[Balderduck]

Just checked out the metacritics reviews! Never again have I seen such a gap between critics and gamers! the critic score is 91 and the player score is 31!

How can you explain this?

Is it really as good as the critics say or is it really as bad as the players say?

I must say I enjoyed the first 2, mostly because of the story, cause I found the gameplay too first-person-shooter-y for my tastes...

[kuze]

Can I explain this? Sure. Mob mentality, which is getting worse and worse each day with gamers especially.

Reality is, if you liked the first games, you will love the finale. It's a great game, and a very emotional ride, especially the last hours. If you cared about the characters at all in the first two games (for me it was the top reason for enjoying ME1+2), you'll get your money's worth. It's not a work of art (no ME ever was that), but it is a very enjoyable experience.

All everyone talks (and whines) about is the ending, and granted, it's an interesting topic to discuss. But it's not a reason to drag the whole game through shit.

[Gabe]

First of gameplay lazy, production values subpar for pc's at 2k12 ,level design monotonous, no vehicle use,mini games etc.
Not much new faces around this time and some important charecters have generic faces,some enviroment textures unbelievably low res,lack of attention to detail resulting with ridiculous outcomes.
Final battle horribly designed reaper beam cant target Shepard and missiles but everywhere..3 final decisions adequate i think and results are predictible.Same as I enjoyed the first 2 found this lackluster all the way and lots of people bear that coz of good memories but at the end enough is enough.
Anyway expecting lots of dlc to meet fans expectations but
what done is done for franchise.

[SamandMax]

Two weeks after the game's release and we're still getting unbelievably paranoid, baiting articles like this from supposedly respected video game sites like Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/5894925/what-ever-...-leaked-script

This backlash we're seeing is some of the most embarrassing stuff I've ever had to witness and what makes it even more shameful is the fact that Mass Effect 3 is, unquestionably, one of the biggest, most impeccably crafted epics of this or any other generation. Say what you will about the ending or the muliplayer or this extreme distrust of DLC, there's little to fault with the actual 30 hours of consistently fantastic content that make up the majority of the game, I honestly don't understand how you could be a fan of the series and not consider it great unless you've been caught up in this ridiculous mob mentality hysteria that kuze brought up.

If BioWare actually decide to alter their game to appease disappointed fans, it'll be a heartbreaking thing to witness. Asking someone to change their artistic vision because you simply don't like it is wrong on pretty much every level imaginable.

[Lucien21]

http://www.adventuregamers.com/forum...7&postcount=31

I loved it.

[Lucien21]

Originally Posted by SamandMax

If BioWare actually decide to alter their game to appease disappointed fans, it'll be a heartbreaking thing to witness. Asking someone to change their artistic vision because you simply don't like it is wrong on pretty much ever level imaginable.

I understand the disappointed fans to a certain degree. Everyone has different tastes and will have different opinions which can be expressed in a logical and respectful way to the developers.

However it is the self entitled fan wanks that are doing most of the wailing and moaning. Hence the metacritic scores.

[TimovieMan]

I'm only about ten hours in, but so far it's bloody fantastic!
ME2 is one of my favourite games of all times, and this has been of at least the same level up until now...

Level design is even more varied than in ME2, there's an enormous sense of urgency, it's emotional, dialogues are at least of ME2 awesomeness, and having constant cameo's by ME1 and ME2 NPC's is really fun.
Also, the variety of enemies is immense (and often excruciatingly hard - but that's to be expected with Reapers, of course)...

Despite all the hatred I have for EA's multiplayer and DLC decisions, I can't deny that BioWare has insane talent in making games...

I'm just curious to see what the ending will be like. All this criticism everywhere feels like they're just hating the game for its last five minutes, disregarding the 150 hours of gameplay the Mass Effect trilogy offers before it...

[Schneckchen ^.^]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

Just checked out the metacritics reviews! Never again have I seen such a gap between critics and gamers! the critic score is 91 and the player score is 31!

Bioware seems to be doing that a lot lately. Same thing happened to Dragon Age 2 but that game actually really DID suck.

I doubt Mass Effect 3 is as bad as DA2 but I stopped buying Bioware games because they're just not what they used to be ever since they merged with EA. That and I don't like Origin.

That said if you liked the first 2 Mass Effects, I'm sure you'll like this one too.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by Schneckchen ^.^

Bioware seems to be doing that a lot lately. Same thing happened to Dragon Age 2 but that game actually really DID suck.

I doubt Mass Effect 3 is as bad as DA2 but I stopped buying Bioware games because they're just not what they used to be ever since they merged with EA.

It's not fair to compare with DA2,that was kind a game couldnt go on
finishing demo.

[Balderduck]

Yeah I agree on DA2, so that's what I thought happened with ME3...so I take it that this isn't the case?

[UPtimist]

In about 10 hours, so far ME3 has definitely been better than ME2 though maybe not quite as interesting as the first one. Many things have been polished since the last games even if Bioware falls for the same "sins" they always do. Still, in my opinion it's even a great game.

I'm not buying into the whole "Bioware are amazing writers" thing though. In my opinion they create interesting (if somewhat generic) stories with pretty average writing, just with a certain level of freedom of choice and a pretty large quantity of it. So far this one has felt better written than ME2, but it has had its issues too (though the characters and conversations with them aren't quite as awkward as they were in ME2, aside from some weird moments with Shepard).

Nevertheless, I'm having a lot of fun playing it, and it's definitely not worse (but clearly better) than ME2. And an ending is, in the end, just an ending. It's the stuff before that really matters.

And I agree (without having seen the ending), it seems like a pretty sad thing if they go and change the end now.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

Yeah I agree on DA2, so that's what I thought happened with ME3...so I take it that this isn't the case?

No.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by Balderduck

Yeah I agree on DA2, so that's what I thought happened with ME3...so I take it that this isn't the case?

No definitely not it's completing the ME saga well enough(for now maybe)as it gets but not tryin something inventive or jaw dropping for grand finale's sake disappoints.
Like what for example,a war room control tactics,commanding fleets some strategic gameplay elements for this magnitude encounters,an open world like war map etc.lot of possiblities on stand but none of them capitalised (but good ol' deus ex's style plagiarism prefered)
I enjoyed the game like the prequels when story unfolds at first half of the game but when Shepard effort for gathering galaxy together for this kind of encounter then you only watch it at cutscenes falls really flat as direction,design and execution.

[Burns11]

Originally Posted by kuze

All everyone talks (and whines) about is the ending, and granted, it's an interesting topic to discuss. But it's not a reason to drag the whole game through shit.

I disagree, the ending is the lynchpin of a game, and can fully ruin the entire experience. It's your goal, it's the last thing you experience and it's the payout of all the effort put in.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Burns11

I disagree, the ending is the lynchpin of a game, and can fully ruin the entire experience. It's your goal, it's the last thing you experience and it's the payout of all the effort put in.

Well, it didn't ruin the game for me, as I didn't find it as horrible as everyone makes it out to be. The writing might have been weak and riddled with plot holes, but the dramaturgy was fine. And surely you didn't sink 90 hours into three games just for the final few minutes?

[Burns11]

I see straw man has shown up.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Burns11

I see straw man has shown up.

Then excuse me for misinterpreting "payoff for all the effort".

[Toefur]

It's definitely not as good as they say.

Everyone keeps saying that up until the last 10 minutes it's the most awesome game ever, and then the ending comes along and ruins it all. I disagree with this. The game pales in comparison to the first game, story-telling wise. The story telling in Mass Effect 3 isn't really as wonderful as some people seem to make it out to be; the inclusion of characters from previous games is often forced and stretches credibility, and I really get the feeling that somewhere along the lines the success of their previous games got it into the heads of the Bioware writers that Mass Effect was a great work of literature because I felt they were really pushing too hard with the whole, "This is war, war is tough" angle.

The scene with Mordin, is okay - not fantastic - but the internet seems to have eaten it up and believes it to be the most touching moment in gaming.

And as has been said earlier, the missions were boring and repetitive. Okay. I don't play Shooters, and I played Mass Effect for the story, but oh-my-god I almost gave up on Mass Effect 3 because I didn't want to have to go through another mission that was practically identical to the previous.

While Mass Effect 1 felt like a brilliant space opera, with what felt like a huge open galaxy to play in, Mass Effect 3 felt like a failed attempt at some lesson in fatalism or something.

I can't really write much without spoiling this for people that haven't played it; but I honestly wasn't expecting the ending to be as disappointing as the internet had led me to believe it was. But the ending was a lot more than disappointing. It was like Battlestar Galactica all over again. Only worse.

I was a fan of the series. The first game was the first game of this generation I truly loved, I read the books, the second game I felt was a let down on the first one for many reasons, and the third game... I'm sorry, but the way it plays out, and the way things happened and ended just does not leave me with a positive experience whatsoever.

[Periglo]

Originally Posted by Burns11

I disagree, the ending is the lynchpin of a game, and can fully ruin the entire experience. It's your goal, it's the last thing you experience and it's the payout of all the effort put in.

Let's not talk about KoTOR 2, then ...

[Schneckchen ^.^]

Originally Posted by Burns11

I disagree, the ending is the lynchpin of a game, and can fully ruin the entire experience. It's your goal, it's the last thing you experience and it's the payout of all the effort put in.

Any given game that I've played and I can vividly remember the gameplay/graphics/surroundings/atmosphere/etc and how much fun the overall experience was but I'll be hard pressed to specifically remember the ending of any of em until I think about it for a while.

To me it's a very rare occurence when the ending actually matters a lot. I'm very certain, however bad the ending of Mass Effect 3 may be, there is absolutely no way it can ruin the franchise... unless at the end you wake up as a kid in modern times and "it was all just a dream". But even that would be so hilarious it would make for an amazing ending lol.