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Mass Effect 3 Discussion Thread

shantd said:
Hmmm...I lost one dude in ME1...I think it was Kaidan. But I'm bringing him back from the dead because even though something about him annoys me, Ashley annoys me more. Also, I don't like the makeover they gave her. Her tomboy-ness was one of the things I liked about her. Plus, bringing people back from the dead makes you feel like God.
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For me it was an easy choice. I didn't like Ashley from the start, so she was happily disposed of in that mission. :)

Though I agree that Kaidan was kind of annoying as well. I don't think the character was actually the problem. It was just that when I heard his voice I thought of Carth and Carth was a putz!
 
drako said:
For me it was an easy choice. I didn't like Ashley from the start, so she was happily disposed of in that mission. :)

Though I agree that Kaidan was kind of annoying as well. I don't think the character was actually the problem. It was just that when I heard his voice I thought of Carth and Carth was a putz!
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Kaiden was so annoying. "Wahh they took me away as a child and gave me super powers, wahhh"
 
shantd said:
It sounds as if you have to get a bit lucky to save everyone the first time around. I mean, how would you know that you're on the clock after a certain point and can only have 2 missions to save everyone, but a 3rd mission before the reaper mission guarantees death? And, how would you know that the defensive stats of your group are stacked to determine their success at the door? This is the first I'm hearing of that...Still, I'm not going to complain. It's a matter of relativity...what other game even has consequences like these in the first place? Basically none.
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Well, on one hand, I can see what you're saying here because it goes totally against the traditional style of gaming we are all used to. In that style there's a very specific goal with a very specific way to get there, it's just up to the player's skill (be it shooting/fast reaction times, strategic planning, resource management, etc). In ME2, even though the underpinnings are logical constructions, they're never revealed to the player, so in effect, each player's result is basically a one-to-one conclusion - you try to prepare as best you can, then you make descisions based on what you know (or think you know). The thing that's great about ME2 (IMO) is that your Shepard's story doesn't HAVE to be the perfect, hero-saves-everyone story. Your decisions are basically an analogy for Shepard's decisions, which as I said earlier, is extremely rare in a game and one reason why ME is one of the best, if not the best, game series ever (all in my humble opinion).

Take my very first play through of ME 1, for example. I liked Ashley so on Virmire I brought her with me and let Kaidan go with Captain Kirrahe. When I had to choose who to save of course I saved Ashley because I liked her, but the way it played out, Captain Kirrahe died too. You can look at it on one hand like, WTF, Kirrahe died because the game did not tell me before hand if I did not do X then he would die - but on the other hand, I made the decisions based on the same "data" that Shepard would had which is exactly what makes those moments in the game feel so personal.

My first ME 2 is also an example (which I already mentioned in an earlier post). I thought through most of my choices logically but I made a mistake in not thinking about the "grit" of the people I left behind to hold the line. Again, it could be seen as a fault of the game because I didn't have access to the statistical numbers to make a choice, but I see it as strength because my Shepard's story evolved directly because of my decision making.
 
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Colonel Sanders said:
I made the decisions based on the same "data" that Shepard would had
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Yeah, this is the sticky point for me. In real life we're never going to have all the variables. We just do what we think is best (usually) and trust that things will likely work out. Every now and then though, you can make bad decisions that work out well and good decisions that result badly.


My first ME 2 is also an example (which I already mentioned in an earlier post). I thought through most of my choices logically but I made a mistake in not thinking about the "grit" of the people I left behind to hold the line.
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Yeah, this goes to the same point above. For me, I left Mordin behind because he's a problem solver. The game had gotten us used to his ability to solve any frikin problem single handedly. So I figured if the fate of the galaxy hinges on that door, I think I'd like Mordin to be there. Brawn beat out brains in the end. Still, I have to say, if that whole situation hinges on defensive stats, I'd think they should at least throw us a clue. Even if it's a very subtle clue that you have to be very perceptive with your conversing to pick up on. I'd like to see more rewards for clever conversation in general.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
Well, on one hand, I can see what you're saying here because it goes totally against the traditional style of gaming we are all used to. In that style there's a very specific goal with a very specific way to get there, it's just up to the player's skill (be it shooting/fast reaction times, strategic planning, resource management, etc).
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Well this would only be true if you assumed that everyone is only familiar with FPS games or strategy games. RPGs have traditionally always had your choices impact the game and often in inexplicit ways.
 
limitedaccess said:
Well this would only be true if you assumed that everyone is only familiar with FPS games or strategy games. RPGs have traditionally always had your choices impact the game and often in inexplicit ways.
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I know, I have just seen a LOT of people here complain about the way you can't be positive about how to keep everyone alive in ME2 - just wanted to emphasize that for those people
 
Colonel Sanders said:
I know, I have just seen a LOT of people here complain about the way you can't be positive about how to keep everyone alive in ME2 - just wanted to emphasize that for those people
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OK I get ya.

Actually thinking about it I think the community on these forums probably heavily slants towards FPS games. So it would be understandable viewing it from that perspective.

I actually with your point as well that your choices aren't necessarily about "winning" or "losing" like it would be with say a FPS/Strategy game but should be viewed more so as a story choice in your story.

Ryom said:
Just an FYI, it's "sticking point" ;)

I managed to keep everyone alive first time through, you are told what you have to do in game to keep em breathing.
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Yea I actually thought the choices that were required made sense. Upgrading your ship and gaining loyalty seemed straight forward as well. I used Legion in the pipes, since I would think he would not be discomforted (Tali would also fit this reasoning) and has the skills needed. I used Garrus to defend as that fits his leadership background and story as well. I sent Mordin back with the survivors seeing as he had medical training. Samara (SP?) seemed logical as well as the most powerful and experienced biotic. These weren't the only acceptable choices either.
 
shantd said:
Wow, thanks for the breakdown Dan. You say it's easy, but it seems fairly involved. It's good though that there's more to their survival than simply having their loyalty. Were that the case, that would seem pretty lazy and just plain weak...although it seems having their loyalty is a prerequisite.

It sounds as if you have to get a bit lucky to save everyone the first time around. I mean, how would you know that you're on the clock after a certain point and can only have 2 missions to save everyone, but a 3rd mission before the reaper mission guarantees death? And, how would you know that the defensive stats of your group are stacked to determine their success at the door? This is the first I'm hearing of that...Still, I'm not going to complain. It's a matter of relativity...what other game even has consequences like these in the first place? Basically none.

I think I'm not going to import my save game. I only did one playthrough, and it wasn't tied to ME1 which I played on console. If I start from scratch on ME3, does that mean everyone from ME2 was saved, or will Bioware automatically decide which died and which lived?
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If BioWare does what they did with ME2, then ME3 will have some default choices for your new starting Shepard. You may or may not like them. The first time I played ME2, I didn't care for some of the default choices, though I didn't know any better until I went back and played ME1, then imported the ME1 save into ME2 and started a new game.

shantd said:
Indeed...it really stinks that we'll have to kiss all of this goodbye after this game. I'll never understand the decision to determine, in advance, to limit a series like this to 3 games. Yes, I know Bioware has said that they will likely continue to make games from within the ME universe, but still...for my money, this is among the very best series in gaming, and it seems to me they should leave it open ended until it hits the COD 'jump the shark' phase. We're nowhere near there.
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I think the Mass Effect series has been by far my favorite in the last few years. I'm really an FPS guy, but the generally strong story, variable outcomes and characters really cause me to gravitate towards the series like I'd have never thought possible. I've never been so vested in the characters, or my choices in a game. The game makes being bad tempting, and being good often rewarding. The relationship mechanics, and friendships in the game are far more real than any I've seen in other games. Not to say that Mass Effect doesn't have issues, and bad design decisions, or anything like that, it does, but overall I've never been so eager for a sequel. ME1 and to a greater extent, ME2 had me replay the series repeatedly. Something I've never done more than once or twice with RPG type games in the past.

Derangel said:
Honestly I believe the best games are ones that make you think "man I wish they would make more of these" or "man I want more from this developer". It's pretty rare to have that reaction with games these days.
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I couldn't agree more. I used to look forward to new Call of Duty games and now I think to myself "oh god not another one." With Mass Effect I keep wanting more and more of it, but of course if I got too much of it, I'm sure the quality of the games would suffer terribly. This isn't something we can see annually and that's a good thing.

drako said:
For me it was an easy choice. I didn't like Ashley from the start, so she was happily disposed of in that mission. :)

Though I agree that Kaidan was kind of annoying as well. I don't think the character was actually the problem. It was just that when I heard his voice I thought of Carth and Carth was a putz!
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I played ME2 before ME1. I knew Kaiden or Ashley had to be sacrificed in advance. While Kaiden was annoying, and I knew Ashley was a bitch in ME2. What's interesting is as I went through the story and conversations with Kaiden and Ashley, I started to see them differently. I started to see how people could actually like Ashley and even choose her over Liara, which prior to that, I didn't understand. I still prefer Liara, but at least I actually began to like the character.

Then you talk to Kaiden and while he's annoying at times, you start to like him a little bit. At least I did. When I started playing I was certain I would sacrifice Kaiden and keep Ashley, but as I went through the game I started to doubt that was the best choice.
I wasn't really prepared for Virmire. When I did that mission, I wasn't sure how the mechanics worked out. Send Ashley with Kirrahe or Kaiden? Does one of these choices result in their deaths? Fuck what if I choose wrong? Kaiden was the bomb guy so I sent Ash with Kirrahe. I saved Kirrahe only because I did all the xtra mission objectives to make it easier for the team.

When it came down to the actual decision, I rethought what I had initially planned. Kaiden is basically an only child with a life long laundry list of medical problems associated with being an L2 Biotic. Ashley comes from a massive family of all military types. She was the junior officer between the two as well. So I started factoring in all these variables and then chose to sacrifice Kaiden. I felt the decision was ultimately what I'd pick if I were really there doing an insane mission like that.

Valshistixol said:
Kaiden was so annoying. "Wahh they took me away as a child and gave me super powers, wahhh"
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True, but if you do the cerberus missions, you kind of get an idea of where he's coming from. Being an L2 Biotic actually sucks. He was remarkably well adjusted given the circumstances. The other L2's in the game were NOT.

Colonel Sanders said:
Well, on one hand, I can see what you're saying here because it goes totally against the traditional style of gaming we are all used to. In that style there's a very specific goal with a very specific way to get there, it's just up to the player's skill (be it shooting/fast reaction times, strategic planning, resource management, etc). In ME2, even though the underpinnings are logical constructions, they're never revealed to the player, so in effect, each player's result is basically a one-to-one conclusion - you try to prepare as best you can, then you make descisions based on what you know (or think you know). The thing that's great about ME2 (IMO) is that your Shepard's story doesn't HAVE to be the perfect, hero-saves-everyone story. Your decisions are basically an analogy for Shepard's decisions, which as I said earlier, is extremely rare in a game and one reason why ME is one of the best, if not the best, game series ever (all in my humble opinion).

Take my very first play through of ME 1, for example. I liked Ashley so on Virmire I brought her with me and let Kaidan go with Captain Kirrahe. When I had to choose who to save of course I saved Ashley because I liked her, but the way it played out, Captain Kirrahe died too. You can look at it on one hand like, WTF, Kirrahe died because the game did not tell me before hand if I did not do X then he would die - but on the other hand, I made the decisions based on the same "data" that Shepard would had which is exactly what makes those moments in the game feel so personal.

My first ME 2 is also an example (which I already mentioned in an earlier post). I thought through most of my choices logically but I made a mistake in not thinking about the "grit" of the people I left behind to hold the line. Again, it could be seen as a fault of the game because I didn't have access to the statistical numbers to make a choice, but I see it as strength because my Shepard's story evolved directly because of my decision making.
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One thing I liked about ME2, is that gear didn't make all the difference. Money didn't matter like it did in the first game. Being basically a shooter, ME2 did come down more to my skill and strategy than some piece of gear I may or may not have found or purchased. Though upgrades made things easier, you don't need them all that much for the most part. But that matters little in the Suicide mission. It comes down to knowing the people, their stories, and deciding who you really want doing each task. I for one am glad the game doesn't provide precise statistics which to base your decisions on because life doesn't do that either.

Another interesting topic, is that the game DOES provide clues as to what your strategy must be to keep everyone alive. Many clues are in the dossiers for each person prior to their recruitment. More detailed information can be found on the Shadow Broker's ship in the dossiers there. Those are far more detailed. It tells you who is a leader, who isn't, etc. Personality profiles and other information can be considered when you make your choices. This allowed me to save almost everyone in my first playthrough. I only didn't save Miranda due to a mistake on my part. Not bad really given how complicated the game mechanics for the suicide mission can be.

Examples:
  • Miranda tells you that her biotics are advanced for a human. Samara is an Asari and as a Matriarch, her skills are some of the most formiddible out there. Other Asari regard her as being highly advanced in this area, and are often frightend of her. Asari in the ME universe set the standard for Biotics because everyone in their race is capable. Jack is the best human Biotic known to exist. This told me that when it came time to choose one, that these three are the most likely choices. I actually feel like Jack or Samara are best for this role. Miranda can do it as well, but I felt Jack and Samara were the most qualified.
  • When it came time to pick someone to send back to the ship with the Normandy Crew, I sent Jacob because he's documented as a leader in his dossier and if you get to know him in the game, he's more compassionate than most of your crew. So I figured he was a good choice for the mission. So I sent him.
  • You know in the mission briefing that the ventilation system on the Collector Base will require someone with hacking skills and given the extreme heat, someone in a sealed environment suit or a machine would be the best choices. So Legion or Tali are the only choices that make sense.
  • When you choose your fireteam leader, Jack and Garrus object to Miranda leading the team. Miranda states that you need someone "who can command respect through experience" or something to that effect. As a result, I could pick no one finer than Garrus. He lead his own vigilante group, worked at C-Sec, and the team often spoke of him with respect. Garrus seemed like the natural choice.
So the game does actually give you the information you need to make the right choices. But they have to be thought out and your choices need to delve into what the story / characters are getting at, what they are good at, beyond simple statistics. Which the game gives you little of.

Now part of my own personality served me well for both ME1 and ME2. I'm a completionist with games. As a result I did all the Virmire objectives which is how you save Kirrahe's life on Virmire. It also led me to complete everyone's loyalty missions and to get almost everything done so that when I did the Reaper IFF mission, I had little to do. So being on the clock wasn't something I was truly aware of, but it worked out anyway.

shantd said:
Yeah, this is the sticky point for me. In real life we're never going to have all the variables. We just do what we think is best (usually) and trust that things will likely work out. Every now and then though, you can make bad decisions that work out well and good decisions that result badly.




Yeah, this goes to the same point above. For me, I left Mordin behind because he's a problem solver. The game had gotten us used to his ability to solve any frikin problem single handedly. So I figured if the fate of the galaxy hinges on that door, I think I'd like Mordin to be there. Brawn beat out brains in the end. Still, I have to say, if that whole situation hinges on defensive stats, I'd think they should at least throw us a clue. Even if it's a very subtle clue that you have to be very perceptive with your conversing to pick up on. I'd like to see more rewards for clever conversation in general.
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Mordin is many things, but he's not a leader. Thane is a badass assassin, but he's not a leader. Grunt is a fighter, but he's got shit for brains. He's brilliant by Krogan standards, but well you get the point. When it came to that part, I knew the best soldiers needed to be there more than anything. But ultimately I sent Jacob away with the rest of the Normandy crew and who I chose to go with Shepard on the final battle would make the difference with regard to who stayed at the door. I took Garrus because he's a damned good soldier and he's probably Shep's most trusted ally. I figured he deserved to be there. I took Miranda with me, because I wanted her slam ability and biotics with me. I used the soldier class so I could have more weapons, so I always have at least one biotic in the party. So this left everyone else at the door. With all the loyalty missions done and Zaeed bringing up the totals, it makes up for the loss of Jacob, Garrus and Miranda holding the doors. I didn't find out how the game made it's choices until later, but that's basically how I did it and made my decisions.
 
I sure wish I'd gone through and done a 2nd playthrough a couple weeks ago in anticipation of ME3, but it's too late for that now. I virtually never play a game twice. In over 20 years of gaming, I can probably count the number of times I've done that on one hand. ME1 was one of them in fact. What better motivator to replay than the ability to decide who lives and dies for the sequel? It's how games ought to be done.
 
Yea, I was going to go through on insane and do a "perfect" playthrough as opposed to my non perfect one, but then I thought, that's not the way the game was intended to be played in my eyes. What's the fun of playing a game based on decisions and character development for future games if you make the right decision each time? My playthrought went like this :

Deceased : Normandy crew, Thane and Jack
Reason : After the Normandy was captured, I went ahead and did the Legion loyalty quest, which was the last one I didn't do. Come to find out, I took too long and my crew was already mush when I got onboard the collector ship.
I had no clue that the ship upgrades played a part in the who survives or not. I didn't upgrade anything I don't think, and actually, when Thane got smashed and Jack had the explosion in her face, I thought it was part of the game and that they were supposed to die lol. When I found out that it was my fault they died, I was like " Damn, that's cool... it sucks, but they game made me pay for not upgrading my ship"

Survivors : Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, Grunt, Legion, Mordin
Reason : I can't remember exactly who went where as I don't repeat games myself, so the last time I played it was about 2 years ago, but I do remember having no one die due to my decisions on what they did.


And in ME1, I killed the rachni queen because I didnt want them coming back and doing the rachni wars again. I saved ashley in ME1 because she was a chick and kaiden was a guy ( i wanted to hit that, Ashley that is) and I let the council die because well, they didnt like humans to much. Also, I cheated with Miranda, because I mean, what young guy wouldnt? But regardless of all that, I realized that I made all these decisions based on my gut feeling and the information I had. I created the current story that exists in my playthrough in the ME series. No other game I can think of lets you do that over a 3 game lifespan. The only "true and pure" playthrough in my eyes, is your first playthrough and the only one I think I can appreciate. So I won't be playing through ME2 again to get my "perfect "playthrough. :p
 
Playing Paragon must be impossible in ME2. Played three times and all 3 are Renegade. I don't know, it's just too hard to make Shepard not hit people.
 
I love my original Playthrough of ME...

Saved Ashely, hit that.
Let the Rachni Queen live
Saved the council, cause they were needed in my mind
Placed Anderson on the council

Was re-instated as a Spectre
Saved my whole crew and all my buddies lived
Blew up the collector base and told TIM to shove it

It's all good in my hood.
 
J W said:
Playing Paragon must be impossible in ME2. Played three times and all 3 are Renegade. I don't know, it's just too hard to make Shepard not hit people.
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It is technically impossible to get 0 renegade points or alternatively 0 paragon points in the game. Some missions, and main ones at that actually grant both renegade and paragon points upon completion despite not choosing any obvious renegade or explicit paragon options. As for the rest, I've actually done a renegade and paragon playthrough of the game. I found the paragon route more enjoyable. That being said, I did take a few renegade actions here and there. I actually found a few of the renegade choices distasteful, but some are just too good NOT to pick. Some renegade choices benifit you greatly. Taking out the guy repairing the gunship on Archangel's recruitment mission is one such action. If you don't take him out the gunship gets fully repaired and has 100% armor and shields. If you do kill the guy then it's only got 50% armor/shields. On the harder difficulty settings this makes the encounter much easier.

And the game doesn't really penalize you too much either way with regard to your alignment. Though it can make keeping the loyalty of Miranda/Jack and Legion/Tali very difficult as I found out in my first run through of the game. That's really the only time it absolutely pays off to be one way or the other. Aside from that, it doesn't really make any difference whether you want to be a complete asshole or a nice guy all the time. And even with renegade actions, Shepard is still basically doing everything for the right reasons, but his methods change drastically in some cases. Though there are certain parts which he displays sociopathic / homicidal behavior. Jack's loyalty mission comes to mind as one example in which Shep seems off his / her nut when he or she convinces Jack to shoot Aresh in the head.
 
Except I kind of wanted Morinth but apparently didn't quite have the renegade points to get her. I had the meter close to maxed out in the red, yet I still couldn't withstand her little "look into my eyes" bit.
 
I played as an Adept all the way through and plan on importing my character once again...I'm happy with most of my decisions throughout the first 2 games- I saved the Council, appointed Anderson to the Council, saved Wrex, sacrificed Kaiden, freed the Rachni Queen, saved Maelon's research cure for the genophage, let Kasumi keep the greybox, agreed with Legion and rewrote the geth program instead of destroying the Station, blew up the Collector base etc

only 2 decisions I'm conflicted about is destroying the Collector base instead of saving it to study the technology and I also regret saving Samara and killing Morinth...I should have saved Morinth because she seemed like the more interesting character...I based most of my decisions on what would expand the story best versus strictly sticking to Paragon/Renegade...I ended up mostly Paragon though...I have a feeling blowing up the Collector base is going to come back to haunt me

I'm especially interested in seeing what happens with the Rachni and what happens with the Krogan genophage now that I have the cure...I'm also interested in Kasumi's Greybox and the evidence it contains implicating the Alliance
 
Man, you guys have great memories of your decisions you made in ME2. I played through it once, loved it, but since then I can't recall what the hell I did and now I feel like my saved game will be useless to transfer. :p
 
Stiffy said:
Man, you guys have great memories of your decisions you made in ME2. I played through it once, loved it, but since then I can't recall what the hell I did and now I feel like my saved game will be useless to transfer. :p
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Save Game Reader to the rescue! :cool:

Can't remember what you did in ME2 PC? This utility will surface the decisions from multiple ME2 characters, in preparation for import into ME3 PC.

http://social.bioware.com/project/8005/
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Didn't like your choices?
http://social.bioware.com/project/4373/
 
Is the game supposed to activate 12 am EST or PST tonight?

I'll be a very sad panda if its 12 am PST (I'm in EST).
 
polonyc2 said:
I played as an Adept all the way through and plan on importing my character once again...I'm happy with most of my decisions throughout the first 2 games- I saved the Council, appointed Anderson to the Council, saved Wrex, sacrificed Kaiden, freed the Rachni Queen, saved Maelon's research cure for the genophage, let Kasumi keep the greybox, agreed with Legion and rewrote the geth program instead of destroying the Station, blew up the Collector base etc
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Amazing, I believe I made all the same calls. Mostly paragon choices...so then again, maybe we're just a couple of softies.

I'm especially interested in seeing what happens with the Rachni and what happens with the Krogan genophage now that I have the cure...I'm also interested in Kasumi's Greybox and the evidence it contains implicating the Alliance
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Do we have any reason to think the Rachni will be back? On the greybox, I can't remember anything about it. Was it on Arrival? That's the only dlc I didn't play...
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
You hit the jumpgate a little too late :p
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Derp... helps to refresh this thread if I'm going to leave it open :D

I wonder though, this means it unlocks in Russia at 4PM EST today. A lot of people were able to unlock BF3 a day early by running through a proxy. I wonder if they fixed that...
 
shantd said:
Amazing, I believe I made all the same calls. Mostly paragon choices...so then again, maybe we're just a couple of softies.



Do we have any reason to think the Rachni will be back? On the greybox, I can't remember anything about it. Was it on Arrival? That's the only dlc I didn't play...
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Yes we do. If you freed the Rachni queen she has a message for you in ME2. An Asari relays the message via some telepathic link or imprint. The message heavily implies something about a coming war and the Rachni joining with Shepard when the time comes. At least this is the gist of the message.
 
shantd said:
Amazing, I believe I made all the same calls. Mostly paragon choices...so then again, maybe we're just a couple of softies.

Do we have any reason to think the Rachni will be back? On the greybox, I can't remember anything about it. Was it on Arrival? That's the only dlc I didn't play...
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:D ...I actually based my decisions not on Paragon vs Renegade but mostly on how it would expand the story best...by killing the Rachni Queen etc I felt would limit me in terms of story...I want the story to expand even further versus shrinking it or eliminating characters...Kaiden was a bore so it was easy to sacrifice him though...the Greybox was from the Kasumi- Stolen Memory DLC and was said to contain evidence implicating the Alliance in shady dealings

I think BioWare has stated that the Rachni will come back into the story in a big way in ME3...that's the only thing that disappointed me about ME2 is that there wasn't a lot of major repercussions from my choices in ME1...it mostly was getting an e-mail from some character from the first game thanking me for helping/saving them...BioWare claims that the story in Mass Effect 3 will be shaped by over 1000 variables from players' playthroughs of the previous Mass Effect games which will create a unique experience based on each gamer's decisions from the previous 2 games...we'll find out in 1 day if this is true
 
polonyc2 said:
:D ...I actually based my decisions not on Paragon vs Renegade but mostly on how it would expand the story best...by killing the Rachni Queen etc I felt would limit me in terms of story...I want the story to expand even further versus shrinking it or eliminating characters...Kaiden was a bore so it was easy to sacrifice him though

I think BioWare has stated that the Rachni will come back into the story in a big way in ME3...that's the only thing that disappointed me about ME2 is that there wasn't a lot of major repercussions from my choices in ME1...it mostly was getting an e-mail from some character from the first game thanking me for helping/saving them...BioWare claims that the story in Mass Effect 3 will be shaped by over 1000 variables from players' playthroughs of the previous Mass Effect games which will create a unique experience based on each gamer's decisions from the previous 2 games...we'll find out in 1 day if this is true
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Really there are only 5 or 6 decisions that impact the story in any meaningful and large way. The others all revolve around seeing characters reappear from the first game, and some extra dialog. Some of which does expand the story slightly. If you saved the colony on Noveria for example, you'll hear news reports about the colony and how it's doing, and if you saved Shiala then you will encounter her on Ilium. Your stalker Conrad Verner reappears, etc. So yeah, there are some things that were nice to see and you get some extra side quests which amount to more credits, but otherwise these aren't a huge deal.

But stuff like that happens a lot. So there are a ton of extra side quests as a result. So you get a little more game play for the effort of going through ME1. Also an ME1 save gives you more credits starting out and bonuses to your Paragon/Renegade score. Honestly I think the game is very different in sections if you don't play with an ME1 save vs. playing with one. That being said the Genesis DLC actually gave you the bulk of what you needed to experience ME2 as if it had an ME1 save. You just don't get the small side quests from using that.

I'd wager that Mass Effect 3 will be somewhat similar in that the decisions from the first two games will often appear as subtle changes. Like ME2, you may not necessarily notice them unless you play the game without importing anything or unless you recognize characters and talk about events from earlier installments. There are of course the big choices, and we now know what they are based on data pulled from BioWare's ME2 save game reader. Those decisions should impact the game considerably as most did in ME1 > ME2. Some of the larger decisions like saving the Rachni queen weren't really a big deal in ME2. Though you heard news casts about Rachni ships being spotted as well as having the encounter with the queen's messenger. And while that seemingly major decision didnt' really change anything in ME2, I have a feeling that choice will be huge in ME3.
 
Dan_D said:
Really there are only 5 or 6 decisions that impact the story in any meaningful and large way. The others all revolve around seeing characters reappear from the first game, and some extra dialog. Some of which does expand the story slightly. If you saved the colony on Noveria for example, you'll hear news reports about the colony and how it's doing, and if you saved Shiala then you will encounter her on Ilium. Your stalker Conrad Verner reappears, etc. So yeah, there are some things that were nice to see and you get some extra side quests which amount to more credits, but otherwise these aren't a huge deal
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yes I noticed all those little things but they didn't really impact the overall story in any meaningful way...they were just nods to the first game...I ran into a few of the gangsters from ME1 side quests (Helena Blake, Fist etc) but all they did was engage you in a short conversation at most...newscasts, e-mails etc are decent but I wanted to see bigger repercussions...would have been nice to get some exclusive side missions based on ME1 choices but I can understand the difficulty in programming this into the game as it could lead to dozens of branching stories and they really need to create a core game for everyone regardless of your decisions

even after romancing Liara in ME1 I was still able to romance Miranda in ME2 and then after the Shadow Broker DLC go back and hook up with Liara again...I have a feeling ME3 will end up being a better showcase for choice/consequence
 
I've decided to go on a Mass Effect binge these next several days. When I reinstalled my OS after upgrading my mobo and remembered to backup everything except my save games on the C drive. Oops. I want to start ME3 with my character intact so I'm gonna do a marathon run thru 1 and 2. Actually rather enjoying it cause I haven't played in a while being busy with Batman AC and almost forgot how simply superb this game is.
 
If I don't import my save from ME2, does anyone know whether that will impact whether we encounter the Rachni or not?
 
shantd said:
If I don't import my save from ME2, does anyone know whether that will impact whether we encounter the Rachni or not?
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'Mass Effect 3': Lead writer Mac Walters talks about ending the galactic videogame saga:

Question: I saved the Rachni in the first game, and there was a little tease about them in Mass Effect 2. How big of a repercussion do choices like that have in this game? Will get to play a mission that someone who killed the Rachni wouldn’t get?

Mac Walters: The thing I will say about Mass Effect 3 is that the choices you’ve made previously, and the differences that those choices represent, are much bigger than they’ve been in the past. There are certain missions that are simply not available at all because of something you’ve done in the past. Those are usually on a smaller scale. Is Conrad Verner alive or dead? [The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers
 
MacLeod said:
I've decided to go on a Mass Effect binge these next several days. When I reinstalled my OS after upgrading my mobo and remembered to backup everything except my save games on the C drive. Oops. I want to start ME3 with my character intact so I'm gonna do a marathon run thru 1 and 2. Actually rather enjoying it cause I haven't played in a while being busy with Batman AC and almost forgot how simply superb this game is.
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I would do the same but I wouldn't get done in time, and I want to be playing ME3 asap.

Side note, I just finished Arkham City myself btw...that was simply awesome. I actually didn't like Arkhum Asylum at all, it bored the hell out of me. Arkham City improved on AA in virtually every conceivable way. The sheer act of traversing the city was more fun than the highlight moments of most games.
 
polonyc2 said:
'Mass Effect 3': Lead writer Mac Walters talks about ending the galactic videogame saga:

Question: I saved the Rachni in the first game, and there was a little tease about them in Mass Effect 2. How big of a repercussion do choices like that have in this game? Will get to play a mission that someone who killed the Rachni wouldn’t get?

Mac Walters: The thing I will say about Mass Effect 3 is that the choices you’ve made previously, and the differences that those choices represent, are much bigger than they’ve been in the past. There are certain missions that are simply not available at all because of something you’ve done in the past. Those are usually on a smaller scale. Is Conrad Verner alive or dead? [The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers
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Thanks. Hmmm...still doesn't answer the question though. Can I use the save-game editor for this? I did save the Rachni in ME1 and I definitely want to encounter them in ME3.
 
Anybody know how to buy origin points? The DLC looks interesting.
edit - Found it, I just didnt look hard enough.
 
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polonyc2 said:
yes I noticed all those little things but they didn't really impact the overall story in any meaningful way...they were just nods to the first game...I ran into a few of the gangsters from ME1 side quests (Helena Blake, Fist etc) but all they did was engage you in a short conversation at most...newscasts, e-mails etc are decent but I wanted to see bigger repercussions...would have been nice to get some exclusive side missions based on ME1 choices but I can understand the difficulty in programming this into the game as it could lead to dozens of branching stories and they really need to create a core game for everyone regardless of your decisions

even after romancing Liara in ME1 I was still able to romance Miranda in ME2 and then after the Shadow Broker DLC go back and hook up with Liara again...I have a feeling ME3 will end up being a better showcase for choice/consequence
Click to expand...

Well they had to lead into ME3 a certain way. BioWare stated there was some additional confinement to the story because of that. ME3 however, being the last in Shepard's story, could diverge a lot more. As for romances, supposedly, getting with someone else and then going back to Liara, or Ashley / Kaiden may have consequences and that there would be something special for those who stayed faithful to their chosen girlfrend/boyfriend in the third game. Also they said something about cheating on a lover from ME1 would have additional consequences. I'm not sure what that means yet, but we'll soon find out.
 
shantd said:
Thanks. Hmmm...still doesn't answer the question though. Can I use the save-game editor for this? I did save the Rachni in ME1 and I definitely want to encounter them in ME3.
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Yes you can. You probably have to be careful though. You can edit ME2 saves and include ME1 data, but not every quest should be tagged as done because some are class / background specific. Additionally incompatible results may cause issues with the import. So I'd get the ME2 save editor, and add the ME1 data. Then import that into ME3. I've not done this for my own save, beyond looking at the data in it before BioWare released their save reader, but I made saves for my friends who wanted to play ME3 on PC but played the first two games on console, or people who played ME2 and didn't want to play ME1. Theoretically if they import into ME2 and work properly, you should be able to import them into ME3 without issue.
 
So I paid amazon for release day delivery and it says my copy is shipping the day AFTER release :rolleyes:

Hopefully the website is wrong and it is on it's way already :/
 
Ryom said:
So I paid amazon for release day delivery and it says my copy is shipping the day AFTER release :rolleyes:

Hopefully the website is wrong and it is on it's way already :/
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I did the same thing. If this is what happens to me, I will NEVER buy another preorder from Amazon. Over the last couple years I've done all my preorders from Amazon and opted for release date delivery. If always received my order on release day.
 
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