doesn't get a happy ending is Shepard herself. But that's such a standard trope. The hero sacrifices herself to save everyone else. Too common to be a valid complaint.
I'd also consider the "destroy" as the bad ending because it results in the death of all synthetics most notable the Geth which we've established are not bad after all but the thing is the destroy ending is the only one in which Shepard survives.
I don't have a problem with Shepard dying at the end but at the very least I'd have liked an explanation of what the hell happened afterward or why my squad-mates had seemingly teleported back to the Normandy which is warping away from the crucibles blast for some reason which damages the Normandy again for some reason causing it to crash on some conveniently "earth like" jungle planet.
In the end though I doubt very much that bioware will be able handle it in a way that will please the majority since even if they did release another set of "better" endings through DLC they will undoubtedly charge you for it which will then create a whole new debacle involving folk claiming they deliberately withheld the real endings in order to charge everyone extra for them.
Destroy is the only ending in which we see (what we assume is) Shepard taking a breath of air on (what we assume is) earth. If the 'indoctrination' theory is actually correct (who knows?) then Destroy is the only ending in which Shepard is able to fight off the indoctrination attempt. After that.... ?
<!--quoteo(post=1919577:date=Mar 29 2012, 03:34 PM:name=SentrySteve)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SentrySteve @ Mar 29 2012, 03:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1919577"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Destroy is the only ending in which we see (what we assume is) Shepard taking a breath of air on (what we assume is) earth. If the 'indoctrination' theory is actually correct (who knows?) then Destroy is the only ending in which Shepard is able to fight off the indoctrination attempt. After that.... ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The indoctrination theory is just grasping at straws. The human knack for seeing patterns is easily fooled into seeing them even where they don't exist. Also the VI in Thessia detects Kai Leng's indoctrination, but not Shepard's? Lacks credibility.
<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/321029/20120328/mass-effect-3-ending-fans-protest-analysis.htm" target="_blank">Article of some amusement.</a>
<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/320429/20120327/mass-effect-3-ending-protest-fans-cupcakes.htm" target="_blank">Truely awesome display of anger and disgust in a very none violent form.</a>
<!--quoteo(post=1919652:date=Mar 30 2012, 01:07 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Mar 30 2012, 01:07 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1919652"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The indoctrination theory is just grasping at straws. The human knack for seeing patterns is easily fooled into seeing them even where they don't exist. Also the VI in Thessia detects Kai Leng's indoctrination, but not Shepard's? Lacks credibility.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
It just does not make sense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not to mention that IF you were indoctrinated when you went into the Geth AI-verse, all that Reaper code would have done something funny to you.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
It just does not make sense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The sad part is, it's the only interpretation that makes the most sense. All other endings, literally, could not have happened due to previously established lore.
I think the key is that you're not indoctrinated, but rather you're being assaulted by indoctrination. You haven't crossed that line yet. Indoctrination is the name of the process and the final state achieved when it succeeds: Shep is still their own person. Also, I don't know about you but that beam didn't hit anywhere near me when Harbinger shot so my armour wouldn't even be singed, but it was close enough to make me reel and possibly KO my character: sudden shock or unconsciousness is mentioned as one of the final tools needed to push people over the edge for the final shift into indoctrination :P
As to why not kill Shep, that's fairly easy. In death Shep becomes a martyr: while their passing might demoralise some, there'd be those who fight on in your name and even a lot who probably refuse to believe you died in the blast and are still fighting the Reapers somewhere. Alive and indoctrinated, Shep becomes a tool or weapon that can undo everything. You have the trust of the galaxy and could easily lead them down the path to destruction. Even if you didn't use the goodwill you'd gained you're easily the second most destructive force in the galaxy behind the reapers. Think how many things you've laid waste to pretty much single handedly. You make Krogan units look fragile and the turian military look like untrained novices by comparison :3
Indoctrination isn't a line though, it's a scale that goes from light to heavy. Saren, Kai Leng, and the Illusive Man are examples of light indoctrination, where their personalities are mostly intact but they're still being influenced, and are still capable of acting against it if they realize that they're indoctrinated and can muster enough willpower. Heavy indoctrination is seen in some of the prisoners you find on Virmire, who are in a dazed, zombie-like state.
The Thessia VI does not react to Shepard at all, but reacts to the lightly indoctrinated Kai Leng. I continue to find the indoctrination theory crackpot at best.
<!--quoteo(post=1920047:date=Mar 31 2012, 06:04 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Mar 31 2012, 06:04 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920047"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How so? That really requires a further explanation.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The explanation was a few posts above. Copied/pasted for convenience. <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->See: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUep...s/preview?pli=1</a>
Specifically:
"It was established in Arrival that the destruction of a Mass Relay results in a powerful supernova-like explosion that destroys the star system the Relay resides in...If Joker was traveling fast enough to, at least temporarily, outrun the wave transmitted through the Mass Relay, he must also have been traveling through a Mass Relay...Meaning the point at which the Normandy emerged would be in a star system occupied by a Mass Relay. Since the wave was just behind the Normandy, the Mass Relay would have exploded almost immediately after the Normady arrived in the system. It could not have crash-landed on a planet because the resulting explosion would have wiped out both the Normandy and the entire star system. The scene depicting the crew emerging onto a planet is impossible.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nevermind the giant plot holes that don't make sense (How did a squad mate I picked for the final mission end up on the normady?) this is one example (I think there are others) that just makes all 3 endings simply impossible.
Oh right, the mass relays. I thought I had written my thoughts on that. Well, it's established lore that you can't destroy them. Except later on it's established that you CAN, if you hit them hard enough. Which isn't really surprising, since that holds true for anything. But this time around the mass effects aren't destroyed, their energy is released in a controlled fashion. At least that's how I see it. Your mileage may differ.
As for squadmates appearing on the Normandy, ockham's razor says that's probably just a bug. Don't read too much into it.
<!--quoteo(post=1920180:date=Mar 31 2012, 12:56 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Mar 31 2012, 12:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920180"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As for squadmates appearing on the Normandy, ockham's razor says that's probably just a bug. Don't read too much into it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, that's kind of the thing though... the ending to a trilogy where people invested 100+ hours shouldn't have such a basic bug.
<!--quoteo(post=1920096:date=Mar 31 2012, 09:18 AM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Geminosity @ Mar 31 2012, 09:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920096"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I think the key is that you're not indoctrinated, but rather you're being assaulted by indoctrination. You haven't crossed that line yet. Indoctrination is the name of the process and the final state achieved when it succeeds: Shep is still their own person. Also, I don't know about you but that beam didn't hit anywhere near me when Harbinger shot so my armour wouldn't even be singed, but it was close enough to make me reel and possibly KO my character: sudden shock or unconsciousness is mentioned as one of the final tools needed to push people over the edge for the final shift into indoctrination :P
As to why not kill Shep, that's fairly easy. In death Shep becomes a martyr: while their passing might demoralise some, there'd be those who fight on in your name and even a lot who probably refuse to believe you died in the blast and are still fighting the Reapers somewhere. Alive and indoctrinated, Shep becomes a tool or weapon that can undo everything. You have the trust of the galaxy and could easily lead them down the path to destruction. Even if you didn't use the goodwill you'd gained you're easily the second most destructive force in the galaxy behind the reapers. Think how many things you've laid waste to pretty much single handedly. You make Krogan units look fragile and the turian military look like untrained novices by comparison :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Again though that doesn't make sense.
Its pretty well established in the lore that indoctrination takes a fair period of time usually several days to a week while in close proximity to reaper tech using subtle whispers and such to physiologically break a person its not like they can just flip an indoctrination switch on someone.
If you look at points in the game where people have been indoctrinated such as the derelict reaper or the arrival asteroid base thing it took a good deal of time in close proximity to reaper tech before the people became indoctrinated for example the Cerberus scientists on the derelict had the time to set up an outpost/base and study the reaper and dragon teeth before contact was lost and the people who found out about the alpha relay through the reaper beacon had enough time to formulate a plan, acquire assets and build giant engines on an asteroid before finally being turned right before they where about to see their plan through.
In the destroy ending (the only one in which Shepard survives after the final stargazer cut-scene) we see Shepard's body with badly burned/damaged armor gasping to life meaning its pretty clear he was hit by harbingers laser which goes back to what I said previous, why indoctrinate someone who has for all intensive purposes just been killed by a giant laser? who's going to know weather shep was turned since we all know the assault on earth was all or nothing so its not like its going to be demoralizing to anyone since if Shepard failed everyone would be screwed anyway.
The indoctrination theory is the equivalent of poring a bowl of alpha bits cereal and picking out words, its just people trying to make the best out of a bad situation by reading too much into bad writing.
I'd love to be proved wrong but I couldn't see it happening but either way we'll know more on April 6th.
On a lighter note I'm surprised how enjoyable multiplayer is and getting random unlock-ables in the equipment packs make it pretty addictive although I just wish people would stop trying to kick me for playing as a Turian soldier...
On a lighter note I'm surprised how enjoyable multiplayer is and getting random unlock-ables in the equipment packs make it pretty addictive although I just wish people would stop trying to kick me for playing as a Turian soldier...
EDIT: ugh so much text @_@<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Finally, someone who has something to say about the MP!
I know the feel of trying "unproven" classes in gold difficulty to just to be constantly kicked because most people who play soldier are at the bottom of the scoreboard every game. I've been lucky with my "drops" though so it has been going fairly well. I just recently got my first N7 marked weapon, M-99 Saber, a sniper/assault rifle hybrid. It fires quite damaging bullets with semi fire and goes in the assault rifle slot. The marksman skill goes really well with it but it's also really heavy.
Something I didn't expect to work was using the one-shot super damaging shotgun with a infiltrator, the 40% extra damage with AP bullets can take down a Brute in two shots.
I think I've also found a bug with infiltrator, if you cloak, fire, and then instantly use a power it will be fired despite cloak needing a cooldown after decloaking. Effectively giving my salarian infiltrator to either zap shields at every shot or launch a 800 damage proximity mine (it does detonate midair if you hit). I've also noticed that powers benefit from the sneak-attack when in cloak, so my shield steal skill can take the entire shield of an enemy before I blow his head off. Compared to shooting first just to get the shield down and then firing again, I don't get why they did that in Gold but not in silver or bronze, it really hamper snipers. Even a 1% shield will block the shot from doing ANY damage to their health. This seems to not be the case with shotguns who can kill shielded enemies with one shot regardless.
P.S. Matchmaking is as horrible as ever and why it needs to load between menus baffles me. My tip here is to let it find a server for max 5 seconds then click cancel and try again, it seems it doesn't refresh on its own if you just sit and wait.
Its silly as I usually do pretty well as a soldier since you can take a good deal of damage and can generally carry heavier weapons but people just assume its a rubbish class and that your going to some how drag the rest of the team down (who will all likely charge about as vanguards or spam throw with adepts).
I mainly play as an engineer since the overload + incinerate combo works wonders on most enemies and also because the combat drone rocks when upgraded to fire rockets but even so I enjoy playing as the turian soldier since beside looking super bad ass the concussion shot is pretty powerful and at times you can almost trick shot it around corners but the best thing of all is that the marksman ability essentially negates recoil and speeds up firing speed for a limited time which can transform more guns including some of the less useful guns (like the geth rifle, N7 shotgun and ever the maelstrom) into death dealing head shot machines.
One thing I'd really like would be the ability to unlock a characters appearance options by promoting them rather than having to wait god knows how long before you randomly pick them up via the equipment packs.
mass effect is the western worlds answer to final fantasy. horrible animation, dead eyes and sub-par voice acting. gawd it sucks, masses loving it is no surprise. carry on, nothing to read here.
<!--quoteo(post=1920300:date=Mar 31 2012, 09:45 PM:name=Drake1)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Drake1 @ Mar 31 2012, 09:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920300"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Its silly as I usually do pretty well as a soldier since you can take a good deal of damage and can generally carry heavier weapons but people just assume its a rubbish class and that your going to some how drag the rest of the team down (who will all likely charge about as vanguards or spam throw with adepts).
I mainly play as an engineer since the overload + incinerate combo works wonders on most enemies and also because the combat drone rocks when upgraded to fire rockets but even so I enjoy playing as the turian soldier since beside looking super bad ass the concussion shot is pretty powerful and at times you can almost trick shot it around corners but the best thing of all is that the marksman ability essentially negates recoil and speeds up firing speed for a limited time which can transform more guns including some of the less useful guns (like the geth rifle, N7 shotgun and ever the maelstrom) into death dealing head shot machines.
One thing I'd really like would be the ability to unlock a characters appearance options by promoting them rather than having to wait god knows how long before you randomly pick them up via the equipment packs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What exactly does promoting do except resetting the character to level 1?
I also agree @ vanguards and generally all melee centered classes. They are terribly gimped on Gold unless they face enemies 1on1 or perhaps 1on2 but otherwise they are shot down essentially just as fast as any other class, despite having double or close to triple HP+shields AND up to 50% damage resistance. All they can hope to do is charge at stragglers or lone flankers without a high chance of going down, or perhaps soak damage as half-arsed ranged attackers. So I've been making it a point to not even bother with health and shield upgrades for any class. The really dangerous enemies blast your shield away near instantly in any case (especially Phantoms, damn their pistol is strong as hell as well as accurate) The ones I've seen do some proper damage are the Vanguards with 200% faster cooldown, essentially just charging at enemies, using Nova upon impact and then just recharge shields with another charge and so on.
Do you find the equipment boosters for assault rifles to be generally useless? I can't notice any difference compared to any other weapon, I can swear it's broke.
From what I gather promoting resets your character stats so you can level them up again differently if you so choose (in-case you didn't like what skills you leveled) as well as doing "something" to you single player war assets although I've yet to do it some I cant confirm what fully happens.
I'm not sure about equipment boosters on assault rifles sadly as I generally use shotguns and heavy pistols together or snipers and heavy pistols, although I do remember using the armor piercing rounds in the vindicator and it was pretty boss (especially with the recoil reduction attachment) particularly against guardians and reaper forces.
In general the most annoying thing for me in the MP is the phantoms and their stupid one hit kill sword attack that often has you magnetically drawn toward them.
A) Connection quality indicator. The game uses listenservers exclusively (seriously, what year are we in, 1995?), and there is NOTHING that indicates how good your connection to the host is. Not in the lobby, not in the game, nowhere. My first indication that the host is in a 56k modem is when all the enemies are warping around like banshees. We need to know about latency, as a bare minimum. And we especially need to know about it in the lobby.
B) Text chat. I'd like to be able to tell my team that I'm leaving because the poor connection is making the game unplayable.
<!--quoteo(post=1920309:date=Mar 31 2012, 01:59 PM:name=Tykjen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tykjen @ Mar 31 2012, 01:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920309"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->mass effect is the western worlds answer to final fantasy. horrible animation, dead eyes and sub-par voice acting. gawd it sucks, masses loving it is no surprise. carry on, nothing to read here.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1920361:date=Apr 1 2012, 12:18 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ Apr 1 2012, 12:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920361"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Multiplayer is in <i>dire</i> need of two things:
A) Connection quality indicator. The game uses listenservers exclusively (seriously, what year are we in, 1995?), and there is NOTHING that indicates how good your connection to the host is. Not in the lobby, not in the game, nowhere. My first indication that the host is in a 56k modem is when all the enemies are warping around like banshees. We need to know about latency, as a bare minimum. And we especially need to know about it in the lobby.
B) Text chat. I'd like to be able to tell my team that I'm leaving because the poor connection is making the game unplayable.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree wholeheartedly on both accounts, I always feel bad when one guy is talking in mic and I have no way to respond to him. It also sucks that you lose your equipment unless you leave straight away from a laggy listenserver.
One thing I do like is the seemingly weekly updates which bring you new challenges and equipment packs. Even if it just means an extra % of a certain enemy or to promote two characters to get a reward. It feels like someone is watching and almost caring about my progress.
It must be infuriating for someone who has a poor connection, too. If he joins other people's games, his poor connection means that everything warps around and lags terribly. Gah, everyone has ###### connections! So he starts his own game, which runs fluidly, vindicating his decision. His connection is obviously awesome! But everyone keeps disconnecting all the time, the ######s! For someone who doesn't know very much about internet connections and their impact on games, this whole problem can be very misleading, and the game offers no way for him to figure out what the problem is.
"MASS EFFECT 3: RESURGENCE TRAILER Join the war for Earth in Mass Effect 3! Owners of Mass Effect 3 can download the first multiplayer expansion for no additional cost. The Mass Effect 3 Resurgence Pack adds new unlockable content: deadly weapons, new consumables, and powerful characters for each class in multiplayer, including the Asari Justicar, Batarian, Geth, and Krogan Battlemaster. Additionally, the Mass Effect 3 Resurgence Pack also includes 2 new maps, Firebase Condor and Firebase Hydra. Download this pack on April 10th and take the battle online in the critically acclaimed Mass Effect 3 multiplayer experience."
Comments
Control and synthesis both result in lasting peace with the reapers. One by placing them under Shepard's control, the other by removing their <i>raison de guerre.</i> The mass relay network is gone in any case, but in lieu there is good reason to believe that the galactic community should soon have access to reaper-tech FTL (though more in the control ending than the synthesis one), which is so fast that it turns mass relays from necessity into convenience. Getting around the galaxy will be slower, but the galactic community will continue to exist. Furthermore, new mass relays could possibly be built. If the reapers don't have access to that kind of tech, who would?
The only one who doesn't get a happy ending is Shepard herself. But that's such a standard trope. The hero sacrifices herself to save everyone else. Too common to be a valid complaint.
I don't have a problem with Shepard dying at the end but at the very least I'd have liked an explanation of what the hell happened afterward or why my squad-mates had seemingly teleported back to the Normandy which is warping away from the crucibles blast for some reason which damages the Normandy again for some reason causing it to crash on some conveniently "earth like" jungle planet.
In the end though I doubt very much that bioware will be able handle it in a way that will please the majority since even if they did release another set of "better" endings through DLC they will undoubtedly charge you for it which will then create a whole new debacle involving folk claiming they deliberately withheld the real endings in order to charge everyone extra for them.
DLC! It's dynamite! DLC! It's outta sight!
<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/320429/20120327/mass-effect-3-ending-protest-fans-cupcakes.htm" target="_blank">Truely awesome display of anger and disgust in a very none violent form.</a>
Exactly.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
It just does not make sense.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
It just does not make sense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not to mention that IF you were indoctrinated when you went into the Geth AI-verse, all that Reaper code would have done something funny to you.
Plus why would Shepard's indoctrinate only seem to set in after harbinger had pretty much killed him/her with a giant reaper laser instead of say before Shepard had united the galaxy, built a giant doomsday weapon and formed one of the largest fleets in history.
It just does not make sense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The sad part is, it's the only interpretation that makes the most sense. All other endings, literally, could not have happened due to previously established lore.
As to why not kill Shep, that's fairly easy. In death Shep becomes a martyr: while their passing might demoralise some, there'd be those who fight on in your name and even a lot who probably refuse to believe you died in the blast and are still fighting the Reapers somewhere.
Alive and indoctrinated, Shep becomes a tool or weapon that can undo everything. You have the trust of the galaxy and could easily lead them down the path to destruction. Even if you didn't use the goodwill you'd gained you're easily the second most destructive force in the galaxy behind the reapers. Think how many things you've laid waste to pretty much single handedly. You make Krogan units look fragile and the turian military look like untrained novices by comparison :3
The Thessia VI does not react to Shepard at all, but reacts to the lightly indoctrinated Kai Leng. I continue to find the indoctrination theory crackpot at best.
The explanation was a few posts above. Copied/pasted for convenience.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->See: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUep...s/preview?pli=1</a>
Specifically:
"It was established in Arrival that the destruction of a Mass Relay results in a powerful supernova-like explosion that destroys the star system the Relay resides in...If Joker was traveling fast enough to, at least temporarily, outrun the wave transmitted through the Mass Relay, he must also have been traveling through a Mass Relay...Meaning the point at which the Normandy emerged would be in a star system occupied by a Mass Relay. Since the wave was just behind the Normandy, the Mass Relay would have exploded almost immediately after the Normady arrived in the system. It could not have crash-landed on a planet because the resulting explosion would have wiped out both the Normandy and the entire star system. The scene depicting the crew emerging onto a planet is impossible.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nevermind the giant plot holes that don't make sense (How did a squad mate I picked for the final mission end up on the normady?) this is one example (I think there are others) that just makes all 3 endings simply impossible.
As for squadmates appearing on the Normandy, ockham's razor says that's probably just a bug. Don't read too much into it.
Yeah, that's kind of the thing though... the ending to a trilogy where people invested 100+ hours shouldn't have such a basic bug.
As to why not kill Shep, that's fairly easy. In death Shep becomes a martyr: while their passing might demoralise some, there'd be those who fight on in your name and even a lot who probably refuse to believe you died in the blast and are still fighting the Reapers somewhere.
Alive and indoctrinated, Shep becomes a tool or weapon that can undo everything. You have the trust of the galaxy and could easily lead them down the path to destruction. Even if you didn't use the goodwill you'd gained you're easily the second most destructive force in the galaxy behind the reapers. Think how many things you've laid waste to pretty much single handedly. You make Krogan units look fragile and the turian military look like untrained novices by comparison :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Again though that doesn't make sense.
Its pretty well established in the lore that indoctrination takes a fair period of time usually several days to a week while in close proximity to reaper tech using subtle whispers and such to physiologically break a person its not like they can just flip an indoctrination switch on someone.
If you look at points in the game where people have been indoctrinated such as the derelict reaper or the arrival asteroid base thing it took a good deal of time in close proximity to reaper tech before the people became indoctrinated for example the Cerberus scientists on the derelict had the time to set up an outpost/base and study the reaper and dragon teeth before contact was lost and the people who found out about the alpha relay through the reaper beacon had enough time to formulate a plan, acquire assets and build giant engines on an asteroid before finally being turned right before they where about to see their plan through.
In the destroy ending (the only one in which Shepard survives after the final stargazer cut-scene) we see Shepard's body with badly burned/damaged armor gasping to life meaning its pretty clear he was hit by harbingers laser which goes back to what I said previous, why indoctrinate someone who has for all intensive purposes just been killed by a giant laser? who's going to know weather shep was turned since we all know the assault on earth was all or nothing so its not like its going to be demoralizing to anyone since if Shepard failed everyone would be screwed anyway.
The indoctrination theory is the equivalent of poring a bowl of alpha bits cereal and picking out words, its just people trying to make the best out of a bad situation by reading too much into bad writing.
I'd love to be proved wrong but I couldn't see it happening but either way we'll know more on April 6th.
On a lighter note I'm surprised how enjoyable multiplayer is and getting random unlock-ables in the equipment packs make it pretty addictive although I just wish people would stop trying to kick me for playing as a Turian soldier...
EDIT: ugh so much text @_@
On a lighter note I'm surprised how enjoyable multiplayer is and getting random unlock-ables in the equipment packs make it pretty addictive although I just wish people would stop trying to kick me for playing as a Turian soldier...
EDIT: ugh so much text @_@<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Finally, someone who has something to say about the MP!
I know the feel of trying "unproven" classes in gold difficulty to just to be constantly kicked because most people who play soldier are at the bottom of the scoreboard every game. I've been lucky with my "drops" though so it has been going fairly well. I just recently got my first N7 marked weapon, M-99 Saber, a sniper/assault rifle hybrid. It fires quite damaging bullets with semi fire and goes in the assault rifle slot. The marksman skill goes really well with it but it's also really heavy.
Something I didn't expect to work was using the one-shot super damaging shotgun with a infiltrator, the 40% extra damage with AP bullets can take down a Brute in two shots.
I think I've also found a bug with infiltrator, if you cloak, fire, and then instantly use a power it will be fired despite cloak needing a cooldown after decloaking. Effectively giving my salarian infiltrator to either zap shields at every shot or launch a 800 damage proximity mine (it does detonate midair if you hit). I've also noticed that powers benefit from the sneak-attack when in cloak, so my shield steal skill can take the entire shield of an enemy before I blow his head off. Compared to shooting first just to get the shield down and then firing again, I don't get why they did that in Gold but not in silver or bronze, it really hamper snipers. Even a 1% shield will block the shot from doing ANY damage to their health. This seems to not be the case with shotguns who can kill shielded enemies with one shot regardless.
P.S. Matchmaking is as horrible as ever and why it needs to load between menus baffles me. My tip here is to let it find a server for max 5 seconds then click cancel and try again, it seems it doesn't refresh on its own if you just sit and wait.
I mainly play as an engineer since the overload + incinerate combo works wonders on most enemies and also because the combat drone rocks when upgraded to fire rockets but even so I enjoy playing as the turian soldier since beside looking super bad ass the concussion shot is pretty powerful and at times you can almost trick shot it around corners but the best thing of all is that the marksman ability essentially negates recoil and speeds up firing speed for a limited time which can transform more guns including some of the less useful guns (like the geth rifle, N7 shotgun and ever the maelstrom) into death dealing head shot machines.
One thing I'd really like would be the ability to unlock a characters appearance options by promoting them rather than having to wait god knows how long before you randomly pick them up via the equipment packs.
I mainly play as an engineer since the overload + incinerate combo works wonders on most enemies and also because the combat drone rocks when upgraded to fire rockets but even so I enjoy playing as the turian soldier since beside looking super bad ass the concussion shot is pretty powerful and at times you can almost trick shot it around corners but the best thing of all is that the marksman ability essentially negates recoil and speeds up firing speed for a limited time which can transform more guns including some of the less useful guns (like the geth rifle, N7 shotgun and ever the maelstrom) into death dealing head shot machines.
One thing I'd really like would be the ability to unlock a characters appearance options by promoting them rather than having to wait god knows how long before you randomly pick them up via the equipment packs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What exactly does promoting do except resetting the character to level 1?
I also agree @ vanguards and generally all melee centered classes. They are terribly gimped on Gold unless they face enemies 1on1 or perhaps 1on2 but otherwise they are shot down essentially just as fast as any other class, despite having double or close to triple HP+shields AND up to 50% damage resistance. All they can hope to do is charge at stragglers or lone flankers without a high chance of going down, or perhaps soak damage as half-arsed ranged attackers. So I've been making it a point to not even bother with health and shield upgrades for any class. The really dangerous enemies blast your shield away near instantly in any case (especially Phantoms, damn their pistol is strong as hell as well as accurate) The ones I've seen do some proper damage are the Vanguards with 200% faster cooldown, essentially just charging at enemies, using Nova upon impact and then just recharge shields with another charge and so on.
Do you find the equipment boosters for assault rifles to be generally useless? I can't notice any difference compared to any other weapon, I can swear it's broke.
I'm not sure about equipment boosters on assault rifles sadly as I generally use shotguns and heavy pistols together or snipers and heavy pistols, although I do remember using the armor piercing rounds in the vindicator and it was pretty boss (especially with the recoil reduction attachment) particularly against guardians and reaper forces.
In general the most annoying thing for me in the MP is the phantoms and their stupid one hit kill sword attack that often has you magnetically drawn toward them.
A) Connection quality indicator. The game uses listenservers exclusively (seriously, what year are we in, 1995?), and there is NOTHING that indicates how good your connection to the host is. Not in the lobby, not in the game, nowhere. My first indication that the host is in a 56k modem is when all the enemies are warping around like banshees. We need to know about latency, as a bare minimum. And we especially need to know about it in the lobby.
B) Text chat. I'd like to be able to tell my team that I'm leaving because the poor connection is making the game unplayable.
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A) Connection quality indicator. The game uses listenservers exclusively (seriously, what year are we in, 1995?), and there is NOTHING that indicates how good your connection to the host is. Not in the lobby, not in the game, nowhere. My first indication that the host is in a 56k modem is when all the enemies are warping around like banshees. We need to know about latency, as a bare minimum. And we especially need to know about it in the lobby.
B) Text chat. I'd like to be able to tell my team that I'm leaving because the poor connection is making the game unplayable.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree wholeheartedly on both accounts, I always feel bad when one guy is talking in mic and I have no way to respond to him. It also sucks that you lose your equipment unless you leave straight away from a laggy listenserver.
One thing I do like is the seemingly weekly updates which bring you new challenges and equipment packs. Even if it just means an extra % of a certain enemy or to promote two characters to get a reward. It feels like someone is watching and almost caring about my progress.
For someone who doesn't know very much about internet connections and their impact on games, this whole problem can be very misleading, and the game offers no way for him to figure out what the problem is.
Good thing BioWare, had a say in this not EA. If it was EA, we'd all have to pay $35.99 for a new ending (Battlefield 3 reference mere).
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