Mass Effect Trilogy

[Iucounu]

3's multiplayer mode also added points to your battle score, which needed to be up to a certain limit to be able to get the best ending. It is very difficult to get it without MP.

Which "best ending" do you mean, Destroy with Shepard alive? I thought that was easy without multiplayer if you did the side quests. Maybe they changed something with the ending DLC.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Pretty sure it was just to punish pirates, I don't think you can max the guage without any of the online components.

pirated back they and completed it just fine with max points. If it was their plan, didn't work.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

3's multiplayer mode also added points to your battle score, which needed to be up to a certain limit to be able to get the best ending. It is very difficult to get it without MP.

Which "best ending" do you mean, Destroy with Shepard alive? I thought that was easy without multiplayer if you did the side quests. Maybe they changed something with the ending DLC.

No destruction and Shepard lives. The extra score is needed for Shepard to survive. I did not have the DLCs back then, just the companion one.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Pretty sure it was just to punish pirates, I don't think you can max the guage without any of the online components.

pirated back they and completed it just fine with max points. If it was their plan, didn't work.

Well as I said the max score is attainable in single player, but you have to be a paragon who makes every single side quest. And it does help if you had an import that played ME1's dlc with a good outcome.

 

[J1M]

3's multiplayer mode also added points to your battle score, which needed to be up to a certain limit to be able to get the best ending. It is very difficult to get it without MP. There used to be a browser game you could play too. You have to do every single side quest with Good answers only if you want to get it. In the re release, they softened it a lot and now you can get it normally without much fuss.

1) It was not difficult to fill up the readiness points and you don't need to be paragon. You sound like you are repeating something you read that EA told a journalist to write.

2) The endings are all the same.

 

[OrthodoxEnigma]

Ah Mass Effect.
I hadn't played many RPGs when it came out, so this triology and Fallout 3 were my firsts.
But in my dumb, at the time, liberal mind, I believed that after the disaster that was Mass Effect 3s Ending that the people around me would go:
"That was retarded and really bad, there is nothing that can fix this. Not any DLC in the world can fix this absolute turd."

But people ate it up. I will for the life of me never understand how so many people can just "forgive" shit like this.
If it is ruined, it is ruined. End of story.

How I would rank the Mass Effecs:
Mass Effect 1:
Great world building but poor execution. I could sit and read loredumps for hours and hours.
The amount of planets that had extensive lore regarding them made you feel that it was a huge universe just waiting to be discovered.
They had built a good foundation to stand on, but what really made this game fantastic was the knowledge that the choices you made in the first game would affect the second and third.
Just a lot of potential.

Mass Effect 2:
Much more focus on the characters but not on the world.
A real shame since as I said, they had built a great foundation to build upon.
It felt more like a spin-off and the severe dumbing down of the RPG mechanics (I love stats okay), was not something I liked.
The DLCs were absolutely amazing tho, they really nailed them and were flexing their lore-expansion muscles (as they should have done in the base game).

Mass Effect 3:
A disaster in a way, so many choices and decisions that were made in the previous games simply did not matter.
So when people say that "everything was good except the ending" they are mindboggingly stupid. It was a noticable drop in quality even if they somewhat improved the combat and
the multiplayer was fun (I cheated myself to more credits, I am not paying EA a fucking dime for lootboxes).
The ending was a complete and utter catastrophy, completely ruined everything before it.
Why on earth anyone would play the DLCs is beyond me.

To commemorate the fallen tears of fanboys (Tali singing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGnbEtube-g



I have seen people talk about that the mods actually solve a lot of issues with the games so maybe a replay with those might not be so bad.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

just want the new one to come mang.

 

[502]

1) It was not difficult to fill up the readiness points and you don't need to be paragon. You sound like you are repeating something you read that EA told a journalist to write.

2) The endings are all the same.

The Extended Cut made the requirements a tad more generous, but I don't remember if multiplayer was required before it, of it you could barely pass the threshold.

 

[Iucounu]

Gameplay improved with each game while writing and originality simultaneously deteriorated, so ME2 might be considered either the best or the worst depending on viewpoint.

ME1's great lore just barely manages to compensate for its awful mechanics and side quests.

I think ME2 is the best in the series, but since I played it before ME1 the disconnected ME2 plot was a non-issue. ME2 also contains some non-woke writing, like making fun of interspecies romancing, indentured servants and entitled minority groups. Locations are often more atmospheric than in ME1, despite being smaller. Characters are silly, but so is the series as a whole; and at least Mordin is a fun new addition.

ME3 could have been the best in the trilogy if they hadn't ruined the ending, constantly pushed a token gay shuttle pilot in your face, and removed most of the non-wokeness (though I remember an NPC describing it as a "traveling freak show" in a moment of clarity).

 

[Iucounu]

Sceptic, any specific citation(s) you request?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Only steam?

Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: EA on-line activation and Origin client software installation and background use required.
Requires 3rd-Party Account: EA Account
Requires agreement to a 3rd-party EULA
Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition EULA
EA Play subscription requires acceptance of
EA Play Terms

Do you have to go through all that shit each time you want to play meaning INTERNET MUST BE ON!

Man, they fucking hate dead zone areas don’t they? Third party bullshit. It’s what annoyed me about MMX.

Now I know that my sister’s husband played these on Xbox ALOT! I bet he explored this stuff
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/the-correct-alien-sex-choices-in-the-mass-effect-trilogy/amp/

 

[Iucounu]

Only steam?

You can run it directly from Origin (maybe not if you bought it on Steam?). IIRC there's no need to accept the terms every time, not sure if offline playing is possible.

Now I know that my sister’s husband played these on Xbox ALOT! I bet he explored this stuff
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/the-correct-alien-sex-choices-in-the-mass-effect-trilogy/amp/

I'd trust Mordin's relationship advice more than that journalist's...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I dunno wtf is so sexy about fucking a human-sized smurf. Maybe they imagine a mod with its village clothing.

 

[Akachi]

The Extended Cut made the requirements a tad more generous, but I don't remember if multiplayer was required before it, of it you could barely pass the threshold.

It's been a long time, but IIRC at release you could only barely pass it without MP, and good luck if you weren't a completionist who did everything and made all of the choices that got the most points. I remember being pissed off by it at the time because I hated that they wasted time on MP in the first place, and they were obviously pushing it with how they intended you to play MP to realistically have a shot at getting the best ending in SP. if you didn't care to approach an RPG as being about collecting points, or about completionism when you wanted to get it over with. People saying you didn't need MP are talking shit and played after patches or DLC, you were absolutely intended to get them through MP at release. It was obvious to everyone at the time.

Never played the DLC, don't remember if the extended cut is when they updated the game with new endings, but if so I think I only played it to load my save and see the new ending that was the same as the old except insulted you for not liking it. Uninstalled once I noticed how they changed lines to dig at their fans. One of few things I remember from ME3 is one line from the hologram—that of course chose to appear as the annoying stupid kid who died and haunted you all game with bad writing and cutscenes, since even a genocidal renegade Shepard was forced to care—changed from an original line that was something like "You have choice, more than you think" to "You have choice, more than you deserve."

Of course, most didn't even notice changes like that one. Everyone had either abandoned the game and series, was a Bioware fanboy, or had succumbed to copium-induced psychosis like "indoctrination theory."

 

[Tyrr]

Just use the happy ending mod.
https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/323

 

[Akachi]

Why do you need a happy ending mod, did EA make it so you need a mod to uninstall the game and nuke everything related to it from your hard drive?

 

[Orud]

Happy ending mod doesn't fix how awful the ending is. I've said it before: the ending should've just been you sitting down besides Anderson and pressing the button to blow all Reapers to kingdom come.

No retarded starchild loredump, no retarded green or (less retarded) blue ending. Just finish it. Boom. Keep the breathing scene in just like it is now, when you have the highest prep possible you can get 'survive' red ending.

 

[Tyrr]

Happy ending mod doesn't fix how awful the ending is. I've said it before: the ending should've just been you sitting down besides Anderson and pressing the button to blow all Reapers to kingdom come.

No retarded starchild loredump, no retarded green or (less retarded) blue ending. Just finish it. Boom.

From the description the mod removes the Starchild and: "After the final conversation with Anderson, the Crucible activates automatically with only one function: Destroy the Reapers."

(I didn't used the mod myself because I just played ME3 once on release and never touched it again. Just found it while looking for mods for M1&2.)

 

[Orud]

From the description the mod removes the Starchild and: "After the final conversation with Anderson, the Crucible activates automatically with only one function: Destroy the Reapers."

(I didn't used the mod myself because I just played ME3 once on release and never touched it again. Just found it while looking for mods for M1&2.)

I might be recalling a different mod then, back from the old original release. My apologies.

 

[Iucounu]

I dunno wtf is so sexy about fucking a human-sized smurf. Maybe they imagine a mod with its village clothing.

At least the smurfs are humanoid (as if that makes the "romancing" less cringy), but what makes the game journalist gush over a monster like Garrus?

 

[Iucounu]

good luck if you weren't a completionist who did everything and made all of the choices that got the most points.

It wasn't that hard. Surely you can't expect to get the "best" ending by skipping much of the content?

In contrast, the "best" endings in the Krogan and Geth sub-plots require making correct dialog choices throughout all three games (and yet the only reward you get are some different cutscenes, that you might as well watch on Youtube).

succumbed to copium-induced psychosis like "indoctrination theory."

I think it's great fan fiction. Considering how bizarre the ending is, it's not unreasonable to wonder wether the writers had hidden some kind of narrative easter egg in it. But of course Bioware is much too shallow for such subtleties, it's more like something I'd expect from say Frictional Games' Soma.

 

[J1M]

Odd how few people remember the rejection ending that they patched in (yellow). It was the only one that preserved the Mass Relays.

 

[Iucounu]

Odd how few people remember the rejection ending that they patched in (yellow). It was the only one that preserved the Mass Relays.

You could be right. Maybe it's because it didn't add much more than hint that you lost. Now, if we imagine all three RGB endings mean that Shepard was indoctrinated, I suppose Refuse could represent breaking free of said indoctrination, but what would that matter if the game still claims everybody lost? Unless of course the game lies to its players...

 

[J1M]

Odd how few people remember the rejection ending that they patched in (yellow). It was the only one that preserved the Mass Relays.

You could be right. Maybe it's because it didn't add much more than hint that you lost. Now, if we imagine all three RGB endings mean that Shepard was indoctrinated, I suppose Refuse could represent breaking free of said indoctrination, but what would that matter if the game still claims everybody lost? Unless of course the game lies to its players...

The yellow ending is implied to be the most hopeful because even though everyone is wiped out the archives liara creates will give the next cycle the knowledge needed to break free without destroying the relays.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Red destruction it's the only valid option and the og lore.