JCC Anyone NOT playing Mass Effect 3?

Usually the ending to a popular franchise will outrage some, delight others, and leave the majority broadly satisfied. So "OMFG this sucks" comments are typically only representative of the few who have been really disappointed. It's just they cry louder than everyone else. But... is this one of those rare cases where most people are really annoyed?

Also, is it a genuinely stupid ending - totally out of left field - or just not what everyone was expecting?

(I'm not playing the game and never will, but am just curious)

 

You can read about the ending(s) on Mass Effect 3's wikipedia page.

 

Yes I can, but since I have no investment in the story that doesn't really do the trick.

 

There's just so much in there that doesn't make sense. For me personally there's one thing in particular that really throws the spanner in the works, but I can see why people are upset over other things for sure.

The only complaint I don't really get is the lack of choice come the end, when the endings of the previous two don't have that much choice either (particularly ME1).

 

This article is really the best explanation for why the ending is pretty bad from a Mass Effect fan standpoint. At least, it matches my point of view.

 

There are certain things about the ending that don't make ANY sense.

 

My Boyfriend's just completed it and he's very dissapointed.

I think I understand where he's coming from. I mean, 3 games to end like that? Seems a strange decision in the least.
I know if I was a mass effect fan I'd probably be ranting about it.

 

I haven't played the games, though I might in the future.

My friend posted a link to a blog, a month or so ago, that says Mass Effect is the game of our times because it's all about how ultimately we (and humanity in general) are irrelevant and insignificant. That the message of the first 2 games is nothing we do really matters, following Lovecraft's Cosmicism philosophy. http://www.popbioethics.com/2012/02/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation/

Then I came here to read this thread, and the other Mass Effect thread, and apparently people are upset about the game's ending... for continuing to follow this message, which apparently made the first 2 games so revolutionary? What? Am I missing something?


Dude you don't need to post an entire thing you've linked.

 

Why the heck would you post the whole article?

 

I can't read copy-and-pasted articles without bolded passages.

 

I was wondering if I could collect some perspective from people who have played this series.

1. Particularly Playstation owners, how disadvantaged did you feel about not having access to the first game, and how detrimental to your overall experience was it?

2. What is the balance of politics/culture/world-building sort of elements in the first versus the second or third entry in the series?

 

You could play 2 and 3 and not feel 'disadvantaged' but it's a much more rich experience when you know all the history and characters.

So, I finished it and see some of the perspective of the disspointment but, overall, I thought it closed out the series well.

 

Should've mentioned yesterday that that was what you're interested in!

There's not very much world-building in the second at all. A lot of the groundwork is laid in ME1 - what the galactic government is, what humanity's place is, how everything fits together (or doesn't fit). In ME2 you spend most of your time flying around the semi-lawless fringes of the galaxy, which has its own politics/culture/world-building aspects, but nothing on a galactic scale.

ME3 brings it all together, but if you jump straight into ME3 you'll feel rather lost, IMO.

 

I might've if I'd known.

 

I finished it this morning, and I'm still tossing it around in my head if I liked the ending or not. It' reminding me of how much I had to think of Lost's ending.

 

ME3 is big payout for short-term gain. TOR is big pay-out over a long period of time for long-term gain.

I pay £92 a year to run TOR, so I can pay for the game for a year for less than one month's salary pay (some charity debits and membership subsciptions cost me more than that). Certainly it's no more than buying several new games at £40 each and TOR lasts me longer.

I'm OK with a game like Force Unleashed 2 having about 6 hours of playing time when I only spent £8 on it, if I spend £40 on Mass Effect and complete in 3 days I'd be angry. For that sort of money it needs to take time to get through, if they didn't make it suitably challenging that I had to give up and come back to it a week later and play a bit more then I would consider it a waste of time were it not cheaply purchased.
I completed the first Mass Effect in around 5 days but it cost me only £10 to buy.

 

I completed the ME3 in about 40 hours on normal difficulty. Not exactly a short-term game. And that's one play through, with one character, with one set of choices, playing as a paragon. I only completed it in 3 days because I'm unemployed and hogged the tele, much to the chagrin of the missus.

 

Also, Richie, considering you work(ed?) in a cinema, surely the fact that people pay nearly £15 to see a movie once when they can get it on DVD for £8 four months later proves that people often pay more for less.

 

Groovy RoboShep reporting in.

[image=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7177/6971435255_94f58cbfc5_o.png]

 

Unless you have a 100inch TV and speakers bigger than a man you'll never replicate a cinema experience at home. People pay for the big-screen viewing experience, if they only cared about watching movies by any means they would pirate them or wait for them to be cheaper on DVD/Blu Ray.

I would gladly pay premium price to see an IMAX movie, there is nothing like it elsewhere. Fortunately I don't have to pay, but I don't think it's expensive considering what you get. Food might be, but I don't eat in cinemas much.


I will eventaully get Mass Effect 3 (although I need to play 2 first), but that's after Steam get it and they have a sale.

 

Steam will never have Mass Effect 3.

 

Just let him wait.

 

Why wouldn't they get it? They have the first 2.

I know major retailer GAME is having trouble getting it, but that's cos the company is going bankrupt and can't get deals with distributers. Digital download is much easier than buying a disc copy which takes up space and never gets used again.