I was wary of Vega in the beginning, as Bioware hasn’t exactly had the best track record when it comes to making their “default human party members” (Kaiden, Carth, Jacob, etc) compelling. But I actually grew to really enjoy the character - we haven’t really had an Alliance foot soldier type since Ashley, and he doesn’t have the whininess or xenophobia that made some people dislike her. I thought he was a refreshing change of pace from the super commandoes and mad scientists of the rest of the cast (not that I didn’t love them too), and Freddie Prinze Jr. does a great job imbuing him with a sense of humor. Hell, some of the funniest dialogue scenes in ME3 involve Vega - the aforementioned results of ordering him to perform tech-oriented tasks, his conversation with Javik in the Normandy’s kitchen, and his “man off” with Garrus in the lounge room, among others.
Oh, and there’s a reason she didn’t turn up in ME3 proper. She actually had a twitter-feed running (via the AllianceNewsNetwork) right before ME3 came out, tweetcasting the beginning of the Reaper invasion.
She is mortally wounded trying to escape from a Reaper attack, and decides to ram a Reaper with her skyvan.
I liked Vega for the reasons that Tanbarkie gave, plus for a near-refreshing change, he’s not romanceable by either gender! Shep’s so goddamned popular, you have to watch how you talk to half your crew lest you find them falling hard for you. I liked his unabashed macho (in both senses) attitude hiding a bit of concern about how capable he really was. And yeah, the Garrus vs. Vega man-off scene in the mess kitchen was hysterical.
Not to mention the ongoing discussion of Vega’s piloting skills after the one time they let him drive. Even Joker managed to get a cheap shot in at Vega’s expense.
It didn’t help him any that Vega was the one who kept setting himself up for those digs.
In my second (and subsequently third cuz I’m doing two at the same time) playthroughs I’m actually using Vega a lot more and like him a lot more than I did originally. I thinks is character of “dumb jarhead” is played very well, he’s the but of some jokes about his macho-ness and dumb jockness (“you would like grizzly bears” "wait…what?) and I’m a big fan of how FPjr does his character, but he also has a heart too (Being guilty over killing the colony on his mission and volunteering the nice portion of the man-off).
Anyone else totally heartbroken over the “teen girl” conversation on the refugee docks? and totally heartwarmed over the Salarian/Human “new armor” conversation outside of Purgatory? Hands down my favorite exchanges in the game
Both ME2 and ME3 have some brilliant little non-interactive dialogues between NPCs. Some of my favorites include:
-The Blue Rose of Illium, with a heartbreaking payoff in ME3 that made my girlfriend weep openly
-The medic on Earth trying - and failing - to assist a woman stuck in Reaper territory over the radio
-The conversation between the aging salarian and his asari stepdaughter at the Illium gift shop (another serious tearjerker)
-The asari with PTSD in Huerta Memorial Hospital
-Blasto VI: Partners in Crime
-Liara and Matriach Aethyta at the Presidium bar in ME3
Despite the fact that you can miss them completely if you’re the “run past NPCs without stopping” type, these vignettes comprise some of the best storytelling in the Mass Effect universe.
There are so many great conversations on the Citadel. I was impressed how many of them had real plots, some complete with twists (the Asari and Human woman for example). It was touches like that that made me greatly enjoy the game even if the ending was originally poor.
I was early into ME3 when a friend told me about the (original) ending, and how much she hated it. (Without spoiling it for me.) Irritated, I put the game on hiatus for more than a month, and around the time I got back to it, the Extended Cut version had been released.
So I’ve never been unfortunate enough to see the original ending, aside from YouTube “because I’m curious” viewings. I also haven’t seen
SO BE IT
aside from YouTube watchings, either, and given that result, I won’t ever choose it for my games.
I chose Synthesis; yeah, it’s morally questionable, but I didn’t find it as reprehensible as some others. I mean, I didn’t want to destroy the geth and EDI. Might choose Destroy next time.
My Shepard:
–Talked down Wrex on Virmire
–Chose to save Ashley
–Romanced Ashley in ME1
–Let the Council live
–Chose Udina as humanity’s councilor
–Saved the hostages in “Bringing Down the Sky” by letting Balak go
–Completed all the ME2 loyalty missions
–Saved Maelon’s data
–Convinced Miranda to talk to her sister
–Arrested Jacob’s father (as much as I wanted to kill the bastard)
–Got Tali found innocent without revealing the truth about her father
–Didn’t romance anyone in ME2
–Completed “Lair of the Shadow Broker”
–Destroyed the Collector Base
–Completed the Suicide Mission with everyone surviving
–Completed “Arrival”
–Let Balak live again in ME3 (as much as I wanted to kill the bastard)
–Made peace between the geth and quarians
–Talked Ashley down during the Cerberus coup d’etat
–Personally shot and killed Udina
–Cured the genophage
–Romanced Ashley again in ME3
–…um… did other stuff which I can’t remember
–Shot and killed the Illusive Man
–Chose Synthesis
Anybody else digging multiplayer? I love my vorcha sentinel; on Bronze, I feel like Wolverine. I regen so fast and have such a powerful pair of weapons that only two or three types of enemy (or multiple mooks flanking me) pose any kind of threat to me whatsoever. And he’s not bad on Silver, either.
I also love my geth engineer, human basic vanguard, female N7 Demolisher, and probably one or two others that I can’t think of right now.
Occasionally I’ll get a game-breaking glitch that frustrates the hell out of me, though. Man, did I have a whopper of one last night on Firebase Ghost. I couldn’t get into cover, climb ladders, or see enemies.
I had one where my bullets were appearing to go backwards out of my character model, in Silver multi. Puzzled the hell out of my team-mates, since I had to run backwards at the enemy and spray shotgun shots in order to hit anything. Hilarious, though.
Most annoying thing is that if the server disconnects, you lose whatever temporary power-ups you had set up for that game. I have had at least a couple of games crap out on me in round 2 or 3.:mad:
Have any of you played the new Leviathan DLC yet? I played it this evening, and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the plot and the gameplay, and it was totally worth the $10.
On the other hand…
… I thought they left a huge, gaping plot hole by recruiting a race which apparently made its living through the subjugation and mind-control of “lesser” races. Once the Leviathans wipe out the Reapers, aren’t they going to subjugate and mind-control us?
I was also disappointed about how you discover a race which was the creator of the Reapers, and which had incredible power over the Reapers, which is such a powerful revelation it could change the course of the entire war, and…in the end, you only get an additional 400 war assets and an extra six lines from the Catalyst Kid. I was hoping that the Leviathans’ involvement would make an entire new ending possible. Either the Leviathans make it possible to defeat the Reapers through conventional military force, or they have some insight into the Catalyst that alters its functioning.
Also, when James is in the researcher’s office, if you talk to him enough, he’ll play with the Husk head, provoke it into biting him, and then suggest you bring it on board the Normandy as a souvenir! That was great.
I just got an N7 Shadow yesterday. I had more fun with Shadow Strike than is probably healthy!
I love the N7 shadow! I named her Slash! Slash!
I also have an N7 Fury, whom I named Scary Eyes.
All my Turians are named Teddy Roosevelt.
Finally played through this and all I can say is I’m thankful I got it on sale, but it was still too expensive. They created a movie where they let you play through a few parts. ~30 minutes at the end of doing nothing, but don’t leave the room because you are needed for one timed button click? Who thought that was a good idea? And have they been reassigned to janitorial duties yet.
All game long I’m thinking that there are too many fucking cutscenes, so I guess that had to be the only way to finish it…with an interminable, often unpausable cutscene.
I stayed away from this thread because I didn’t want spoilers ahead of the game, and I didn’t read all 473 posts though I’m sure I’m the the only one bitching and moaning about this absolute waste of $15. I feel sorry for anyone who paid full price.
Did you play through the trilogy, or just ME3?
I agree with you about the cutscenes (I like a little more game and a little less exposition), but it didn’t dampen my enjoyment as much as it did yours. I got it for $30 and thought it was worth it (especially if you play through the 1st 2 @ $10 each)
Did you just jump into to the last chapter of a trilogy?
I guess the cut scenes are numerous, but they are the culmination of an emotional ride spanning years. We’ve been growing close to these characters and this universe for hundreds of hours of gametime, so it was easy for me, at least, to excuse the exposition.
Also, on PC you can pause the cut scenes 
But regardless, I really didn’t see ME3 as having too many of these… This is no Metal Gear or Final Fantasy.
I played ME1 and ME2 multiple times. I did every maleShep romance, and either full paragon or a paragon/renegade mix. I played multiple classes.
The last 30+ minutes of the game were one long cut scene where maybe it had me push a button just to keep the screen saver from kicking in. The beginning was a long cut scene. And the cut scenes in-between were long. Every time you finished one of the main story missions, you could count on a bathroom break.
I did appreciate that they took away having to survey every damn planet (ME2) or having to drive the damn car over every inch of land (ME1), but the exploration aspect still added nothing overall. I thought side missions in both earlier games were better fleshed out. The majority of the ME3 side missions were fetch missions.
I’m only on the PC, and hitting escape didn’t pause the cut scenes, especially that ending. LOTR: The Return of the King’s ending wasn’t that long.
I don’t know if I will go back and try out other endings or romances (and I don’t watch other people playing computer games on YouTube). I went into the game wanting to know how the story would end for all the characters, but Bioware/EA dropped the ball on delivering it in a game format.
I just finished playing through Mass Effect 3 on the Xbox (actually 1, 2 and 3 in immediate succession). I had heard bad things about the ending, so I was prepared for a disappointment, but I actually didn’t think it was that bad – just a little abrupt.
My complaints were more on the technical side (e.g. quest targets not showing up, swapping disks around like I was playing Ultima IV, etc.). And I thought giving Tali a completely human face on a monstrous body was rather horrifying in an “uncanny valley” kind of way; I’d rather have a completely unhuman look instead of a thalidomide accident.
I think they really did a good job with all of the callbacks to the previous two games, and the emotional tone was very consistent (as opposed to ME2, which felt very unfocused because of all of the unrelated side stories). As noted above, the little NPC conversations were surprisingly touching.
I’m going to run through the 1->2->3 series again with a different Shepard (female vs. male, jerk vs. goody-goody, Kaidan vs. Ashley, etc.).
FWIW, the ending you saw was probably the “corrected” one that was released after as a response to people’s complaints.
How would I be able to tell the difference? The one I played through was the “synthesis” ending. All it involved was:
(a) a little bit of preliminary talking with a ghost-baby about the three choices, (b) walking into a beam of light, and (c) a cut scene with some green energy spreading around the galaxy, ending with Jeff and EDI walking out of the Normandy onto some planet.
Are you saying that the original ending was even more abrupt than that!?