The happy ending comment strikes me as purely bad faith arguing. Synthesis is clearly an attempt at a mega super duper happy ending. It just sucks incredibly hard. An ending with tragic events that satisfyingly resolved the story would possibly be fine, but they didn't even get close to the satisfying resolution of events part of that.
To add to this, I refuse to apologize for liking happy endings.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
+3
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
The happy ending comment strikes me as purely bad faith arguing. Synthesis is clearly an attempt at a mega super duper happy ending. It just sucks incredibly hard. An ending with tragic events that satisfyingly resolved the story would possibly be fine, but they didn't even get close to the satisfying resolution of events part of that.
To add to this, I refuse to apologize for liking happy endings.
The initial ending had it worst because all of them had the same horrifying implications where the moment you thought about it for more than a minute there was no way that virtually anyone you knew survived.
The Citadel is destroyed (so if anyone was left alive when the Reapers took it, they sure aren't now).
The relays were all destroyed (and we had one example of what happens when one of those goes up, so goodbye to the planets in the same systems).
The Normandy clearly wasn't getting off whatever planet it was on (so in a best case scenario of it having compatible food for some of your crew, either Garrus and Tali were going to starve to death or everyone else was).
And even if you assumed the things you see aren't that bad, it still crippled interstellar travel to the point that the colossal allied fleet you'd built up couldn't possibly get home while their supplies last, with similar fates for the Turians and Quarians, or everyone else.
And even if you wave those things away with assumptions that aren't shown, the galaxy is splintered and in no condition to recover by themselves or reach others to help them.
The expanded cut changed enough of these things that galactic civilisation could still be recognisable afterwards.
I think the biggest problem after that was the multiple endings and how they were presented:
I have nothing to defend Synthesis. Nothing. Changing the rules your universe works on at the last moment is terrible writing. It's like if Apollo 13 ended with Superman saving the astronauts and bringing them back safely. If you want to do something like that, you have to go back and drop evidence that it's possible ahead of time. Even setting that aside, altering everyone in the galaxy without warning or consent just feels super skeevy to me, and the only explanation for it is "This will bring galactic peace because I'm saying it will".
Control has the flaw that it's been pushed by the bad guy for the entire game, and the constant rebuttal from both you and everyone else has been "That's insane, you're clearly indoctrinated". If TIM hadn't been pushing it the entire time and had been planning something else, then maybe. The argument you're given for it even follows the descriptions of how indoctrination works to a tee.
I think Destroy should have been the only ending, but with more variations based on how well you've done. On low, it roasts everyone. On high, change it so it destroys Reaper code, so it may kill EDI and the Geth, or just put them back to how they were before. On the highest you-did-everything-and-got-everything-right level, reduce the drawbacks more.
The thing that irks me about it is the three options are on Starkid's terms, which means his base premise, techno-organic conflict is inevitable, is taken as axiomatic. Except what is the Geth-Quarian conflict but the opportunity to prove that premise false? But that doesn't matter, press the button on your endotron 3000
I still think that they should have put in an ending that if you got whatever the single digit/exact highest possible War Assets AND had 100% utilization from MP, if you picked Reject, the Reapers get defeated. The universe would still be all kinds of messed up (war is never clean and all that), but the idea that everyone came together under Shepard and got it done is kind of nice.
Oh, and tell no one that the option is in there, let the fanbase find out on their own. Also prevent gaming the system with the MP character promotions too.
0
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
So it appears I inadvertently missed the ME1 archivist achievement again because… I didn’t ask Anderson about Protheans at the very beginning of the game. Never mind that “Prothean” is every five words out of someone’s mouth.
The happy ending comment strikes me as purely bad faith arguing. Synthesis is clearly an attempt at a mega super duper happy ending. It just sucks incredibly hard. An ending with tragic events that satisfyingly resolved the story would possibly be fine, but they didn't even get close to the satisfying resolution of events part of that.
To add to this, I refuse to apologize for liking happy endings.
:winky:
Now I want to play the Fornax-themed hentai version of Mass Effect.
Turns out it is identical to regular Mass Effect.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
+2
ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
The happy ending comment strikes me as purely bad faith arguing. Synthesis is clearly an attempt at a mega super duper happy ending. It just sucks incredibly hard. An ending with tragic events that satisfyingly resolved the story would possibly be fine, but they didn't even get close to the satisfying resolution of events part of that.
Yeah I pretty much only picked synthesis because the way the other endings were presented were so awful
especially after all that goddamn work I did making peace with the Geth and Quarians
that I basically had to choose it if I didn't want to invalidate the work I had done at that point. And even I recognized that this was some unicorn fairy leprechaun dust being sprinkled across the galaxy to make that happen.
I am legit amazed that there wasn't a note at the end of Jacob's loyalty mission to get a sample of the food for testing. Maybe it's a given, considering it's Cerberus, but still.
+6
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
A lot of the "everybody will die anyway" arguments were entirely based on conjecture and fan extrapolation with a series extremely capable of handwaving any kind of inconvenience (including logistics) with space magic, so I never took too much stock in a lot of the nihilism to be quite honest. It was several degrees removed from a kind of CinemaSins nitpicking minutiae over writing that mostly painted things in broad strokes, like a great deal of the lore in Mass Effect.
I don't think the extended cut really drastically changed much fundamentally - the slideshows depict the mass relays still being extremely fucked up and the fleets making their way home the slow way, except the new voice overs say "nah we can rebuild everything" to assuage the people who just assumed they couldn't
I am legit amazed that there wasn't a note at the end of Jacob's loyalty mission to get a sample of the food for testing. Maybe it's a given, considering it's Cerberus, but still.
It would be amusing to see Vega or something scarfing it down not knowing its origin during citadel.
(Since it is implied the effects take some time to take effect and are reversible it would work for a joke.)
Sic transit gloria mundi.
0
lwt1973King of ThievesSyndicationRegistered Userregular
Well, I finished it. It felt a little anti-climatic. I had read that the ending wasn't the greatest when M3 first came out but didn't remember anything else besides that. I'm thinking of going through it again with male Paragon as I did the female Renegade for the run.
Also, how bad is the jump in difficulty? I went the normal route the first go. If you do the higher ones do you get anything different or is it just achievements?
"He's sulking in his tent like Achilles! It's the Iliad?...from Homer?! READ A BOOK!!" -Handy
Well, I finished it. It felt a little anti-climatic. I had read that the ending wasn't the greatest when M3 first came out but didn't remember anything else besides that. I'm thinking of going through it again with male Paragon as I did the female Renegade for the run.
Also, how bad is the jump in difficulty? I went the normal route the first go. If you do the higher ones do you get anything different or is it just achievements?
A fairly new friend of mine has started playing the 360 version of ME1 on Game Pass and has got totally hooked on it. Seems my rampant enthusiasm (and sharing a bunch of screenies & clips with a mutual friend who's not a gamer but is curious about this series, again due primarily to my rampant enthusiasm) has gained a new fan! She's playing Paragon Soldier FemShep so far. No word yet on romance, and she hasn't got to Virmire yet... I'm looking forward to hearing how it plays out.
In my own LE playthrough, in ME3 I just did the Aralakh Company mission. I'll have to compare with the original but I felt like it was definitely harder to get turned around in the LE, so not sure if lighting or something was subtly tweaked to offer more unconscious direction.
Also I'm rocking a Black Widow V at this point. It's devastating and brilliant and makes a lot of things dead.
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
I want to romance Jacob so I can punch him in 3
Battletag: Threeve#1501
PSN: Threeve703
+1
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
The Black Widow is great, but eventually I preferred the Valiant for its extreme speed. A little less accurate but oh man can you mow people down with it.
The Geth sniper rifle is basically the most Widow sniper rifle that ever Widowed thought. The damage and penetration is just nuts.
If been thinking about trying Soldier in 2 and 3 just to get a better idea of the gunplay. My last play through was all powers and combo detonators.
I don't know if they changed it in Legendary, but Soldier in ME2 was hilariously busted with the Mattock. It fired as fast as you can click, even during Adrenaline Rush's slow-mo, so it pushed your DPS through the roof.
Ready to go on a suicide mission! (Although I'm saving it for Sunday.)
Man, you'd think they'd be able to come up with something more plausible for the events immediately prior.
"Shepard, we need you to investigate this signal we received saying "This is totally not a trap ayy lmao". It might be serious, so take your entire team."
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+13
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
The happy ending comment strikes me as purely bad faith arguing. Synthesis is clearly an attempt at a mega super duper happy ending. It just sucks incredibly hard. An ending with tragic events that satisfyingly resolved the story would possibly be fine, but they didn't even get close to the satisfying resolution of events part of that.
Yeah I pretty much only picked synthesis because the way the other endings were presented were so awful
especially after all that goddamn work I did making peace with the Geth and Quarians
that I basically had to choose it if I didn't want to invalidate the work I had done at that point. And even I recognized that this was some unicorn fairy leprechaun dust being sprinkled across the galaxy to make that happen.
The ending always suffered from trying to a big reveal where you didn't really need one. Why the Reapers are doing anything really doesn't matter at that point.
But also I am extensively opposed to any fiction where I'm fighting an enemy and then start listening to it trying to reason with me: a good enemy is trying to beat you by every possible method, and the Reapers in particular are constantly portrayed as doing this - Indoctrination is the ultimate psyop.
I'm nearing the end of Mass Effect and about to do Ilos. My previous playthroughs have been renegade because I like being edgy boi.
I'm running essentially full paragon this time to see the differences but there's one choice I will struggle with and wanted ya'lls advice.
Is it worth saving the Council? Even running paragon I hate those fuckers, but if there is interesting dialogue or moments in the future games with them, I'm willing to do it
ok so a big long ramble about a hypothetical Legendary Multiplayer and what I would want out of it. Note: a lot of this will be spent comparing ME3 Multi to Warframe, which has a similar premise of being 4 man PVE where different loadouts & weapons get released every so often.
Were I the director of such a thing, I'd start with a basic re-release with shinier graphics of whatever the last game state was for Multiplayer, and then grab EA by the throat and shake them until they make it easier for newer players to onboard, and make it not pay to win. It doesn't need to be pay to win, and I'll outline later on some other monetization ideas that will still make EA boatloads of cash. Honestly, Warframe's model of "punch this particular piece of content long enough and you'll eventually get the thing you want, OR pay for it and get it right away with no RNG" is a pretty good model. No damn lootboxes though, thanks.
From there, I would use multiplayer as a bridge to ME4 or whatever the new sequel is called by starting to bridge the plot. Begin with a post-ME3 storyline shakeup that explains what ending is actually for reals canon. Start introducing actual plot.
From a perspective of "What would be most fun for a post ME3 multiplayer game and allow the most opportunities for Lots Of Murder," I'd go for Red, but whatever bullshit Starkid was spouting was a last ditch indoctrination attempt to keep the Reapers alive, and it totally lied about killing EDI and the Geth. The Crucible completely destroyed all the Reaper capital. The flip side is that while the main Reaper forces (their giant horrible capital ships) are all dead and therefore the galaxy is no longer in danger from them or from extinction, there's still billions of ground troops that survived just the same, even if they're now basically brainless drones. Similarly, there's still a very large faction of Geth that didn't go along with peace; even with the Illusive Man gone, others have risen up to take his place (seriously the only reason they didn't call it Hydra is because that was already taken...); and Collectors are just a specific flavor of Reaper forces.
The plot and gameplay then is that the massive army assembled by Shepard is now doing cleanup. The galaxy IS saved and safe, we CAN rebuild, but there's a long road ahead, which our merry squads of 4 idiots each are going to go throw bullets at until the problem is solved.
This allows for the introduction of new maps, new mission types, and PLOT. We can get major characters on the comms acting as our Mission Control, with the potential to pay for specific Mission Control voices, because you WOULD pay for Garrus or Tali to be your Mission Control (and by this point they have every reason to be). We can get a bunch of social hubs with minigames that help to flesh out the world and explain wtf happened -- maybe the Citadel crashed on Earth but miraculously most people survived, and the Silversun Strip's still there... complete with an Armax Arsenal Arena mode that lets you "use holograms" to "play as famous heroes of the Reaper War" (eg, play as any ME canon character).
"Okay, but Warframe has the excuse of SPOILERS to explain who the 'player character' is" the premise instead is that your motley band of semi-mercenary idiots are a crew of their own Normandy-like ship. To further this, you can invite friends to temporarily use classes you've unlocked under the idea that it's YOUR squad; they get a generic build & generic weapons or something to encourage still getting your own, plus none of their own cosmetics, but this would help with new player onboarding -- give them a taste of a Prothean or whatever. You can customize your crew's personality, where they hang out on the ship, and backstories; yes, you "play" as any one of them when you load into hubs. Yes, this is a fuckton of writing, but these ARE the people who wrote Star Wars: the Old Republic, so, I think it's semi-doable. If a "player avatar" exists, it's an unshackled AI of the ship itself, because in the wake of the Reaper War, they made a lot more EDIs (of various genders! and species! so yes you can customize your robot characters with ANY skins. Wanna look like a shiny Vorcha? You're still using the AI power set but COOL GOOD FOR YOU)
A few more rambly points about like... what I'd do if I were writing this:
as noted, each crew has an unshackled AI, and thus one of the "default" starter classes is either a mobile AI unit or a friendly Geth, with the idea that the Geth signed on to serve the same purpose. Ships can have both Geth *and* several AI, same way that Legion was actually a few hundred thousand Geth.
One longer plot arc involves Liara, Javik, and Miranda working with the Collectors freed by Leviathan to resurrect the Protheans via cloning & reverse-engineering from the remaining Prothean corpses in the various stasis pods, using things Miranda learned from Project Lazarus. They hit a LOT of opposition from not just Cerberus, but from other splinter factions, including from the Alliance... and ironically, they get support from Aria T'loak, for her own reasons. This adds more enemy types to new mission types.
Merc gangs gonna merc, so an Omega plot release both has Omega as a new social hub, and adds both enemy AND ally merc gangsters. You can fight mercs as a merc, that's one of the hazards of being a merc, after all!
Eventually there's a bigger plot arc involving the Leviathans deciding that they want to take over the galaxy again. Thankfully they're not going for extinction like their stupid robot children, but they do start with trying to genocide the Geth because they're still (maybe even reasonably?) convinced that AI will ALWAYS be a problem. This gives big, cinematic, Reaper style bossfights.
The game keeps updating even after ME4 releases to basically fill in the storyline gaps between the two games. Eventually, there might be time-skips where certain factions and even player characters get "retired"; but are still usable in Armax Arsenal Arena mode, which still gives plenty of rewards and reason to keep playing, it's just there to avoid Warframe's time continuity snarl. So, for instance, the remaining Reaper and Collector forces get wiped out, but you can still fight them in AAA mode, which will reward credits toward weapons and armor and upgrades etc etc. This also helps keep the main modes fresh. Meanwhile, the first rumblings/origins of whatever the new villain faction in ME4 is gets revealed.
Anyway, I know this is rambly and if someone else wants to help me edit it down / clean it up, it's something I kinda also want to post to Reddit/elsewhere, because I want this spin-off game to exist. I hope the main ideas are clear enough.
I'm nearing the end of Mass Effect and about to do Ilos. My previous playthroughs have been renegade because I like being edgy boi.
I'm running essentially full paragon this time to see the differences but there's one choice I will struggle with and wanted ya'lls advice.
Is it worth saving the Council? Even running paragon I hate those fuckers, but if there is interesting dialogue or moments in the future games with them, I'm willing to do it
Let me know if it's worth it.
Generally it's easier to convince them that Udina's going to shoot them in the back in the face if you saved them, though I'm not sure if that's dialogue or if it actually helps from a gameplay perspective to make it less likely that you won't be able to talk Survivor out of committing Suicide by Shepard.
Aside from that it's mostly different rather than better or worse; Different councillors have different attitudes to you, so you'll get different dialogue at the very least.
And if you really want to min/max your war assets, I'm pretty sure saving the Council is the best choice, but I don't think there's a significant enough difference to it that it'd affect your endgame result, assuming you're going to be completionist about it.
Speaking of Guardians ('scuse the segue!)... glad I grabbed the Mail Slot achievement early (always a fave, it's so satisfying), because with Shep having a Black Widow to hand, that shield suddenly doesn't do them much good. I like to think each one of them stays alive just long enough to be surprised when the *BOOM* just blasts right through it.
ok so a big long ramble about a hypothetical Legendary Multiplayer and what I would want out of it. Note: a lot of this will be spent comparing ME3 Multi to Warframe, which has a similar premise of being 4 man PVE where different loadouts & weapons get released every so often.
Were I the director of such a thing, I'd start with a basic re-release with shinier graphics of whatever the last game state was for Multiplayer, and then grab EA by the throat and shake them until they make it easier for newer players to onboard, and make it not pay to win. It doesn't need to be pay to win, and I'll outline later on some other monetization ideas that will still make EA boatloads of cash. Honestly, Warframe's model of "punch this particular piece of content long enough and you'll eventually get the thing you want, OR pay for it and get it right away with no RNG" is a pretty good model. No damn lootboxes though, thanks.
From there, I would use multiplayer as a bridge to ME4 or whatever the new sequel is called by starting to bridge the plot. Begin with a post-ME3 storyline shakeup that explains what ending is actually for reals canon. Start introducing actual plot.
From a perspective of "What would be most fun for a post ME3 multiplayer game and allow the most opportunities for Lots Of Murder," I'd go for Red, but whatever bullshit Starkid was spouting was a last ditch indoctrination attempt to keep the Reapers alive, and it totally lied about killing EDI and the Geth. The Crucible completely destroyed all the Reaper capital. The flip side is that while the main Reaper forces (their giant horrible capital ships) are all dead and therefore the galaxy is no longer in danger from them or from extinction, there's still billions of ground troops that survived just the same, even if they're now basically brainless drones. Similarly, there's still a very large faction of Geth that didn't go along with peace; even with the Illusive Man gone, others have risen up to take his place (seriously the only reason they didn't call it Hydra is because that was already taken...); and Collectors are just a specific flavor of Reaper forces.
The plot and gameplay then is that the massive army assembled by Shepard is now doing cleanup. The galaxy IS saved and safe, we CAN rebuild, but there's a long road ahead, which our merry squads of 4 idiots each are going to go throw bullets at until the problem is solved.
This allows for the introduction of new maps, new mission types, and PLOT. We can get major characters on the comms acting as our Mission Control, with the potential to pay for specific Mission Control voices, because you WOULD pay for Garrus or Tali to be your Mission Control (and by this point they have every reason to be). We can get a bunch of social hubs with minigames that help to flesh out the world and explain wtf happened -- maybe the Citadel crashed on Earth but miraculously most people survived, and the Silversun Strip's still there... complete with an Armax Arsenal Arena mode that lets you "use holograms" to "play as famous heroes of the Reaper War" (eg, play as any ME canon character).
"Okay, but Warframe has the excuse of SPOILERS to explain who the 'player character' is" the premise instead is that your motley band of semi-mercenary idiots are a crew of their own Normandy-like ship. To further this, you can invite friends to temporarily use classes you've unlocked under the idea that it's YOUR squad; they get a generic build & generic weapons or something to encourage still getting your own, plus none of their own cosmetics, but this would help with new player onboarding -- give them a taste of a Prothean or whatever. You can customize your crew's personality, where they hang out on the ship, and backstories; yes, you "play" as any one of them when you load into hubs. Yes, this is a fuckton of writing, but these ARE the people who wrote Star Wars: the Old Republic, so, I think it's semi-doable. If a "player avatar" exists, it's an unshackled AI of the ship itself, because in the wake of the Reaper War, they made a lot more EDIs (of various genders! and species! so yes you can customize your robot characters with ANY skins. Wanna look like a shiny Vorcha? You're still using the AI power set but COOL GOOD FOR YOU)
A few more rambly points about like... what I'd do if I were writing this:
as noted, each crew has an unshackled AI, and thus one of the "default" starter classes is either a mobile AI unit or a friendly Geth, with the idea that the Geth signed on to serve the same purpose. Ships can have both Geth *and* several AI, same way that Legion was actually a few hundred thousand Geth.
One longer plot arc involves Liara, Javik, and Miranda working with the Collectors freed by Leviathan to resurrect the Protheans via cloning & reverse-engineering from the remaining Prothean corpses in the various stasis pods, using things Miranda learned from Project Lazarus. They hit a LOT of opposition from not just Cerberus, but from other splinter factions, including from the Alliance... and ironically, they get support from Aria T'loak, for her own reasons. This adds more enemy types to new mission types.
Merc gangs gonna merc, so an Omega plot release both has Omega as a new social hub, and adds both enemy AND ally merc gangsters. You can fight mercs as a merc, that's one of the hazards of being a merc, after all!
Eventually there's a bigger plot arc involving the Leviathans deciding that they want to take over the galaxy again. Thankfully they're not going for extinction like their stupid robot children, but they do start with trying to genocide the Geth because they're still (maybe even reasonably?) convinced that AI will ALWAYS be a problem. This gives big, cinematic, Reaper style bossfights.
The game keeps updating even after ME4 releases to basically fill in the storyline gaps between the two games. Eventually, there might be time-skips where certain factions and even player characters get "retired"; but are still usable in Armax Arsenal Arena mode, which still gives plenty of rewards and reason to keep playing, it's just there to avoid Warframe's time continuity snarl. So, for instance, the remaining Reaper and Collector forces get wiped out, but you can still fight them in AAA mode, which will reward credits toward weapons and armor and upgrades etc etc. This also helps keep the main modes fresh. Meanwhile, the first rumblings/origins of whatever the new villain faction in ME4 is gets revealed.
Anyway, I know this is rambly and if someone else wants to help me edit it down / clean it up, it's something I kinda also want to post to Reddit/elsewhere, because I want this spin-off game to exist. I hope the main ideas are clear enough.
The best part of Mass Effect for me has always been the characters far more than the shooty bits so Mass Effect+Warframe doesn't really sound all that appealing to me as a concept for ME4.
And I say that as someone who is MR30 with over 6500 hours in Warframe :P
Posts
To add to this, I refuse to apologize for liking happy endings.
:winky:
The relays were all destroyed (and we had one example of what happens when one of those goes up, so goodbye to the planets in the same systems).
The Normandy clearly wasn't getting off whatever planet it was on (so in a best case scenario of it having compatible food for some of your crew, either Garrus and Tali were going to starve to death or everyone else was).
And even if you assumed the things you see aren't that bad, it still crippled interstellar travel to the point that the colossal allied fleet you'd built up couldn't possibly get home while their supplies last, with similar fates for the Turians and Quarians, or everyone else.
And even if you wave those things away with assumptions that aren't shown, the galaxy is splintered and in no condition to recover by themselves or reach others to help them.
I think the biggest problem after that was the multiple endings and how they were presented:
Control has the flaw that it's been pushed by the bad guy for the entire game, and the constant rebuttal from both you and everyone else has been "That's insane, you're clearly indoctrinated". If TIM hadn't been pushing it the entire time and had been planning something else, then maybe. The argument you're given for it even follows the descriptions of how indoctrination works to a tee.
I think Destroy should have been the only ending, but with more variations based on how well you've done. On low, it roasts everyone. On high, change it so it destroys Reaper code, so it may kill EDI and the Geth, or just put them back to how they were before. On the highest you-did-everything-and-got-everything-right level, reduce the drawbacks more.
Oh, and tell no one that the option is in there, let the fanbase find out on their own. Also prevent gaming the system with the MP character promotions too.
PSN: Threeve703
Now I want to play the Fornax-themed hentai version of Mass Effect.
Yeah I pretty much only picked synthesis because the way the other endings were presented were so awful
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
I don't think the extended cut really drastically changed much fundamentally - the slideshows depict the mass relays still being extremely fucked up and the fleets making their way home the slow way, except the new voice overs say "nah we can rebuild everything" to assuage the people who just assumed they couldn't
It would be amusing to see Vega or something scarfing it down not knowing its origin during citadel.
(Since it is implied the effects take some time to take effect and are reversible it would work for a joke.)
Also, how bad is the jump in difficulty? I went the normal route the first go. If you do the higher ones do you get anything different or is it just achievements?
It's just cheevos
In my own LE playthrough, in ME3 I just did the Aralakh Company mission. I'll have to compare with the original but I felt like it was definitely harder to get turned around in the LE, so not sure if lighting or something was subtly tweaked to offer more unconscious direction.
Also I'm rocking a Black Widow V at this point. It's devastating and brilliant and makes a lot of things dead.
(Not a real spoiler, just Shep & her gun)
Steam | XBL
Shepard + Widow OTP.
Steam | XBL
PSN: Threeve703
The Geth sniper rifle is basically the most Widow sniper rifle that ever Widowed thought. The damage and penetration is just nuts.
I'm pretty sure that there's a mod that allows you to punch him regardless of romance status, or gender.
I’ve seen it, though that doesn’t really help me on PS4.
PSN: Threeve703
As a lifelong Winfiltrator & Widow / Black Widow fan
I’ve been using the N7 Valiant on this playthrough, and with the right mods it’s still one shot one kill but with a faster reload
Plus if you’re quick you can fire all 3 shots in a thermal clip during one tactical cloak
But it doesn't pop things nearly as often
PSN: Threeve703
I assure you I still send headless Cerberus chumps leaping out of cover and into the air multiple times during a fight
Unless you mean a different “pop”
I don't know if they changed it in Legendary, but Soldier in ME2 was hilariously busted with the Mattock. It fired as fast as you can click, even during Adrenaline Rush's slow-mo, so it pushed your DPS through the roof.
Man, you'd think they'd be able to come up with something more plausible for the events immediately prior.
Steam | XBL
"Shepard, we need you to investigate this signal we received saying "This is totally not a trap ayy lmao". It might be serious, so take your entire team."
“You are not Saren.”
PSN: Threeve703
The ending always suffered from trying to a big reveal where you didn't really need one. Why the Reapers are doing anything really doesn't matter at that point.
But also I am extensively opposed to any fiction where I'm fighting an enemy and then start listening to it trying to reason with me: a good enemy is trying to beat you by every possible method, and the Reapers in particular are constantly portrayed as doing this - Indoctrination is the ultimate psyop.
I'm running essentially full paragon this time to see the differences but there's one choice I will struggle with and wanted ya'lls advice.
Let me know if it's worth it.
From there, I would use multiplayer as a bridge to ME4 or whatever the new sequel is called by starting to bridge the plot. Begin with a post-ME3 storyline shakeup that explains what ending is actually for reals canon. Start introducing actual plot.
From a perspective of "What would be most fun for a post ME3 multiplayer game and allow the most opportunities for Lots Of Murder," I'd go for Red, but whatever bullshit Starkid was spouting was a last ditch indoctrination attempt to keep the Reapers alive, and it totally lied about killing EDI and the Geth. The Crucible completely destroyed all the Reaper capital. The flip side is that while the main Reaper forces (their giant horrible capital ships) are all dead and therefore the galaxy is no longer in danger from them or from extinction, there's still billions of ground troops that survived just the same, even if they're now basically brainless drones. Similarly, there's still a very large faction of Geth that didn't go along with peace; even with the Illusive Man gone, others have risen up to take his place (seriously the only reason they didn't call it Hydra is because that was already taken...); and Collectors are just a specific flavor of Reaper forces.
The plot and gameplay then is that the massive army assembled by Shepard is now doing cleanup. The galaxy IS saved and safe, we CAN rebuild, but there's a long road ahead, which our merry squads of 4 idiots each are going to go throw bullets at until the problem is solved.
This allows for the introduction of new maps, new mission types, and PLOT. We can get major characters on the comms acting as our Mission Control, with the potential to pay for specific Mission Control voices, because you WOULD pay for Garrus or Tali to be your Mission Control (and by this point they have every reason to be). We can get a bunch of social hubs with minigames that help to flesh out the world and explain wtf happened -- maybe the Citadel crashed on Earth but miraculously most people survived, and the Silversun Strip's still there... complete with an Armax Arsenal Arena mode that lets you "use holograms" to "play as famous heroes of the Reaper War" (eg, play as any ME canon character).
"Okay, but Warframe has the excuse of SPOILERS to explain who the 'player character' is" the premise instead is that your motley band of semi-mercenary idiots are a crew of their own Normandy-like ship. To further this, you can invite friends to temporarily use classes you've unlocked under the idea that it's YOUR squad; they get a generic build & generic weapons or something to encourage still getting your own, plus none of their own cosmetics, but this would help with new player onboarding -- give them a taste of a Prothean or whatever. You can customize your crew's personality, where they hang out on the ship, and backstories; yes, you "play" as any one of them when you load into hubs. Yes, this is a fuckton of writing, but these ARE the people who wrote Star Wars: the Old Republic, so, I think it's semi-doable. If a "player avatar" exists, it's an unshackled AI of the ship itself, because in the wake of the Reaper War, they made a lot more EDIs (of various genders! and species! so yes you can customize your robot characters with ANY skins. Wanna look like a shiny Vorcha? You're still using the AI power set but COOL GOOD FOR YOU)
A few more rambly points about like... what I'd do if I were writing this:
Anyway, I know this is rambly and if someone else wants to help me edit it down / clean it up, it's something I kinda also want to post to Reddit/elsewhere, because I want this spin-off game to exist. I hope the main ideas are clear enough.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Aside from that it's mostly different rather than better or worse; Different councillors have different attitudes to you, so you'll get different dialogue at the very least.
And if you really want to min/max your war assets, I'm pretty sure saving the Council is the best choice, but I don't think there's a significant enough difference to it that it'd affect your endgame result, assuming you're going to be completionist about it.
Mythological Cerberus also had multiple heads. Although IIRC it wasn't really known for growing them back, especially in larger numbers.
Steam | XBL
Steam | XBL
The best part of Mass Effect for me has always been the characters far more than the shooty bits so Mass Effect+Warframe doesn't really sound all that appealing to me as a concept for ME4.
And I say that as someone who is MR30 with over 6500 hours in Warframe :P