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[Darkmere]

Erh, I hate to double-post-necro myself, but eh. I found some info that might shed some light on the situation:
Don't click me if you don't want spoilers. You have been warned, yo.

Summary:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

ME3 saves have a variable for "end-game state", which I suppose is mostly used to determine "import ME3 character" as a valid option. However, this value has 3 states: unfinished, died, lived. Wouldn't make much sense if this were the ending of a trilogy; you should only need "unfinished" if there was nothing else. *shrug* Make of it what you will. And yes, I know, Gamefaqslol.

I also noticed that if I hit the "switch to previous weapon" key in the middle of a roll, it switches weapons without playing an additional animation (PC). Interesting glitch, probably more useful than the melee-reload one from ME2.

[fenrif]

To be honest at this point I wouldn't put it past them to make the ending terrible so they could sell a "real" ending or an epilogue that explains what actually happened as DLC, but I fear I'm overestimating their intelligence.

There's also this, a response from one of the Drs: http://blog.bioware.com/2012/03/21/4108/

"Mass Effect 3 concludes a trilogy with so much player control and ownership of the story"

"However, most folks appear to agree that the game as a whole is exceptional, with more than 75 critics giving it a perfect review"

Basically the message is "please stop telling your friends this game is bad, It's perfect, but we'll sell you some DLC to fix it!"

[Darkmere]

I think he does have a point, though. The vast majority of the game *is* exceptional (imo), and focusing entirely on the bad ending and saying that alone makes the whole game bad is a bit unfair. The end just stands out as being off-the-wall because everything else is so satisfying. If I had to compare, Fallout 3 got solid reviews, and its ending was bluntly retconned with a DLC that was well-received. Dracula (the book) had a terrible ending, but it's been fairly popular for some time now. Either way, I think this discussion is getting a bit stale, at least for now.

In actual game discussion, I'm curious how soldiers play now, if anyone has one. Their selling point was having access to a lot of weapons, but now that anyone can use anything I wonder if they can still make up for it. Thoughts? For that matter, any class ideas in general?

[SeriousConcentrate]

Not much to say about Soldiers, really. They can carry heavier weapons without suffering cooldown penalties, but on the other hand... the ammo powers don't count for cooldown, and Frag Grenades are awesome, but like ammo, don't rely on the cooldown bar, meaning the Soldier's carrying capacity is pretty moot. ^^^; Concussive Blast is OK but not great; you'd be better off taking Carnage as your bonus if you want it since it's just that but better. Adrenaline Rush is still awesome, though, especially with a Sniper Rifle that has multiple shots per clip like the Viper. It also automatically reloads when you activate AR (I can't remember if it does so in ME2, and I don't want to start a new Soldier file to check right now), so if you're using a weapon with a long reload time and you're being rushed you can just activate that for another clip, plus some slowdown to give yourself time to make better use of it. It works well with the Geth Pulse Rifle and Revenant for that reason.

Also, I do agree that the game is mostly good.

[Digital Hellhound]

I wouldn't call the game perfect, even ignoring the ending. There's a ton of autodialogue, the middle convo option is gone and all ME2 romances got sidelined, though that's not the only word I'd call the atrocity that is Jacob. But it's mostly good. I wish I could still like it.

[fenrif]

I wasn't terribly impressed with the game as a whole. It all felt really unpolished, with constant graphical issues and glitches. Lots of fetch quests (and scanning planets is even worse than me2) and various plot and writing problems. The whole war readiness track was a really wierd choice because it just seems badly implimented to me. I've been told that if you played a renegade shepard you would end up with significantly less readiness than a paragon. I guess thats a problem with assaigning a numerical value to every choice in the game?

One of my major complaints is that they still don't let you choose your options from past games when not importing a save, which kinda makes it feel like there's a canon Shepard (and he's kind of a bastard apparently). And ME2 was basically ignored for the most part. With no imported chacter I think the only things carried over are Miranda, Jacob and the Illusive man.

As for soldier talk: crack a load of points into inferno ammo, grab a decent assault rifle, and walk through everything.

[Darkmere]

I've ended up dumping inferno ammo for cryo at every opportunity. You get a slow, damage bonus, and potential tech explosion from every frozen target. Cryo slows through shields, and still negates some armor value. Pretty much the exact opposite of 2, really.

Re: Jacob
I found it hard to consider him a serious character even in 2. He's so bland he gives Kaidan a run for his money, but Alenko wins the boring award in 3 hands-down. Glad I saved Ashley most of the time.

[Vorbicon]

Loving my Infiltrator playthrough so far. Slow-motion one-bullet headshot kills. Yes please. I never tried one in ME2, does it play similarly? If so, I might want to go back and give it another go.

[fenrif]

I've ended up dumping inferno ammo for cryo at every opportunity. You get a slow, damage bonus, and potential tech explosion from every frozen target. Cryo slows through shields, and still negates some armor value. Pretty much the exact opposite of 2, really.

Re: Jacob
I found it hard to consider him a serious character even in 2. He's so bland he gives Kaidan a run for his money, but Alenko wins the boring award in 3 hands-down. Glad I saved Ashley most of the time.

Why Bioware insists on having every game in the series saddle you with an interchangeable boring human guy is beyond me. Especially in ME3 where it feels like you only have half the party members you should. At least Kaiden was more than "I shot at guys for you boss"

[Darkmere]

I think those guys are supposed to be the "down-to-earth everyman" types. They don't really stand out in a cast of emotionally scarred superheroes though. *shrug* At least James is a jarhead and doesn't pretend to have depth. Plus he's much better in a fight than Jacob "I'mma get shot coz... cover? lol" Taylor. I always felt like ME2 had too many squadmates, anyway. I could never find much use for Thane, Samara, Mordin, Jacob...

Loving my Infiltrator playthrough so far. Slow-motion one-bullet headshot kills. Yes please. I never tried one in ME2, does it play similarly? If so, I might want to go back and give it another go.

Yeah, that's the ME2-style Infiltrator. The mantis, viper, and widow rifles didn't change much at all; if you like em in 3 you'll like em in 2. The downside is... you won't be able to go the soldier-like route and pack the widow and an assault rifle, or any of the more exotic combinations. Still very enjoyable though.

[NobodyPro]

I always felt like ME2 had too many squadmates, anyway. I could never find much use for Thane, Samara, Mordin, Jacob...

Thane: Was aquired too late in the game, Zaeed was already acting as co. sniper for me and was more versatile.
Samara: Saved my ass when fighting Krogans post-loyalty.
Mordin: Domination was cool... when I used it.
Jacob: Poor man's Grunt, you have a point.

Legion: My own addition, couldn't find a use for him in the suicide mission. Should have been introduced much earlier (as ghost-files suggest he did at some point).
I still would have preferred the ability to use all surviving squadmates in 3 depending on your choices.

[SeriousConcentrate]

@Vorbicon: Yes. Infiltrators are so awesome in Mass Effect 2. The only thing that sucks about them is that sometimes (only sometimes, mind) your squadmates are TOO competent and you don't get as many headshots as you'd like, plus ammo is a little more limited. ME3 fixed that problem with more enemies and ammo drops in general, plus mods to increase carrying capacity... ^^^

@Fenrif: I'll have to respectfully disagree that galaxy scanning is more boring than mining. Fully seven to eight hours, if you're trying to get all the upgrades, is devoted to going around and mining planets. I can scan a galaxy, get everything, dodge the reapers, and be out in like four to five minutes (assuming the galaxy has three things in it to grab, of course; time depends on how much I'm looking for). Also considering that almost everything to find is a war asset and therefore doesn't really matter anyway since EMS only determines which 'ending' you get, you can safely ignore them if you don't feel like doing it, whereas in ME2 you HAVE to go mining to get better weaponry, especially on the harder difficulties.

@Darkmere: Indeed. I like Vega better than Jacob, but after playing through the Alenko romance in ME3 I'd have to say I actually like him a lot better than I used to. I'm not sure about 'too many' squadmates, though. My only complaint there is that you're not given a choice of when to recruit them. As NobodyPro pointed out with the ghost-files and as a certain YouTube video shows (I don't remember what the link/name of it is, but it shows every squadmate response to being told to protect Garrus), you should have been allowed to recruit anyone at any point. I like to pick a pair from the start and use exclusively them for the whole game, and it would be fun to take, say, Tali and Jacob on one run to see how they interact, then in the next Tali and Jack to see if the squad chatter changes any, and so on. :\ Why can't I take Tali and Legion and let them argue the entire game? That would be pretty entertaining. (Oh, that reminds me. This time through ME2 I need to hold off on activating Legion until after I beat the game and then do Tali's Loyalty quest with him to see if the Admiral's reaction to him changes in ME3.)

I pretty much always used Miranda though because her class ability makes Shepard stronger. XD

@NobodyPro: I'm right there with you. Why the hell can't I ask Jack to follow me again? I liked her. D:

[Rakonas]

I've disliked literally every human squadmate. If I could hand Joker a gun I'd bring him with me places though somehow.
Kaiden: Waah because you didn't get enough of me as Carth Onasi
Ashley: Commander why you like aliens?
Miranda: I am perfect, also listen to me complain about my father and sister all the time.
Jacob: Definitely the best out of the choice of humans, but still pretty boring.
Vega: I am hispanic in case you can't tell let me use irritating spanglish.
Edit: Forgot
Jack: I am a psychopath biotic with tons of pent up anger. You have no choice to not let me on your ship.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ashley: Commander why you like aliens?

Ashley has a good backstory for her distrust of aliens, and is even more distrustful of Cerberus. All in all, it creates the image of someone who is somewhat bigoted by circumstance and makes a well-rounded character.

Miranda: I am perfect, also listen to me complain about my father and sister all the time.

That's the point. Miranda is supposed to outwardly appear utterly insufferable and "perfect". It's the entire outcome of her backstory, and makes the revelation of how broken a person she actually is interesting.

Vega: I am hispanic in case you can't tell let me use irritating spanglish.

The hispanic thing becomes relevant if you look into the backstory of Earth's political status in ME. By the time of the games, the US, Canada, and Mexico have all been consolidated into a single nation, the United North American States. Incidentally, you start out ME3 in the megacity that used to be Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. The president of the UNAS at the time of ME3 has a hispanic name as well. Huerta Memorial Hospital is named after him. (He is also technically brain dead due to a stroke and being is sustained by a computer.) You pick up Vega in the UNAS, so him being hispanic and using spanglish is not very surprising.

Jack: I am a psychopath biotic with tons of pent up anger. You have no choice to not let me on your ship.

You're going on a suicide mission and need everything you can get. Jack is arguably the most powerful biotic in existence. Psychopath or not, it's not really a resource someone in Shepard's position should be ignoring. Also, I think her romance path is the best written one in ME2, since it believably explains how she got the whole "psychopath biotic with pent up anger" thing going after escaping Cerberus.

[fenrif]

@Fenrif: I'll have to respectfully disagree that galaxy scanning is more boring than mining. Fully seven to eight hours, if you're trying to get all the upgrades, is devoted to going around and mining planets. I can scan a galaxy, get everything, dodge the reapers, and be out in like four to five minutes (assuming the galaxy has three things in it to grab, of course; time depends on how much I'm looking for). Also considering that almost everything to find is a war asset and therefore doesn't really matter anyway since EMS only determines which 'ending' you get, you can safely ignore them if you don't feel like doing it, whereas in ME2 you HAVE to go mining to get better weaponry, especially on the harder difficulties.

I said it was worse, not more boring. Yeah it's quicker, but it still really annoyed me. You're not just getting minerals, you're rescuing civilians, finding military assets and all these varied things, and it doesn't really represent that in any way. Having you actually probe planets is completely pointless and they could've accomplished the exact same thing by just having you scan it in system then view the planet info. The whole reaper warning system thing i guess makes sense from a narrative perspective, but again gameplay-wise doesn't really accomplish anything. If they come out you can just leave and re-enter the system untill you spawn near where you need to go. Also it really really annoyed me that it doesnt display the percentage of what you've found untill you find at least one thing, because quite a few times I'd go into a system, ping a planet and find nothing, ping a second planet and find nothing... But now ive got reapers on me and I don't know if theres anything in the system. So you end up leaving and re-entering, scanning one thing, then leaving again to reset the reapers.

It just didn't click with me I guess. It seems like they heard people complain it was boring in ME2, so they kept the same boring stuff, but just made you do it less and put an arbitrary punishment timer on it.

Also, you can explain why all the characters have really relevant backstorys till the cows come home, that doesnt mean they are interesting or well written. Someone being Hispanic and the President being Hispanic doesn't detract from the fact that his dialogue is terriblly written (Why does EVERYONE have daddy issues? Is it a requirement to board the normandy?). The ME characters are generally pretty paper thin at best, but Bioware kinda gets around it by either making them interesting (Legion, Moradin) or just sticking really close to a proven formula (Wrex, EDI, Grunt, Garrus) so you can fill in the blanks for yourself.