EvaUnit02 on 25/11/2013 at 20:27

---

Oh for sure, ME3 can definitely look significantly worse than ME1 & 2 at times, with textures and animations being the most visible (and probably most common) offenders.

Sulphur on 24/8/2015 at 17:17

---

So I finished ME3 -- only three years after I bought it.

I suppose playing it for the first time with the Extended Cut DLC installed by default means I don't really get to see what most of the internet was and continues to bitch and moan about, but I still get the dramatically abrupt 'look, here's three four endings and you choose one' mess that it ends in.

And... it's not bad. Sure, for all the buildup over 7 years (it's been that long? Jesus) it had a lot of things to account for, and it wipes most of them out in a tidal sweep of galactic primary colours endcapped with flavoured narration and concept art stills - that's probably disappointing for people who were hoping that the burgeoning mess of alliances and deaths over the course of the three games would somehow coalesce into a personalised story that accounted for every move and counter-move their Shepard made.

Yeah. That was totally going to happen, just like I can fart planet-straddling rainbows from my ass complete with twinkling unicorns surfing along them into the horizon.

Anyway, it's not a good set of endings, nor is it a bad set of endings. It's just abrupt, a bit impromptu and poorly explained despite the Leviathan DLC retcon/retrofit, and makes the unfortunate literary choice of undermining its antagonist by making its outsized, incomprehensible galaxy-spanning Elder Horrors motivated by something thematically unconvincing - an eternally recurring cycle of machines vs. organic life. Yes, basically: it's BSG.

For all of ME's focus on the Geth and their motivations, they remain its most poorly fleshed out bit of lore; even EDI makes a far more convincing case because you get to spend time interacting with and understanding her, unlike Legion, who offers little in the way of coherent or cogent information and thus remains opaque. For something that's supposed to be the mirror which the game holds up to you at the end, the vision the Geth present is blurred and filigreed with cracks.

But anyway, the good things - there was some amount of closure for my romance with Liara, especially a touching scene before the final assault where she said goodbye with more than just her words. (no, not that - the sex already happened earlier; here, she finally becomes Zhaan from Farscape, who is, coincidentally, also a blue alien who's at home being pacifically calm and undeniably sexy without any clothes on.) Good character closure too - especially a suitably calm sendoff for Anderson and a suitably predictable one for Martin Sheen, whose death by Renegade Interrupt has an unusually poetic ending.

There's also the art design. If there's one thing this series does well, it's set-pieces that feature the Citadel. Lovely stuff here, absolutely wonderful. Bioware finally figured out how to do slightly less cramped environments with ME3, and poured in the background detail this time to give you the illusion of depth, which works fairly well. The sound design is nice and physical too, even if many of the cut-scenes seemed to be missing critical sound effects. The last couple of hours, particularly, gave my speakers a phenomenal work-out. I think there's cracks in the windows now after all that rattling and thundering from ships and places being ripped apart.

Also, the DLC is mostly good but inessential. Except for the Citadel DLC - god, that thing is just cracking. So many references, so many jokes, so many moments of joy. It's the most generous of the lot, with a lot of shooty-bang, a lot of side content (combat simulation gauntlets, minigames), and a real sense of closure with the extended amount of time you get to spend with the crew. It even has some of the most realistic party banter (well, realistic if most of your friends were aliens) ever featured in a game, including a half-buzzed argument over whether muscles would win vs. biotics (here's a hint: you probably already know).

Even if it seems over-indulgent towards the end, like you'd been snacking on too much candy, it never feels anything less than heartfelt. You get to be closer with everyone who's served with you over the course of the three games, and there's so many moments of warmth, hilarity, and genuine character in there that I really did feel gutted when it ended: I'd never be spending any more time with these characters again. There was a single exchange between Shepard and Liara at the end of the DLC that caps off the entire series: Shepard gazing out over the port where the Normandy is docked, and just before they head into the ship, they say what is, in effect, one last goodbye. It's a feeling that is, if you want a single word to describe it -- bittersweet.

I think I'm going to reinstall ME1 now. After all, who doesn't need more Garrus Vakarian in their lives?

Phatose on 24/8/2015 at 18:54

---

It's more then gravity, IIRC, but that's a big part of it. "Mass effect" was functionally ghost mass or a mass reduction. It allows FTL because it effectively reduces the mass of the spaceship below 0. Guns and whatnot reduce the mass of the projectile while creating a false mass gravity slingshot.

nicked on 24/8/2015 at 21:43

---

They should have gone full 50s pulp and called it "Commander Shepherd and the Squids from Space!".

nicked on 25/8/2015 at 06:51

---

Nothing!? But what about all those calibrations?