The thing about DX:HR is the game wasn't all about Jensen's choices and how they affected the world. Mass Effect was all about Shepard's choices and how they affected the galaxy. Importing save files from the two previous games just for it to culminate into a select screen at the end is utter bullshit. I'm not saying the DLC is just and fair. They are wrong and if they purposely omitted the true ending to force people to buy it then it is disgusting and should not be tolerated.

You do not need to buy the packs to win. It makes it easier to buy them with real money but it is in the end unnecessary.
And the random card packs are a disgusting method to keep people in interested? Well, sorry, but things like this have been going on since the early days of entertainment. They need something to keep people interested. I frankly lost interest in BF:BC2 after I unlocked all the weapons. I am serious. There was really no motivation to play any more after that. Things like this don't even only occur in video games, they occur in real life as well. Random card packs come from card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon where you would buy packs in hopes that you'll get your desired card, and if you don't well, buy another one! And unlike video games, there is no alternative option but to pay for them in real money. It is only because ME3 is more mainstream than card games that you raise this issue.

Buying cash in game is a symbol of EA's greed? Please. It is optional. Optional being the operative word here. Team Fortress 2 does this all the time. You can buy weapon/hat/accessory packs with real money. Otherwise you hope they randomly drop out of the sky when you're playing the game or you craft it yourself with other items that randomly drop out of the sky or you trade an undesirable item that happens to also fall out from the sky for a desirable item that the other person probably obtained by having it fall out from the sky.

Furthermore, someone said luck is disregarded when you pay more because they can just keep paying and paying? Luck is not disregarded. You still have the same probability of obtaining an item you want. It is just easier because you theoretically have more tries. In the end, after all this, the point that you "pay2win" is still moot since it is a co-op game. You're not facing an enemy team of human players that have an advantage because they bought items more powerful than you. The idea behind pay2win is that without paying, you can't get the best items. No matter what. In ME3, paying just makes it easier for you to get the best weapons whereas without paying you'll have to earn credits by playing the game. Fair trade, in my opinion, those who pay deserve it.

And don't even say you have to buy Infiltrator. You don't. You can play multiplayer that you got for free with the game. Each time you win, takes around 20mins, increases your galactic readiness by 9%. Now if you say you can get 3.9k EMS without playing multiplayer then well 9% will easily put you over 4k EMS. What you're saying is you don't like the multiplayer not because of the gameplay of the multiplayer component but because of how they give you incentive to play the multiplayer component. What kind of reasoning is that? If you honestly don't enjoy the multiplayer the fine. Forcing you to play the multiplayer by having it affect your EMS isn't very nice but in the end it does no harm.

The initial argument here was that the indoctrination theory was bullshit and I was arguing against that. I never said that the way they're doing the DLCs for ME3 was justifiable. Though you could read the part where I said those who believe the DLC should have been theirs from the beginning are fans with entitlement issues as support for the DLC, the fact is, the Prothean is non-essential.
The history of the Protheans is not essential to the story. It is nice to know but it is not a necessity.
Might I remind you that the only reason DLC has blown out of proportion is because we have yet to show that DLC is an issue? While we may say clearly here that we are not going to buy any more DLC, we are the minority. I haven't bought DLC to date, but I bought From Ashes because so far I had a pretty brilliant time with Mass Effect 3, so I thought hey, it's 30 ringgit, why not? Then the ending happened.

Oh, btw, no one discusses the SP in the ME3 main thread because this thread was created to discuss the story. There's a reason there's two separate threads. One for spoilers & story discussion and one without.

This post has been edited by hahli9: Mar 20 2012, 09:58 PM

I know very well that buying packs with real money is optional, but leaving it as an option allows those with deep pockets able to get more items easily than those who choose to grind through it. This will give those who bought card packs advantage over those who didnt in terms of arsenal available.

I played BC2 because i want to enjoy the scale and the battles, not for the sake of unlocking stuff again and again. This isnt your virtual stamp collecting game and i am not interesting to spend next 400 hours unlocking the same items for different gun that i have already own for other guns in BF3. Just give me all the tools i want then, i'll just play the game the way i want. 100 hours to unlock everything in BC2 is enough, and there is no need to put another 400 hours.

I never like Magic or Pokemon cards, as they are just a ridiculously expensive hobby to have.

Some times, i just do not understand why people play games just for the sake of unlocking stuff, instead of enjoying what the suppose to offer.

Yes, it is optional but is there a need to pull the F2P nonsense to a full price game? At least TF2's random drop has more chances to get your desired item as you get the choice to craft if you need to or trade for it. In ME3, there are no such option, other than relying on random card packs. Random card packs is just a dirty way to keep people playing as they never know what to unlock next.

The logic is simple as the more you buy, the chances you have in getting the item you want which makes it easier to get the good items. As mention before, i hate this kind of dirty techniques to keep people playing. Randomness should not have a huge part in a AAA game, and ME3 isnt some crap F2P.

No, i am not going to touch the shoved in multiplayer. Played it in the demo and i did not enjoy one bit. It's boring with clunky controls and run around circles killing random enemies. DoW2's Last Stand or MW3's Spec Ops Survival is far better than Galaxy at War if i want a coop experience.

Using the Galactic Readiness system is not an incentive to make you to play multiplayer, it is directly forced upon to you play it so that you can get a good ending. As i have said many times, did CoD pull this kind of stunt where your xp earned in multiplayer becomes half because you didnt want to play their single player? EA does it first and you'll see everyone doing it to their games to "encourage" people to play MP.

If they did not do the Galactic Readiness crap, i wont have put the multiplayer is such a bad way.

Prothean has been a large mystery in the past 2 games, and which part of it is not essential to the third game? It was a mystery surrounding the game to that extincted race. The execution of the DLC is undoubtedly poor but the way they market it, it does feel like it was suppose to be crucial part of the game.

If the content is done by release, it should be released to everyone who buys the game, not just the CE owners. Rather than forcing those with standard version to fork out more money to complete their experience.

Back in Mass effect 2, there were 2 thread. One with spoiler and one without.

It's great to see that Multiplayer has become a huge part of ME3, but it seems more like a transition of Mass effect to satisfy those CoD fans. At the same time, losing Mass Effect's intended identity where Mass Effect should be a single player focused game, not another CoD wannabe.

People enjoy the feeling of achieving something. Being rewarded after doing something is a good feeling, it's the same as getting achievements and stuff. But I understand your reasons.

I never got a Familiar Fez. Trading and crafting weren't in the game at first. TF2 was at it's prime right before they put all the extra stuff in IMO. But that's irrelevant. It still all comes down to the luck factor with TF2. You just have more options at getting the item.

Fair enough. You legitimately don't enjoy the multiplayer and the game forcing you to play the multiplayer only makes it worse. Though AFAIK this is the first time BioWare did multiplayer, no? We should cut them some slack. I really don't see any other way they could have gotten people interested in the multiplayer.
Though I expected some Cerberus/Geth vs. Alliance PvP at least. Hm.

There was never a mystery surrounding the Protheans. The only reason they were relevant was because they were closest to defeating the Reapers. Everything else was just extra. But yes I do feel that without Javik the game would be less, I never played the game without Javik so I wouldn't know but I can't see how the game would be like without him. I won't defend their decision to release it as DLC because I feel like it should've been included in the main game as well. Besides, you never found out anything new about the Protheans in ME3 except for their touch and feel abilities. You already knew they were trying to preserve themselves but failed due to power failure in ME1. In ME2 you find out they turned into the Collectors. In ME3... Well nothing new. Since Javik was a soldier and all he couldn't even tell you anything.

Mass Effect never lost it's identity. I still look at it as a SP game first. The only reason they're discussing the multiplayer primarily in the main thread is because it is continuously relevant. The single player component... There's really nothing much to ask about it except the story or some quest issues. The quest tracking system is horrible btw.

Anyway, let's put this past us. It is a pointless discussion. EA is disgusting for the DLC and probably forcing BioWare to include multiplayer. Period.

Javik does actually divulge some pretty in-depth lore during the Thessia arc. Or so I heard. Enough that you would go, "Wow, they did that?" kind of thing. I won't spoil it here, but it does change your perception towards the asari. Not that it's really mission important, but I think it adds quite a bit of flavour to the main mission. (ie. it becomes less of a fetch quest.) Plus, you know. Protheans. Who wouldn't want one in their squad after how they were hailed as heroes in ME1 and ME2.

Conversely, Kasumi and Zaeed were pretty harmless insofar that they never actually revealed anything important you couldn't guess from another source or the in-game codex.

Oh? I regret not taking Javik on the Thessia mission then. xP

I don't get why there is an expectation that the Mass Effect 3 trilogy must be a true masterpiece of literary brilliance. There have been so many trilogies which have started off promisingly enough but ended on a damp squib. The Godfather trilogy, the original star wars trilogy, the Matrix trilogy. spider-man, terminator? Fine, the ending is disappointing, but surely you enjoyed the first 2 movies sufficiently for them to produce the third one? This goes back to what i wrote earlier, the last 2% sucked (ok so did mako driving and strip mining) but the other 90 odd % was awesome. You can't really unenjoy what you previously enjoyed.

Revising endings of works of fiction is what gets you Hayden Christensen CGIed into the end sequence of return of the jedi... That's even more insulting to the audience. I'm not sure which is more deperate, wanting the ending of Romeo & Juliet changed so that they both live or believing that at the end they're still faking death because they believe they are being watched.

By getting the stargazer ending, irrespective of which option you chose at the end, you end the cycle. You've given hope back to every race in the galaxy. No more "best before date" for everyone. Irrespective of whether the relays blow up, the citadel survives or whatever, life goes on. Surely that should be enough.

However, the normandy escape scene? That one i don't get.

ps. Believing in something until proven otherwise is such a bad idea as it means making decisions based on possibly false and unproven assumptions.

Noooo Dark Knight Returns

Why you curse it

Still better than the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Surely, it must be better than Batman Forever the 3rd movie from the previous series

I actually like how the ending was, not so much how it was presented. If only I knew what happened to all my companions, that added to the end would have been awesome.

The game ends with mass relay being destroyed all over the galaxy
Isin't mass relay suppose to go supernova when destroyed?

Galactic wipeout
just as planned

I never liked the idea of a Prothean squadmate... I would rather they stay dead and legendary. I hear his dialogue is pretty funny though.

I found TF2 rather boring after they introduced so many new items and the payment system. Some of the items are really expensive there. That one is a game where buying gives you an advantage. I'm not sure how long I would have to play to even get back my bow for the sniper class after it vanished from my backpack.

Mission accomplished, Shepard. You're the greatest Reaper in history.

The Matrix and Spider-Man was alright to me. The endings fit what the movies were. Though maybe I should watch them again, I watched Matrix when I was a kid and last time it was all, "Explosion! Yay!"

The difference here is you are comparing movies to games. In games, the endings CAN be patched, they can be changed if the developers see a better way to end them. I can't say anything about Star Wars since I haven't watched the initial trilogy recently. And wtf Romeo & Juliet? ME3 was never a love story was it? I can't say I've read Romeo & Juliet so I can't give any more in-depth analysis of the story but seriously, comparing ME to Romeo & Juliet is just nonsense.

And just to answer your initial statement, there is no expectation that ME3 would be a true masterpiece. The thing I said was that ME3 would be a masterpiece if the indoctrination theory were true. Please don't just read a single sentence and throw the rest of my post out the window. There was however an expectation of more than 1 ending with 3 slight differences between them. The developers have always said that the endings would weigh in all your choices from the previous games. That was why you were given the option to import your save files. If in the end, no matter what you did, you'd separate all the races of Mass Effect by destroying all the mass relays then what the hell was the entire of mass effect's plot for? Throughout the whole of ME3, you go uniting all the races. The Turians and the Krogans, the Quarians and the Geth. What was that for? Just to build an army strong enough to get on the crucible? Mass Effect was more than a war against the Reapers, it was Shepard's effect on the galaxy. This human race, an infant of galactic travel, uniting the races to bring about a common cause: Survival through any means. And if that means is the destruction of the Reapers then so be it.

You know, there's a reason they let you unite the Geth and Quarian last. They want that choice to still be in your head when you make the choices at the ending. Knowing that you've united the Geth and Quarian before, why would you choose to destroy? You have single-handedly caused and experienced the unification of an organic and a synthetic race. That Shepard would not argue against the holographic synthetic God starchild is just nonsense. On the brink of death, a God appears before you and tells you that you can throw all you have accomplished away, control what you have sought to destroy and right after you just told TIM that you can't control them, you have to destroy them or unite all synthetic and organic life <- What Reapers have been doing, serving you plates of bio-synthetic death machines made from organics harvested throughout the galaxy.

Sorry, I got sidetracked but to just accept the ending of Mass Effect is like you haven't played the previous games at all. People aren't pissed because they want this game to be god damn bloody brilliant, they are pissed because all of their actions in the games culminates in a select screen at the end. And initially, my post was to incite discussion on the indoctrination theory and suddenly some people take parts of my post out of context and start a pointless argument.

This post has been edited by hahli9: Mar 21 2012, 05:30 PM

The more I play the ending, the more I'm convinced that Synthesis is the best ending.

Synthesis was pretty creepy in the sense that Joker and EDI are finally able to get on together...

Yeah, BSN might have infected me on that one.

Finish my insanity playthrough. Nothing really hard if to be compared to collector base in mass effect 2.

The Kai Leng part is the hardest so far I experienced.

Not the final fight with 4 banshees and a reaper shooting lasers at you?

This part I even had problems on normal.