Mass Effect 3 (SPOILERS!)

[Felon]

Yep. The Reapers managed to replicate her from tissue samples or some such. I don't remember exactly, but it amounted to cloning with Reaper tech.



Between ME2 and ME3, Anderson resigns from his Council position. It was in the Codex, as I recall. Basically, he got sick of the political BS and nobody listening to the warnings about the Reapers, so he went back into the military to do what he could to prepare Earth. Udina filled his spot on the Council.

So, we can chalk those down to moot decisions?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So, we can chalk those down to moot decisions?

Yes, kinda. Though the Rachni ending at least leaves a difference - if she's cloned, she will turn against you later, if not, she stays loyal. Could have had more of an effect, but at least there are different outcomes (A loyal Queen at least means she will stick around, I don't know what happens in the other case.)

But the Anderson thing becomes basically irrelevant.

I wonder if at some point they actually wanted to let us "keep" Anderson in Undina's role. For a while I thought "Whoa, who's this Undina guy, he's actually competent and helpful and all"...

 

[GSHamster]

1. Infiltrator
2. Garrus, then Ashley

Garrus, because Garrus is awesome and he's been with me since ME1. I like Ash. As well, I played a sniper, so I preferred two soldier types to hold the enemy down. The other companions just seemed too fragile (I don't really bother controlling them in combat) and I was all "who's this Vega chap?".

3. Liara, then EDI

They just seemed to die a lot with my playstyle.

4. I didn't really use any unlocked powers, just stuck with the Infiltrator basics.

Also, I thought the ME3 ending was terrible. If anyone cares, I wrote more about it on my blog:

Blessing of Kings: Mass Effect 3: Endings (Spoilers!)
Blessing of Kings: Mass Effect 3: My Ending

 

[Felon]

1. Infiltrator
2. Garrus, then Ashley

Garrus, because Garrus is awesome and he's been with me since ME1. I like Ash. As well, I played a sniper, so I preferred two soldier types to hold the enemy down. The other companions just seemed too fragile (I don't really bother controlling them in combat) and I was all "who's this Vega chap?".

3. Liara, then EDI

They just seemed to die a lot with my playstyle.

Interesting. Garrus is actually pretty fragile. Ashley is sort of medium toughness at best. But if you buy up their class power quickly, they have around +150% damage with rifles.

As an infiltrator, I'd say Garrus's Overload and Armor-Piercing ammo are super-cool assets. Definitely welcome. But I need a tank to hold aggro, and without Kaiden, that's either EDI or Vega.

Funny. I naturally assumed for a while that Kai Leng was actually Kaiden resurrected by the Illusive Man. Essentially, I figured whoever you left to die comes back as a villain, and then you get to talk them down using Paragon/Renegade choices. I guess that was either too obvious a twist, or they couldn't work in both a male and female version.

As an infiltrator, what was your loadout? I usually packed a Raptor and then a shotgun of some type. The SMG's got so light that it was almost pointless not to carry one, but I rarely ever used it.

 

[GSHamster]

Interesting. Garrus is actually pretty fragile. Ashley is sort of medium toughness at best. But if you buy up their class power quickly, they have around +150% damage with rifles.

As an infiltrator, what was your loadout? I usually packed a Raptor and then a shotgun of some type. The SMG's got so light that it was almost pointless not to carry one, but I rarely ever used it.

A Mantis, then switch to the Widow when I got it. And a low-weight pistol for backup. I was basically going for 1-shot kill headshots all the time, so I didn't really need a tank. I used the Incendiary power as a backup or when I wanted to save ammo.

I just found Garrus and Ashley were more likely to take care of themselves. I would be invisible and zoomed in Sniper mode waiting for a kill shot, so I couldn't micromanage them.

I did only play on Normal difficulty, so it might not be the best of techniques.

 

[John Crichton]

One thing about ME3 that was odd was the difficulty level compared to 1 & 2. I had to play on Hard to not blow through things with ease. Died PLENTY on hard!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I believe the BLASTO 6 movie excerpts taht you can follow on the Citadel weren't posted yet here:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXf7HC7iYEY]Mass Effect 3 - Blasto 6: Partners in Crime [Easter Egg] - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Felon]

One thing about ME3 that was odd was the difficulty level compared to 1 & 2. I had to play on Hard to not blow through things with ease. Died PLENTY on hard!

Definitely noticed this. Partially it's because 3 is much roomier. Long hallways allow you to pick enemies off before they can mount an offense. In 1 & 2, they were often zerging in right on top of you. Plus, there were more enemies like geth stalkers and Krogans that were extra-dangrous up close.

Also, the enemies finally can miss. Indeed, I actually sniped quite a few enemies who apparently were too far away to even spot me, much less shoot back.

Oh, and enemies actually seem to shoot at other members of your squad, instead of having a huge aggro bias towards Shepard.

Having said all that, shields still don't provide more than a few seconds of defense, at least for my infiltrator. Anything that can get around your cover is a real threat.

 

[Kzach]

OTOH, it doesn't make sense that Liara would be on the Normandy if she was on Earth. The reaper strike would have made retrieving any survivors unlikely, and more unlikely still is the Normandy leaving the battlefield to go pick her up. This is something they could easily have remedied by picking a random squadmate that was free.

The problem I have with people complaining about this is that there are SO many plausible scenarios in which this could easily be explained.

But fret not, it has been officially stated that these holes shall be filled and so nobody will have to use their imaginations to fill them:

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut | BioWare Blog

1) What was the actual effect of amassing war assets? Doesn't seem to have any impact on the ending, so does it make the running battle to the catalyst more or less of a slog? Like, you get fewer banshees if you have a higher rating?

Apparently the ending changes quite significantly but I've not experienced those endings and I've avoided the conversations about them. Your best bet to find out would be to go to the Bioware ME3 forums and ask there.

2) Do the various conversational options with The Illusive Man actually amount to anything? There were three or four, and I picked the paragon options until he finally commited suicide. Did you guys experience anything different?

I've heard vaguely that it does affect something about the ending, again, I don't know what though.

One thing about ME3 that was odd was the difficulty level compared to 1 & 2. I had to play on Hard to not blow through things with ease. Died PLENTY on hard!

Ironically the developers stated that they wanted to make "Normal" equal to the old versions of "Veteran" difficulty. Seems like the devs failed on delivering a lot of promises.

1) What class(es) did you play as?

ME1 I started as a soldier, primarily because I didn't know any better and I felt that it suited the character of "Shepard" the best. But due to falling in love with Liara, my Shepard developed biotic gifts with her training and... umm... their embracing of eternity together. Combined with the cybernetic implants and the change in his persona (he went 'dark' for a while), he became a Vanguard in ME2 (this was a decision made without the knowledge of the vanguard's uberness and popularity).

Since I enjoyed the vanguard so much and since I felt it had become an integral part of who the character was, ie. charge first, sort the bodies out later, I continued as one in ME3 and definitely wasn't disappointed.

2) Who was your most used squadmate?

EDI, by a long-shot. She's simply so useful. Between Incinerate and Overload, you essentially have the two most useful and powerful team-mate abilities in the game, all in one character. There were very few missions where I could justify taking anyone else in her place. Plus, I like her sense of humour.

3) Who was your least used squadmate?

Javik, again by a long-shot. He was useless and a whiny annoyance, always complaining about everything and telling me how good it used to be.

4) What was your favorite power that you unlocked from a squadate?

Energy Drain. It was the one weakness of the vanguard, ie. not having a shield drain.

 

[hopeless]

I believe the BLASTO 6 movie excerpts taht you can follow on the Citadel weren't posted yet here:

Mass Effect 3 - Blasto 6: Partners in Crime [Easter Egg] - YouTube

Thank you that was hilarious!