Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS THREAD

ME1 Ashley
AshTherum.png


ME2 Ashley
Ashley_horizon.png


ME3 Ashley
Ashley_ME3_Character_Shot.png


Looks basicaly the same to me. More hair shown in ME3 Ashley.
 
Dan_D said:
I looked for something specific that would indicate exactly where Shepard was in the rubble scene. It looks to me like Shepard is on Earth in rubble in London. There is some radio chatter you can't make out which sounds alot like the radio chatter heard before going into the beam. Still I suppose it is possible to be on the Citadel. While the Citadel itself isn't made of concrete, many of the structures on it could be. Only the Citadel's main structure is the durable super metal of unknown composition. The stuff built by it's occupants can be a variety of conventional materials.

I don't think cables mean jack squat. There is Reaper tech littering Earth. So that explains cables there. Reaper tech cables seem far less likely on the Citadel. As do concrete and rebar.

Ugh, the endings just don't make any damned sense.
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I assumed the rubble was the Citadel. These endings really need some clarity, they're way too vague about everything.
 
ME3 Ashley does look a little like a tranny.

ME1 Ashley looks like some kid about to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. That ME2 picture is probably the best of the three.
 
don't know it's just the outfit/hairstyle or overdone makeup or what, and I'm sure they chose a decent cap for the wiki, but first time I saw her in the opening scene walking with anderson made me do a double take. maybe I was just basing my memory off her brief appearance in me2, and I always let her die in me1, had to do a save edit just to play her in me3. what is going on with that outfit, some kind of gaudy stylish dress armor? would the artist responsible for this be comfortable with putting their name on it, based on her appearances in previous games? I sure would not.

I was really shocked and appauled. in me1 my thinking was, this woman got heart and she is nice, but just a lowly gunnery chief with no clear future. kaiden this talented man is going places, he should be kept alive for when I want to face the extinction of humanity. how does a scrappy, not so feminine but clearly a woman gunnery chief turn out like this, seriously man wtf. maybe they should have kept her girly but practical looking breast enhancing armor for this one as well.

direct shots from the game:





 
I saved Kaidan because I hated Ashely. Kaidan was boring, but ok in ME1.

To those of you hating Ashley in ME3, I'll warn you Kaidan isn't much better. He pulls a lot of the same "CAN I TRUST YOU?!" bullcrap she does. He gets better in the end, but he doesn't start out much better.

I also thought it was kind of lame that he ends up trying to be gay with you if you're nice to him. Not that I care at all about the inclusion of gay romances (I thought the Cortez one was pretty well done), but it seemed forced to me. He seemed pretty clearly not gay in the first game (I seem to recall chats about him and a lady friend) and then out of left field he's all "you wanna be gay with me bro?"
 
soulsavior said:
I saved Kaidan because I hated Ashely. Kaidan was boring, but ok in ME1.

To those of you hating Ashley in ME3, I'll warn you Kaidan isn't much better. He pulls a lot of the same "CAN I TRUST YOU?!" bullcrap she does. He gets better in the end, but he doesn't start out much better.

I also thought it was kind of lame that he ends up trying to be gay with you if you're nice to him. Not that I care at all about the inclusion of gay romances (I thought the Cortez one was pretty well done), but it seemed forced to me. He seemed pretty clearly not gay in the first game (I seem to recall chats about him and a lady friend) and then out of left field he's all "you wanna be gay with me bro?"
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In Kaidans defence he seems to be just insecure where Ashley is just bitching. I wasnt even nearly as annoyed by Kaidans trust issue than I was with Ashley.
 
mas said:
interesting since my experience has been the complete opposite, I always found kaiden and all techs/biotics way more useful than any weapon specialists (eg. ashley/garrus/james). I guess this would depend completely on play style, like run n gun vs tactical. I've tried playing through with both in my squad, and got him to mop enemies up far more quickly with combos than having ashley taking potshots with the occasional concussive. but I got to admit my approach to this game has always been absolute control over every squad member, I put no faith in the ai at all.

having overload + reave in this game is pretty huge in terms of potential dps and combos, since he is then capable of triggering both tech and biotic explosions in pretty limitless combinations. even on insanity you're instakilling all common mobs in single moves this way, where ashley is limited to cryo explosions only (cryo ammo/blast + concussive, ironically kaiden is the only one here who would make a good match if you don't have either skill). kaiden + tali is absolutely devestating on any geth missions, then switch to kaiden/tali + liara vs cerberus/reapers for the same effect.

also something that really, really bothered me here was ashley's model... am I the only one here who thinks it looks like complete ass? as if they gave the job to some intern and just said "here's her old model, photoshop it into something a bit different/older looking". totally wrecked imo, turned something likable and cute into this hideous looking transvestite monster (no offense). I seriously thought at first there was some in-joke to her past that I was totally missing here...
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In Mass Effect 1, I really just used Liara for everything biotic. In that game every single biotic ability had it's own cool down vs. a global. I managed her a lot and characters like Garrus or Ashley could be left alone to do whatever automatically.

Playing a soldier, I just find the best combination for me is always having one biotic and one DPS type squad mate. Really, I just tend to shoot everything in the face, I rarely need my squad mates for much on any difficulty setting. I find that biotics need more management in order to be effective. DPS characters like Garrus and Ashley usually only need minor cover management and weapons selection to be effective. I wouldn't say that I'm a run and gun player necessarily, but I don't find it necessary to operate with too much of a tactical mindset in any of the Mass Effect games. They just aren't that difficult. This is not to say that you never do or that the game doesn't have it's challenging spots. There are certain missions or certain situations in which the game is most difficult and requires a lot of tactical thinking and usage of squad mates, etc. But those situations make up the minority of the game play.

soulsavior said:
I saved Kaidan because I hated Ashely. Kaidan was boring, but ok in ME1.

To those of you hating Ashley in ME3, I'll warn you Kaidan isn't much better. He pulls a lot of the same "CAN I TRUST YOU?!" bullcrap she does. He gets better in the end, but he doesn't start out much better.

I also thought it was kind of lame that he ends up trying to be gay with you if you're nice to him. Not that I care at all about the inclusion of gay romances (I thought the Cortez one was pretty well done), but it seemed forced to me. He seemed pretty clearly not gay in the first game (I seem to recall chats about him and a lady friend) and then out of left field he's all "you wanna be gay with me bro?"
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There was nothing forced about the Cortez deal. If you had a drink with him at the bar, it was easy to make a subtle enough statement that let him know you weren't interested and he didn't make it weird. The options which could have led to a romance were obvious. From what I've heard Kaiden's hitting on Shepard is far more awkward and thrown in your face. I don't know, he's never been alive in that game for me.

As for differences between he and Ashley, I think line delivery and slight dialog differences in the parts that are common to both of them make all the difference. Ashley just seems far more hostile even though the dialog isn't much different. At least that's my impression based on the youtube videos I've seen where Kaiden wasn't dead.
 
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bmg said:
Gabby and Ken bug: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/344/index/10136642

Gabby and Ken "romance" scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgr5...DvjVQa1PpcFOZs0i87aVS3jEcDYpU8fbq5uTVTXqs4-0=

"To my great sadness and embarrassment, it looks like there is a bug here that got introduced just before ship. It looks like the test for "is it time for ambient dialog in engineering" accidentally got switched to "are you good friends with Ashley". How did this bug happen? I have no idea, and need to do some detective work. This doesn't just block Ken and Gabby banter, but I think this blocks some Tali and Garrus banter in engineering too. As it stands now to see that banter, I believe you'll need to get Ashley in your party and take her on missions and/or give Ashley lots of attention by speaking to her and giving her the gift in the hospital. If you have Kaidan in your game, obviously this can't be done, and that sucks.

Though the fix is easy, the difficult part is getting the fix into a patch of some sort. Getting content fixes into patches is much harder than you'd think. It's a giant process. I'll try to get that fix through, but sadly, the odds of getting this type of fix into a patch is very low. It just kills me that so many of the people who care about Ken and Gabby (those of you reading this forum) didn't get to see that content. I tested the heck out of it too for weeks before ship. You just don't now how sorry I am. "
- Dusty Everman http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/325/index/10147092/2
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OK, so that was another bug that I never noticed because I didn't know it could go that way. I have heard Garrus and Tali banter in engineering, but I don't know if I've heard it all. This current playthrough is the first one in which I ever gave Ashley the gift and wasn't somewhat hostile toward her hostility.

The only bug I've caught is the Lair of the Shadow Broker Romance import issue in which Liara touring the Normandy in ME2 isn't mentioned in dialog so Liara says its been "years since you were together" even though it hasn't been. This one is an easy fix though. Just get the GibbedME3save editor and check off the box in your save before you get to the Normandy and talk to her and your good to go.
 
Yeah, the Liara romance seemed a bit messed up. Sometimes she and Shep were just friends and sometimes they were a couple. Weird. I figured this was just because I romanced Liara in ME1, Miranda in ME2, Liara in LotSB, and Liara in ME3.

I've been tempted to fire up a second playthrough. I need a Sci-fi fix -- not sure that I can wait till summer. There is a huge deficiency in proper Sci-fi video games out there. Gah, BioWare, why did you have to make such a weird ending?
 
J W said:
Yeah, the Liara romance seemed a bit messed up. Sometimes she and Shep were just friends and sometimes they were a couple. Weird. I figured this was just because I romanced Liara in ME1, Miranda in ME2, Liara in LotSB, and Liara in ME3.

I've been tempted to fire up a second playthrough. I need a Sci-fi fix -- not sure that I can wait till summer. There is a huge deficiency in proper Sci-fi video games out there. Gah, BioWare, why did you have to make such a weird ending?
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It seems to me that Liara just tries to put aside her feelings for the good of the mission. She tried that in ME1 and ME2, with varying degrees of success. Part of it comes from being a game and some of the conversations needing a certain amount of interchangeability. But overall romancing her in all three games I never once felt it was messed up. Though things are a bit different if you had an additional romance at any point.
 
Someone posted the tranny Ashely was modeled after on reddit a while back. Something to think about for those of you who romanced her. :eek:
 
prelag said:
Someone posted the tranny Ashely was modeled after on reddit a while back. Something to think about for those of you who romanced her. :eek:
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Its a trap! :eek: Something my "canon" char fell for in ME1. Switched to Tali the first change he got. :D
 
Dan_D said:
It seems to me that Liara just tries to put aside her feelings for the good of the mission. She tried that in ME1 and ME2, with varying degrees of success. Part of it comes from being a game and some of the conversations needing a certain amount of interchangeability. But overall romancing her in all three games I never once felt it was messed up. Though things are a bit different if you had an additional romance at any point.
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Hmm...I kept having to reassert that I wanted to have a romance with her. She made several comments about being friends and I'd have to push the option for "I want to be more than friends."

I need to try a playthrough where I stay faithful in ME2.
 
J W said:
Hmm...I kept having to reassert that I wanted to have a romance with her. She made several comments about being friends and I'd have to push the option for "I want to be more than friends."

I need to try a playthrough where I stay faithful in ME2.
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In ME3 if you tell her right away that you want to pick up where you left off, then she warms up to you instantly. Though her greeting of Shepard on Mars is pretty warm in general if you romanced her before, unless you broke up with her in LOTSB. She'll sit in your lap at some point and give Shepard a quick peck on the lips and there will be some semi-playful dialog. After that on the Citadel date, she'll basically talk about being friends and at that point Shepard can say; "Friends doesn't cut it for me anymore Liara." She'll respond; "Sounds serious." Then Shepard retorts: "I am serious." Then she'll replay back: "Well then you're lucky I feel the same way." At which point they'll share a kiss. I get the impression that she's trying to joke with you here. She's never really had a sense of humor and that's something that she has always struggled with. That's one thing that most of the other romances have she lacks. Also, it's the game giving you one last opportunity to avoid locking in a relationship with her and going with someone else. I'm not certain what rejecting her leads to dialog wise as I've never done that in ME3.

I don't have near the time with it I do ME2.
 
Archengeia has a 4th video up now about the EC DLC and his feelings on it.

http://youtu.be/FnMkTx3ATkQ

It's another long one but he makes some good point by the end I think.

In short for those who don't want to sit through it, he isn't happy at all about the EC or the tone EA/BW has shown the consumers through this whole thing.
 
Limahl said:
Archengeia has a 4th video up now about the EC DLC and his feelings on it.

http://youtu.be/FnMkTx3ATkQ

It's another long one but he makes some good point by the end I think.

In short for those who don't want to sit through it, he isn't happy at all about the EC or the tone EA/BW has shown the consumers through this whole thing.
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I've been hammering similar points on the BioWare forums lately. Essentially there is too much wrong with the game's final act and it doesn't look like the DLC will address any of the real problems that people have with it. BioWare is really become super arrogant and refuse to acknowledge any fault in this and give the customers what they want.
 
Dan_D said:
I've been hammering similar points on the BioWare forums lately. Essentially there is too much wrong with the game's final act and it doesn't look like the DLC will address any of the real problems that people have with it. BioWare is really become super arrogant and refuse to acknowledge any fault in this and give the customers what they want.
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BioWare has been awful with its attitude. I'm going to try to be optimistic that the EC is quality.

Reactions of the ending from editors at Gamespot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3GooIUKcrk&feature=player_embedded

The video isn't that great, but there's some bald dude in it that loves the ending. He makes up a bunch of random shit, though (10 minute mark). There's another guy in it -- Thomas McShea -- who basically saw the ending precisely as I did. He thinks IT means there would be free DLC, and of course the very last part is a message that says that free DLC has been announced.
 
Dan_D said:
There was nothing forced about the Cortez deal. If you had a drink with him at the bar, it was easy to make a subtle enough statement that let him know you weren't interested and he didn't make it weird. The options which could have led to a romance were obvious. From what I've heard Kaiden's hitting on Shepard is far more awkward and thrown in your face. I don't know, he's never been alive in that game for me.
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I might have worded that poorly. I was trying to say the Kaidan one was forced, not Cortez. The Cortez one was handled well. The Kaidan one was just awkward and weird.
 
I thought both of them presented an off-the-wall experience with awkward chatter. It seemed like the scripted them to recognize Shepard as straight, if that was what you chose, & see if you were going to switch teams in a heartbeat. That's how I perceived it at least. I was happy when I could tell Cortez that we're friends.
 
J W said:
He died in my game. My Shep acted depressed about it. Liara even asked me how I was taking it.

LOL now that's worded poorly. Shep would surely be a pitcher.
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He lived in mine.
 
I was a complete ass to him. I never had a drink with him or anything. I'm guessing that's what did it.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Same, so I'm not sure what triggers his death.
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If you don't console him through several stages over the death of his former lover, he dies in the crash in London.

If you help him cope with it (doesn't need to be a romance), then he lives through the crash.

Talk to him after every mission, help him place a memorial at the spot on the Citadel, etc etc.
 
The Kishock harpoon gun sucks. Anyone had success with that? I hate guns you have to charge to get full power.
 
Finally sat through the Indoctrination Theory video in its entirety...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

And the biggest thing that stood out to me - over everything else - are the trees/bushes from his dreams when Shep is walking towards the beam. They weren't there before he got knocked out. It's just too fine of a detail, too exact, too intentional to be anything else. The other things - oily shadows mentioned by the Rachnii Queen. The obviously renegade final option between shown as a paragon option. Anderson beating Shep to the console even though they both had to have been on the same path - in fact, judging by the radio conversation, when Anderson sees the door, I was in a spot *TO SEE* where Anderson would have first seen the door from. But he wasn't there.

When I first played through it, I just thought... WOW, there are SO MANY DAMN HOLES IN THIS. I was annoyed throughout the whole ending - because I noticed these problems, and since Shep didn't see these blatant problems, I assumed they were plot holes. Any person thinking even somewhat rationally would notice them. But not somebody who's indoctrinated - like Shep. I really wonder if Bioware isn't just trolling us now.

And maybe the reason they're not denying it (until the extended DLC comes out) is because they want everybody to finish it first. They want as many people to have been indoctrinated as possible. This is a hell of a way to make a buzz - TONS of negative attention, followed by a 'HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME' ending.
 
I thought for a long time that something was going on at the ending that isn't necessarily obvious. BioWare made me doubt this. I tried to hold out hope, yet BioWare kept making statements that made me doubt.

I'm starting to get back to the point where I think something else is going on. I really hope it's the indoctrination theory. We are getting free DLC after all.
 
Dan_D said:
(snipped...)

Now again this is my interpretation of what I've come to learn about the original story line. I'm not sure how accurate it is. But that's the basic gist of it. Why they went with this Catalyst starchild bullshit is beyond me. About the only way I can make sense of that is by hoping the indoctrination theory turns out to be true and BioWare is going to go back on their promise of it being Shepard's last game and stretch things into a fourth game. I'd honestly be fine with that. Virtually anything would be better than what we got in the end. Still I think the original idea would have been brilliant if handled right. And everything about the first two games and 95% of the third game tells me they could have. I'm not really sure why they decided to go with this psuedo intellectual and philosophical nonsense about synthetics vs. organics when the third game's own plot points prove this notion to be complete bullshit.
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God, I wish Karpyshyn had stayed on as a writer. This ending would have been epic. Not a "happily ever after", but a "and once the conflict ended, the real work began". Instead, we got some space magic BS. Oh, what could have been :(.
 
KatalDT said:
Finally sat through the Indoctrination Theory video in its entirety...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

And the biggest thing that stood out to me - over everything else - are the trees/bushes from his dreams when Shep is walking towards the beam. They weren't there before he got knocked out. It's just too fine of a detail, too exact, too intentional to be anything else.
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The trees are there before though, while running to the beam.
 
Ya know, few more deep analysis of even tiniest details of any cutscene, and we will all behave as Harold Camping. No wonder he can't predict end of the world, if we all can't decipher the proper ending of ME3 :)
 
I hate to ask this but which direction do you go in to destroy the reapers? I finished the game but picked the wrong direction I wanted to destroy the reapers. I went to the middle. Do you take the right or left to destroy the reapers?:confused:
 
DeanEH said:
I hate to ask this but which direction do you go in to destroy the reapers? I finished the game but picked the wrong direction I wanted to destroy the reapers. I went to the middle. Do you take the right or left to destroy the reapers?:confused:
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Bet on red.
 
DeanEH said:
I hate to ask this but which direction do you go in to destroy the reapers? I finished the game but picked the wrong direction I wanted to destroy the reapers. I went to the middle. Do you take the right or left to destroy the reapers?:confused:
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You go right. I had no idea at first, either. I wanted destroy and felt lucky that I picked right.
 
So I was thinking about ways the game could have ended that would have been awesome. I'm conflicted on whether or not a sad "Shepard saves the day but dies at the end" would work. Obviously, he'd have to die in a way that doesn't involve space magic beams. Shepard himself isn't really a tragic figure though, so I'm not sure it'd be setup to work or not. While thinking about that though, I stumbled upon a picture (not sure what fan made it, I'd love to give credit where due though) in one of their forum threads. It isn't perfect, there's some oddities in it, but it's well done.

liarafaneditsmall.jpg




My "canon" LI was Liara, so that probably added to it, but this picture floored me. I stared at it for a couple minutes. This fan made picture, with no explanation, no back story, no nothing...made me feel more emotion than the entire actual ending.

There's just so many ways the ending could have been better.
 
I would've been fine with the game ending at the moment where Anderson utters "I'm proud of you" with both of them looking out at Earth. Cue: Pixies - Where's My Mind. Maybe a FMV which captures the fate of all squad mates that plays after would've been nice, I don't care for that idealistic lovey dovey stuff.
 
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