Mass Effect 3

[TimJames]

Kind of cool article on the infamous fight at Grissom Academy. There’s not a whole lot to break down here, but it was a good trip through memory lane.

[Telefrog]

http://drewkarpyshyn.com/c/?p=1022

Drew Karpyshyn is back at BioWare.

Speaking of full circle, here’s the second piece of big news: as of this past week, I am back working at BioWare again! For those who don’t know, I spent over a decade with BioWare working on many award winning and fan-beloved games like Mass Effect 1&2, Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars: The Old Republic Online MMO. A few years ago I left BioWare to focus on my Chaos Born novels, but now that the trilogy is finished, I’ve decided to come back into the fold. But for those of you who love my novels, don’t worry – I’ll still be writing more of those, too!

Working at BioWare was a challenging but very rewarding job, and it’s good to be back as part of the team. The thing I missed most about BioWare was the amazing people I got to work with, and luckily for me many of them are still there! I suspect a lot of folks are going to wonder if this means BioWare is about to announce a new project tied to my return. The short answer: no. I originally came to the Austin studio many years ago to work on SWTOR and – at least for now – that’s what I’m focusing on again.

[instant0]

Agreed. I don’t usually care about multiplayer at all, but ME3 got me hooked for a while. I still want to play every once in a while. :)

Same. Only reason I still have it installed.

[RickH]

Drew Karpyshyn is back at BioWare.

Perhaps his absence explains the lack of story continuity bewteen ME 1/2 and 3.

Karpyshyn details the ending, which he admits wasn’t “super fleshed out”. The plot would have revolved around Dark Energy: something that was mentioned in Mass Effect 2, but never expanded upon.
“Dark Energy was something that only organics could access because of various techno-science magic reasons we hadn’t decided on yet,” Karpyshyn said. "Maybe using this Dark Energy was having a ripple effect on the space-time continuum.
"Maybe the Reapers kept wiping out organic life because organics keep evolving to the state where they would use biotics and dark energy and that caused an entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe. Being immortal beings, that’s something they wouldn’t want to see.
"Then we thought, let’s take it to the next level. Maybe the Reapers are looking at a way to stop this. Maybe there’s an inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang (the Big Crunch) and the Reapers realise that the only way they can stop it is by using biotics, but since they can’t use biotics they have to keep rebuilding society - as they try and find the perfect group to use biotics for this purpose. The Asari were close but they weren’t quite right, the Protheans were close as well.
“Again it’s very vague and not fleshed out, it was something we considered but we ended up going in a different direction.”
Karpyshyn left BioWare shortly before the conclusion of Mass Effect 2, with Mac Walters taking over as lead writer for Mass Effect 3. Even so, Karpyshyn defended series’ real ending, pointing out that his planned version was just as likely to disappoint.
“I find it funny that fans end up hearing a couple things they like about it and in their minds they add in all the details they specifically want. It’s like vapourware - vapourware is always perfect, anytime someone talks about the new greatest game. It’s perfect until it comes out. I’m a little weary about going into too much detail because, whatever we came up with, it probably wouldn’t be what people want it to be.”

Not that I approve in the least of starting to tell a story without knowing how it ends.

Or perhaps it was EA taking over and demanding that the series’ ideas be homgenized and the ending made more extreme and funneled. Or maybe it was Casey Hudson being willful. They’ll never tell.

[legowarrior]

Damn it, I was hoping that the the DLCs went on sale. Well, I’m glad he is back.

[Telefrog]

Perhaps his absence explains the lack of story continuity bewteen ME 1/2 and 3.

Obviously, we know something happened there. Whether it was EA corporate tom-foolery, or BioWare just fumbling the story, or Drew Karpyshyn messing up his own story, the arc was a load of dung.

My only take is that I’ve read Karpyshyn’s novels and based on that writing, I’m not sure he’s the savior that a lot of BioWare/KOTOR/ME purists think he is.

[Juan_Raigada]

Not that I approve in the least of starting to tell a story without knowing how it ends.

This is basically the case for every single multi part mass media series. the only alternative would be to write (and prototype, in the case of games) the whole story ahead of time, and that’s unfeasible.

[CraigM]

Perhaps his absence explains the lack of story continuity bewteen ME 1/2 and 3.

Though it’s not like the thematic consistency from 1 to 2 as all that great either.

Not that I approve in the least of starting to tell a story without knowing how it ends.

Or perhaps it was EA taking over and demanding that the series’ ideas be homgenized and the ending made more extreme and funneled. Or maybe it was Casey Hudson being willful. They’ll never tell.

I do lay a lot of that on the feet of EA. Having a story with a world where humans aren’t the special snowflakes of the universe goes against their mass market approach. Shepard wasn’t the center of the story because he was somehow some kind of chosen one, but because he was in the right place to be the pivot of the story in ME1. Moving away from that diluted the world, by making the universe go from something that exists and functions with Shepard being merely a part of it, to something that exists and moves to serve the needs of Shepard and his crew. Having Earth be the location of the grand battle is contrived, and not in a good way.

[Greatatlantic]

Though it’s not like the thematic consistency from 1 to 2 as all that great either.

Yeah, I think Mass Effect 3 would actually have made MORE sense if 2 was never made.

Then, the “human vs. ai” conflict would have had more evidence due to the war with the Geth. However, Mass Effect 2 was all about “hey, we Geth just want to be alone. All that war? Just a misunderstanding. Peaceful cooperation totally do-able.”

Honestly, though, the Reapers should never have been given a motivation. What is Cthullu’s motivation? Nothing, he is just sleeping in the ocean and merely by sleeping he subconsciously interacts with mankind causing nightmares and occasional cult worship. Eventually he will just wake up that will be the apocalypse. The Reapers are supposed to be beyond human comprehension, except that we realize they are evil and want to destroy us.

[Grifman]

Kind of cool article on the infamous fight at Grissom Academy. There’s not a whole lot to break down here, but it was a good trip through memory lane.

This was a tough fight but not the toughest, IMO. The toughest was the fight on the Salerian homeworld to protect the female Krogan. You had to constantly advance up three different levels because if you didn’t, her capsule would take damage and she would eventually die. It forced to play offensively and constantly push yourself. And on the last level, you had also had to face a mech. It was easy to get funneled down to the lower level and then get it from several sides. A very tough fight.

[Bateau]

I remember raging a bit at that part during my first playthrough which was on Insanity. It reminded me of that section on Omega in Archangel mission where you had to close the doors.

[Razgon]

Lots of memorable memories of Mass Effect - It really was a great great series!

[Rock8man]

Paging @kristina. Where you at in Mass Effect 3? You seem to be going through the trilogy at supersonic speed, honestly. I think it took me a year to finish the three games back to back to back. You sound like you’re going to do it in a month.

[kristina]

Thanks for bringing me “home” @Rock8man ! =)
I blazed through ME1 and 2 in a month. So… yeah, it’s been a lot of hours playing. But I’ve been reading a lot of tips for how to get the best endings, since I’ve only borrowed these games and the console and won’t be able to play them again, so I just wanted to make it… “right”.

(Although - I might become crazy and buy myself a PS3 and the games again after returning these cause… Garrus & Thane)

In ME3 now, I’ve just released the cure in Tuchanka.
I really love how they built these games up. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the 3rd game is just a rush to complete the series, but I don’t feel that way. There is this mellow sorrow over the third game that really hits me, everyone is expecting to die, saying goodbye to loved ones, giving their lives for the future of the galaxy.
Haha, never imagined I would become this emotionally attached to these series. When I started Andromeda, I actually stated that “I hate games with aliens”. And look at me now!

[Fifth_Fret]

I really love how they built these games up. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the 3rd game is just a rush to complete the series, but I don’t feel that way. There is this mellow sorrow over the third game that really hits me, everyone is expecting to die, saying goodbye to loved ones, giving their lives for the future of the galaxy.

The ambiance in the third game is fantastic It has an incredibly melancholic tone almost all the way through.

[Rock8man]

As @RickH pointed out in the Andromeda thread, ME2 and 3 DLC is on sale this week again on the 360.

Once again I’m tempted by Mass Effect 3 DLC like Citadel. But I have no idea if I’ll ever have time to play through the game again.

Is it possible to go back and play just the Citadel DLC after ending the game? I wonder if I’ll even remember the characters well enough to appreciate it?

[divedivedive]

Is it possible to go back and play just the Citadel DLC after ending the game?

Pretty sure that’s how I played it, since it was released after ME3 had been out for some time.

[RickH]

Is it possible to go back and play just the Citadel DLC after ending the game? I wonder if I’ll even remember the characters well enough to appreciate it?

I don’t think so. But you can do all of the ME 3 DLC pretty early in the game. I think I stopped after Citadel, leaving my crew in a nicer place.

[Soma]

Is it possible to go back and play just the Citadel DLC after ending the game? I wonder if I’ll even remember the characters well enough to appreciate it?

Attacking TIM’s base is the game’s point of no return. So the game automatically saves before you attack TIM’s base. Load that automatic save to do all the DLC content.

[kristina]

Citadel DLC becomes playable immedieately after Act II (where you save the Citadel from the Cerberus coup). Although you won’t have all possible old companions yet (Tali and Jacob if you saved them).

I saw someone recommending to play through the ending, and then load a save when you start Citadel DLC to have the party with your crew and pretend it was the party after finishing off the Reapers. Lol. I love that idea.

Other than that… is it normal to be crying this much over a game? Jeez. ME3 just makes me so sad.