Mass Effect 3 Discussion

My understanding is that you do need to start from the permanent save, not the autosave. You've got a few hours of gameplay to invest if you want to see the new stuff.

How do I know which save to start from? I may have manually saved after that one.

Oh balls to them :P

So far as I can tell, the first changes happen literally just before the mission restart save.

uhhhhhhh...



via RPS

If it's written by Henry Gilroy, I am not going to count it out until I see it. Probably a pre-order for me now, actually.

Okay, that was pretty terrible. After the first couple of lines I was waiting for the joke, but no, it was dead serious.

Oh dear.

Pretty much.

Still unsure why they're doing an animation about Vega of all people.

I'm just going to pretend I didn't see that.

I believe the DLC "Leviathan" is due out tomorrow (Monday) isn't it? Typically I'm going to be away this week.

It's out now. Anyone have any impressions yet?

As luck would have it, I recently started replaying ME2 + 3. I'm currently at Priority: Rannoch, so assuming Leviathan is a new side mission that you can play anytime during the game, I'll likely complete it after Rannoch before moving on to Thessia.

For people who have played Leviathan, is there anything in the plot that makes choosing a particular companion more interesting (e.g. Javik with Priority: Thessia)?

I intend to buy this but I am not sure that I will be able to play this evening. I'll post impressions when I do though, if anyone is on the fence.

So this came to my attention today. It's Canadian, so it must be a conspiracy.

The funniest thing is that all the links forward to the Leviathan website, but they didn't bother to actually register the urls listed on the conspiracy blog, so you get funny stuff like this.

I just finished the Leviathan content. It should settle quite a few questions about the reapers. Including why they look like lobstershrimp.

they are created by a bunch of ancient evil gods from the stars who are fascinated by calamari??

Yeah, feel free to spoil away.

I'm going to start it tonight. Based on what you know now after playing it, is there a reason to bring any particular squad members along on the missions for additional party-banter insight?

Twitter buzz says that there is a pretty full complement of party banter as well as shipboard dialogue for everybody after each mission. I'm hoping to get to this one myself tonight.

Sorry, I should have better clarified what I meant. I normally choose which party members I bring on missions based on who (if anyone) I think will have particularly interesting dialogue that will expand on the story. For example, bringing Javik to Priority: Thessia provides a much better experience than bringing another party member. I didn't know that would be the case before the reveal in the Asari temple, so I didn't choose Javik for that mission and later had to watch how it differs on YouTube. IIRC, bringing EDI to the Cerberus base was similar.

Do you know if there's anything in Leviathan that would make choosing one squad member more interesting than the others?

I take Javik as a rule. :)

How exactly does this mission fit into a previously finished game?

AFAIK, you have to load a save game from prior to the Cerberus base to access Leviathan.

Make sense, thanks.

That would be the Hanar.

Quick spoiler-free review of Leviathan:

Buy it if you're a Mass Effect superfan, watch the ending on YouTube (skip to 4:15 or so) if you're not. Leviathan reveals some new information about the origins of the Starchild and Reapers and describes the history of the first harvesting cycle. It's interesting background info but nothing earth-shattering that will change how you view the series. There's no surprise twist or anything. Completing Leviathan will also unlock a few new conversation options with the Starchild at the end of the game, but this does not significantly change how that scene plays out.

The DLC consists of three combat missions (an asteroid mining facility, an archaeological dig site, and the exterior of a crashed starship on an ocean world). Prior to each of the missions, Shepard and EDI have to investigate a research lab for clues that will lead them to their next objective. These sequences play more or less the same as the crime scene section in Liara's apartment in Lair of the Shadow Broker.

The combat missions are decent, but it's nothing that you haven't already seen elsewhere in ME3. All of them consist of fighting against the Reapers. Difficulty-wise, it's similar to the final battle on Earth -- maybe slightly easier. Expect to fight many of the tougher Reapers like Brutes, Banshees, and Harvesters along with the usual assortment of Husks, Marauders, Cannibals, and Ravagers. There are no new enemy types.

It took me about three hours to play it from start to finish, and that was being extremely thorough and taking my time to explore every corner and fully scan every new system on the galaxy map. If you rush through it, you could probably be done in 90-120 minutes. The DLC also opens access to a few new weapons and mods, like an armor-piercing barrel for SMGs that I found useful.

BUT WHERE'S MY REAPER CREWMEMBER

Should be the space hamster.

Well, space hamster was doing SOMETHING down there.

Oh good, if there is one thing I want, it is to be able to chat with that retarded little walking cliche even more.

I clicked the YouTube video and realized that I don't even care enough to watch it. I can't believe how far my interest in Mass Effect has fallen since the series wrapped up with a fart. While I thought the "clarity and closure" additions to the ending were well done and about the best that could be done without fundamentally changing the end, the fact is...

SUPER END GAME SPOILERS!

To be fair, there are two endings where:

But you-know-who's story does end, of course. I see this DLC as more for people wanting to play the game from the beginning again (or for the first time), with a bit more meat to that experience.

The new DLC is about a good a mission DLC as you could hope for, but it does suffer from the lack of investment you feel carrying out a mission when the epic adventure has already come to an end. And the nature of this DLC is such that it really should lead to a fundamental change in the way things play out, but that's impossible, which reduces the impact further.

My only minor gripe is slightly different: I feel like having already played through the extended cut, with the catalyst all but drawing up diagrams for us, it takes away from the sense of discovery I might have otherwise felt in this DLC. But as I said, minor gripe. It's a great addition to the main campaign and one I'll play through many times in the future.

Yeah, fair enough. I guess my investment in my particular play through and my view on what the "right" ending is sort of blind me to the others.

Omega DLC is due for release today. I don't find myself too excited because, from the very little I know (trying to avoid all spoilers), I believe you're not playing as Shepard but rather as Aria.

I'm still totally going to buy and play it through, who am I kidding? I will report back later.

My understanding is that you play as Shepard, but with Aria in your crew for the Omega mission.

Whatever you do, don't fuck with Aria.

You know, they keep announcing new DLC, and I'm becoming more and more convinced that it's a terrible idea to ever conclude any game narrative, because I just cannot motivate myself to care. I want to care. I want to want to go back and do this. But it's done. I feel like Dennis Reynolds here. Why can't I feel?

I think I played ... the first scene of Leviathan. Then I loaded up some more multiplayer goodness instead. Playing a slobbering Vorcha scampering about with a flame-thrower never seems to get old. But I don't know how they figured we would remain invested to buy and play DLC after we've finished the story.

Man, I really want to play multi as a Volus, but I just can't roll one of those characters when I cash in points. Very disappointing. And I too intend to pick up Omega, probably tonight. Looks like you also get a female Turian teammate, sounds interesting!

I got the Biotic God for multiplayer. I'm afraid to play him though. What if he's not awesome?

I feel the same. I bought most of the dlc for Mass Effect 2, but I'm not interested in it for ME3. You can't just add in another episode of The Voyages Of The Starship Normandy now. The world has ended.