Mass Effect 3 Discussion Thread

And of course I get another shotgun in my Commendation Pack, the N7 Crusader. I never use shotguns. Plus, the N7 Crusader is the heaviest shotgun and does very little damage for a shotgun. The only weapon I ever get in packs are shotguns.

Some dude in this room I was playing in had the Valiant Sniper Rifle. Man, that thing looks overpowered.
 
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/...-writer-allegedly-slams-controversial-ending/

BioWare writer Patrick Weekes is well known on the Penny Arcade forums as user Takyris. Earlier, that account allegedly posted a fairly damning diatribe about Mass Effect 3's controversial ending. In it, the author claims that the game's finale was written by Casey Hudson and lead writer Mac Walters without any input from the rest of the team, and many protests from the other writers were ultimately ignored.

Now, the reason I've been throwing around the word allegedly like it's nothing is because the entire story has become very muddled by recent events. The original post has since been deleted, and several other posts on the Penny Arcade forums quoting the post have been edited to remove the text, ostensibly because the author asked that he not be quoted.

In addition, BioWare's community coordinator Chris Priestly has said that after contacting Weekes about the matter, he's decided it's nothing more than an imitation.

That being said, the text in question does seem to have some insider knowledge of Mass Effect 3's development process, and subsequent responses on the Penny Arcade forums, as well as one trusted firsthand source, have indicated to us that the text in question did, in fact, originate with the Takyris account. That's obviously not solid proof that Weekes penned the post himself, but it's quite clear that the situation isn't cut and dry either way.

In the interest of not making the hearsay any worse than it already is, we've reproduced the full text of the message below. Verified or not, it provides an interesting perspective on Mass Effect 3's ending, and it's a worthy read regardless of the source. There are some major spoilers, though, so be warned.
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The Valiant isn't OP at all, but it is much better than I originally thought. It does about 10-15% less damage than the Mantis, but a headshot is still lethal and the 3 shot capacity is just GREAT. Threw it on my Salarian Engineer and had a ball. Most of my games consisted of headshots, energy drain to strip shields, and the occassional incinerate/decoy.

the piercing mod on the valiant is really disappointing- you barely do any damage, so it's better to mailslot guardians.
 
CreganTur said:
The Valiant isn't OP at all, but it is much better than I originally thought. It does about 10-15% less damage than the Mantis, but a headshot is still lethal and the 3 shot capacity is just GREAT. Threw it on my Salarian Engineer and had a ball. Most of my games consisted of headshots, energy drain to strip shields, and the occassional incinerate/decoy.

the piercing mod on the valiant is really disappointing- you barely do any damage, so it's better to mailslot guardians.
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Yeah, I initially thought it was on par with the Viper, but this dude who was using it was just owning with it. I hope they run another round of givaways so I can get my hands on one.
 
J W said:
Yeah, I initially thought it was on par with the Viper, but this dude who was using it was just owning with it. I hope they run another round of givaways so I can get my hands on one.
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It's not much lighter than the Black Widow as I recall and does significantly less damage. Personally I'd rather have the latter as it's vastly more powerful. Not as powerful as the original M-98 Widow, but it holds 3 shots as well. The M-98 only holds 1. In the single player game it's one of your best choices until you can afford the Black Widow. And still remains a solid choice depending on how you want to setup your class. The M-90 Indra is interesting. I played with it quite a bit last night in the single player game. For people who want to travel lightly and fight at a distance, it's basically an assault rifle with a permanent scope and the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Thus you have two mod slots free and while not terribly damaging, with ammunition powers and a steady hand you can actually drop even armored enemies fairly quickly.
 
In the loading screens I've seen it mentioned multiple times that you can crack the canopy of an Atlas and take out the driver. I want to know if anyone has every managed to do this. I've put multiple black widow and Javelin rounds straight into the canopy (pointing directly at the driver's head, TBH) and have never seen the canopy crack. I know there is a hijack atlas achievement, but is it really possible?

I really wish you could hijack an atlas on MP- that would be EPIC.
 
CreganTur said:
In the loading screens I've seen it mentioned multiple times that you can crack the canopy of an Atlas and take out the driver. I want to know if anyone has every managed to do this. I've put multiple black widow and Javelin rounds straight into the canopy (pointing directly at the driver's head, TBH) and have never seen the canopy crack. I know there is a hijack atlas achievement, but is it really possible?
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Really?! I'd like to know this as well. One of the downsides of having a SSD and loading ridiculously fast is you don't get to see the quick tips from the loading screen.
 
CreganTur said:
In the loading screens I've seen it mentioned multiple times that you can crack the canopy of an Atlas and take out the driver. I want to know if anyone has every managed to do this. I've put multiple black widow and Javelin rounds straight into the canopy (pointing directly at the driver's head, TBH) and have never seen the canopy crack. I know there is a hijack atlas achievement, but is it really possible?

I really wish you could hijack an atlas on MP- that would be EPIC.
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Well.... MINOR spoiler, depending on where you are in the game. Not a story-based spoiler, but an event spoiler. (No character specifics or anything)

AFAIK at one point in the game you come into a room where there's an engineer repairing an Atlas with a cracked windshield or something.. you shoot him quickly enough and you get to "Hijack" the Atlas
 
KatalDT said:
Well.... MINOR spoiler, depending on where you are in the game. Not a story-based spoiler, but an event spoiler. (No character specifics or anything)

AFAIK at one point in the game you come into a room where there's an engineer repairing an Atlas with a cracked windshield or something.. you shoot him quickly enough and you get to "Hijack" the Atlas
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Yeah, that doesn't count for my question or the achievement. That's a scripted part of the game. The same thing is true when you're assaulting a certain place near the end of the game.
 
CreganTur said:
In the loading screens I've seen it mentioned multiple times that you can crack the canopy of an Atlas and take out the driver. I want to know if anyone has every managed to do this. I've put multiple black widow and Javelin rounds straight into the canopy (pointing directly at the driver's head, TBH) and have never seen the canopy crack. I know there is a hijack atlas achievement, but is it really possible?

I really wish you could hijack an atlas on MP- that would be EPIC.
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I have done it several times. Few weapons can actually break the canopy though and it takes multiple shots. By the time you are done the Atlas has maybe 10-15% armor / health remaining meaning that it's usefulness on the battlefield is short lived.

Basically you break the canopy with the following weapons:
  • Black Widow
  • M-98 Widow
  • Javelin
It can be done with other guns like the M-96 Mattock and the M-55 Argus, but it requires equipping them with a piercing mod and or armor piercing ammunition. I was never able to do it with anything other than the Black Widow in practice. I know some other weapons like the Carnifex hand cannon and the right mods may be able to do it as well. It's fun to do once in awhile, but the fact is that while you are dicking around with it, the thing will tear you apart. The best thing you can do is bring Ashley and Garrus with you, equip them with Black Widows, Garrus with armor piercing, and Ashley with disruptor ammo and yourself with warp ammunition if you can. At Atlas won't last more than 5-7 seconds (and that's being generous) under this kind of fire. Obviously this tactic is only useful on certain missions were the lack of a biotic could be a problem. For biotic Shepards this is pretty much a no brainer as Ashley + Garrus are a powerful combination for doing damage. Putting your squad mates in cover and targeting the Atlas, while moving behind it yourself is the best strategy for most classes and other weapons besides things like the Widow. Target the engine and they'll drop fast.

As for actually stealing an Atlas, you need to put about 5 shots with a level IV Black Widow and possibly one or two less with a Javelin or M-98 Widow into the cockpit glass. Once broken the driver will be vulnerable. You need to shoot him and then approach the Atlas. Once you get close to it, you can click on it, Shepard will dump the body out and climb aboard. Also you have to be careful of using this tactic when active Cerberus soldiers are close by as they'll pull the driver's corpse out and climb in as well.

I've done it about 2 or 3 times now. Most of the time when I try to steal the Atlas, the thing doesn't survive my squad mates shooting it long enough for me to crack the glass and take out the driver. The good thing is that once the driver is killed, they'll usually move on to another target and forget about the mech. On my second playthrough though, I've got a Black Widow X which tears the Atlas apart. I can get through the glass in about three shots, but there is an even greater chance my squad mates will kill it on their own. I may not even get to target the thing before they destroy it as all their weapons are upgraded too.
 
It seems like I cracked one in Single Player once. The shields were down to one notch, though, and my squad must have finished it off before I could try to hijack it. This was in the (*Spoiler?*) Cerberus hangar.

I've never seen it in MP and I always aim for the windshield.
 
J W said:
It seems like I cracked one in Single Player once. The shields were down to one notch, though, and my squad must have finished it off before I could try to hijack it. This was in the (*Spoiler?*) Cerberus hangar.

I've never seen it in MP and I always aim for the windshield.
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You can't do it in MP.
 
CreganTur said:
In the loading screens I've seen it mentioned multiple times that you can crack the canopy of an Atlas and take out the driver. I want to know if anyone has every managed to do this. I've put multiple black widow and Javelin rounds straight into the canopy (pointing directly at the driver's head, TBH) and have never seen the canopy crack. I know there is a hijack atlas achievement, but is it really possible?
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It's very possible. During my insanity run I did it on the DLC/Eden Prime mission, the Grissom Academy mission, and the final Cerberus mission.
 
So is this game holding up pretty well through multiple playthroughs? I'm still concerned with dropping another 40 hours on a game that is just going to have that depressing ending there waiting for me.

Also, do you guys find that the sense of urgency is still there, given that you've already completed the game once?
 
J W said:
So is this game holding up pretty well through multiple playthroughs? I'm still concerned with dropping another 40 hours on a game that is just going to have that depressing ending there waiting for me.

Also, do you guys find that the sense of urgency is still there, given that you've already completed the game once?
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I don't have a sense of urgency during most missions. What I do know is that there is a specific order to them which must be completed to do everything. But I am still enjoying repeated playthroughs despite hating the endings.
 
J W said:
So is this game holding up pretty well through multiple playthroughs? I'm still concerned with dropping another 40 hours on a game that is just going to have that depressing ending there waiting for me.

Also, do you guys find that the sense of urgency is still there, given that you've already completed the game once?
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the endings will make you not want to play again
and a few things are railroaded regardless of what you picked in 1 and 2
other then that its not to bad
 
J W said:
So is this game holding up pretty well through multiple playthroughs? I'm still concerned with dropping another 40 hours on a game that is just going to have that depressing ending there waiting for me.

Also, do you guys find that the sense of urgency is still there, given that you've already completed the game once?
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I'm having no issues playing through again viewing the ending as the "IT." I'm actually enjoying trying to spot all the evidence for it. Although if Bioware ever comes out and specifically says this is not what they intended, I'll quit the play through cold turkey and wait for DLC.

And I don't really have a sense of urgency, although it's hard to say if I even had one my first play through. I took my time on a lot of stuff the first time.
 
PureBooYah said:
I'm having no issues playing through again viewing the ending as the "IT." I'm actually enjoying trying to spot all the evidence for it. Although if Bioware ever comes out and specifically says this is not what they intended, I'll quit the play through cold turkey and wait for DLC.
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I'm the exact same way. I'm actually starting to buy more into "IT" as I play through again and catch stuff that could potentially be related - or perhaps it's just my overwrought imagination.
 
I'm about half-way through the game and I just have to say at this point I don't even care how the ending turns out, this is an awesome game. There's nothing else out there right now that's gonna give me more enjoyment, now that I'm done with Skyrim.
 
shantd said:
I'm about half-way through the game and I just have to say at this point I don't even care how the ending turns out, this is an awesome game. There's nothing else out there right now that's gonna give me more enjoyment, now that I'm done with Skyrim.
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This is what Im hearing from a few other people and the hope Im holding out when I finally get to it. These are the greatest games of all time IMO and I cant count the number of hours of great fun and immersion this game has given me. Even if they dont fix the endings, Im hoping and pretty confident that the game is so good that the crap ending wont be enough to spoil it.
 
It's great that the rest of the game meshes with "IT" (so catchy). I wish I were more adept at understanding corporate speech, though.

Ray Muzyka said:
“Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey,” Muzyka wrote.
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No time off after the big release? Surely Casey Hudson would take time off? I wonder how many people they still have working on the Mass EFfect 3 project.

It's almost as if they planned to release DLC shortly after the game's debut and wanted continuity (granted, nothing has been said about when DLC will get released -- it may take a while). Yet, the fact that BioWare will address fan feedback makes me think that it's not all planned. Unless, of course, Bioware took a flexible approach and had planned all along to incorporate initial fan feedback into its first DLC. This seems most likely.
 
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J W said:
Yet, the fact that BioWare will address fan feedback makes me think that it's not all planned. Unless, of course, Bioware took a flexible approach and had planned all along to incorporate initial fan feedback into its first DLC. This seems most likely.
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Or, maybe they knew how this shit would go down all along, and the fact that they can say they're simply responding to their fans is an added bonus. Pretty cynical, I know. But we can be sure they'd know a large contingent of fans wouldn't be happy about that ending, and it's hard to imagine they didn't have plans accordingly.
 
shantd said:
Or, maybe they knew how this shit would go down all along, and the fact that they can say they're simply responding to their fans is an added bonus. Pretty cynical, I know. But we can be sure they'd know a large contingent of fans wouldn't be happy about that ending, and it's hard to imagine they didn't have plans accordingly.
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The fact that the endings appear to be engineered perfectly to be chalked up as a dream or hallucination brought about by indoctrination tells me that they at least left enough doubt so they could easily add content later on. I don't think they expected this visceral a reaction, but they had to know that this would go over like a turd in a punch bowl.
 
Dan_D said:
The fact that the endings appear to be engineered perfectly to be chalked up as a dream or hallucination brought about by indoctrination tells me that they at least left enough doubt so they could easily add content later on. I don't think they expected this visceral a reaction, but they had to know that this would go over like a turd in a punch bowl.
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I hope this is the case. My gut impression when I first played the game was that there was something scewy going on, but I let BioWare's corporate talk and the clamor of fans convince me that the ending is quite final. I remember BioWare said something like "new content will take place before or during the end, but no more will be added after the end."

I wonder if I'm not a bit obsessed with this series. Dork? Yeah, that's me. Heck, I bought an Xbox 360 just to play the first game back when it was released.
 
J W said:
I hope this is the case. My gut impression when I first played the game was that there was something scewy going on, but I let BioWare's corporate talk and the clamor of fans convince me that the ending is quite final. I remember BioWare said something like "new content will take place before or during the end, but no more will be added after the end."

I wonder if I'm not a bit obsessed with this series. Dork? Yeah, that's me. Heck, I bought an Xbox 360 just to play the first game back when it was released.
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BioWare has made so many statements which are nothing but half-truths, that I wouldn't believe a word they say until something actually happens. We were told we'd have diverse endings. We didn't. We were told we got to keep our stuff from ME2, we didn't. We were told we didn't have to play the multiplayer to get our readiness high enough for the best endings. That's not true either.

But yet all of that is somewhat true. We have 16 variations on the endings. More than in any previous Mass Effect game. Unfortunately, aside from one of the endings, the variants are meaningless as they all really mean the same thing. We didn't get to keep our inventory and weapons from ME2, but we do get to find them all or buy them back. Aside from heavy weapons which we find laying around for single usages here and there. We don't necessarily have to play the multiplayer. You can download the IOS application and increase your readiness through that.

The problem is in figuring out which half of the statement is true, and which half is the lie.
 
So I finished my ME 1 and 2 playthrus just now but Motrin got killed at the door. For some reason I sent Thane to escort the crew back and I guess Mordin is too big a puss to survive the battle.

So is it going to screw anything up in ME3 if he's dead? I can always go back and restart the mission if I had to.
 
MacLeod said:
So I finished my ME 1 and 2 playthrus just now but Motrin got killed at the door. For some reason I sent Thane to escort the crew back and I guess Mordin is too big a puss to survive the battle.

So is it going to screw anything up in ME3 if he's dead? I can always go back and restart the mission if I had to.
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yes this is a major turning point in the story, just wouldn't be the same without mordin. it's not so much the individual health of the char in that situation, but the total defense rating of that fireteam as a whole, and who you choose to lead them. so look at who else you got in there, if you're carrying a bunch of tanks with you into battle (ie. grunt, zaeed, garrus, etc) you would want to keep them in the reserve team holding the door, and give them a proper leader (ie. garrus, jacob, miranda), that way everyone makes it out.
 
MacLeod said:
So I finished my ME 1 and 2 playthrus just now but Motrin got killed at the door. For some reason I sent Thane to escort the crew back and I guess Mordin is too big a puss to survive the battle.
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Yeah, that happened to me as well even though I did his loyalty mission. I had him escort the crew back to the Normandy to resolve that issue.

Can't tell you how his death affects ME3's story. I don't intend on playing ME3 until a couple of DLCs have been released. Or perhaps I'll do what I did with ME2, I didn't buy the game until all the DLCs were released.
 
JaguarSKX said:
Yeah, that happened to me as well even though I did his loyalty mission. I had him escort the crew back to the Normandy to resolve that issue.

Can't tell you how his death affects ME3's story. I don't intend on playing ME3 until a couple of DLCs have been released. Or perhaps I'll do what I did with ME2, I didn't buy the game until all the DLCs were released.
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it pretty much doesnt you just have "Not Mordin" even Joker call his stand in that lol
 
Well shit. I guess I'll replay the final mission and have Mordin escort the crew instead. That's what I did on my first playthru and everybody survived.
 
JaguarSKX said:
Yeah, that happened to me as well even though I did his loyalty mission. I had him escort the crew back to the Normandy to resolve that issue.

Can't tell you how his death affects ME3's story. I don't intend on playing ME3 until a couple of DLCs have been released. Or perhaps I'll do what I did with ME2, I didn't buy the game until all the DLCs were released.
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Elios said:
it pretty much doesnt you just have "Not Mordin" even Joker call his stand in that lol
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Mordin died because your defense total at the door was too low. You sent Thane away, which took away too much from your final score. You must have also picked party members for the final boss fight, which also dropped that total too far. When you do Mordin dies the easiest because his defense total is the worst.
 
Yeah thats kinda what I was figuring after he got whacked. I thought sending Thane would best protect the crew. I knew Mordin was a pencil pusher and thats why I figured Id leave him with the group. I wouldve thought he was too big a puss to escort the crew thru all the collectors.

Just got finished replaying the final mission and sent Mordin to escort the crew and took Tali and Jack with me to the boss and everybody lived, well except Jacob of course who I let volunteer for the heating ducts. So Im wandering around now trying to finish the last couple side missions so I can get up to level 30.

So Ill have this when I go to ME3 this afternoon:

Banged Liara in ME1 and then again in Shadow Broker and then nailed Tali after that so Ill continue with Tali into ME3 cause Liara just got all weird. Liked her better all cute and innocent like she was in ME1.

Wrex lived as did the Arachni but the council did not. I saved the Collector base and have 60% renegade and 40% paragon.

The wife's car is in the shop so she's at work right now and Im stuck at home but when she gets back Im going to Best Buy and buy the hard copy. May even get the collectors edition just for the hell of it. Cant wait!
 
I played MP with some dude who had an N7 score of 2005! The guy had a level 10 Black widow and was pretty nasty, but JC that's a lot of levels. Heh, I'm over 200 and think that's way too much. He didn't seem to have a mic, otherwise I would have asked him if he was avoiding the SP LOL.
 
Dan_D said:
Mordin died because your defense total at the door was too low. You sent Thane away, which took away too much from your final score. You must have also picked party members for the final boss fight, which also dropped that total too far. When you do Mordin dies the easiest because his defense total is the worst.
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Probably... I think initially I had Kasumi escort the crew back to the ship and I took Samara and Zaeed with me to the final confrontation.
 
Alrighty! Just got back home with my copy of ME3 and it is installing as we speak. Wife and kid are in bed, got my Carcharias headset plugged in and Ive got a 12 pack of Yuengling in the fridge with one already open sitting next to me. This is the most stoked Ive been for a game since Final Doom in 1996! Also the first time I paid $60 for a game! Got a brand new G700 just for the occasion too. Gonna be a long night folks. Got a feeling Ill see the sun rise.
 
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