Mass Effect 3

[Ben]

In the future all Wifi hotspots will be red phone boxes.

Or the homeless:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17345926

[Simon]

Still it was nice to see a big climactic battle in London for a change. It doesn't get used in games enough these days.

Or Manchester http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16054633

And before all you Saafeners say it, yes these were taken in Manchester after a Saturday night.

[markbilly]

I just finished this and was really disappointed. Compared to the second one it seemed short, rushed, hollow and linear. The best part of the second, for example, was playing through all your team mates' backstories, of which there was a good amount and the characters were varied and interesting. The team mates in this one were really dull and I didn't bother to talk to any of them much.

On top of that it was all a bit too macho "this is it", "show them no mercy", "raar, we are soldiers" nonsense. The graphics seemed really uneven, with loads of low resolution textures knocking about. It seemed like the new models and textures were shit and the ones they could use from the other two games were nice.

The ending was OK. By that point I was kind of just doing as I was told anyway.

Oh, and the combat is boring. And turning it to "story" mode makes it even more boring.

[BaronVonMonster]

Yeah ME3 was definitely the weakest of the bunch, although there were still elements of it I really liked.

Part of me wonders how much of an effect EA buying Bioware had on it. I reckon it could have done with at least another year of content and polish. Although the multiplayer was fun it was obviously just there to cash-in on a certain gaming demographic and feels really clunky and not really needed.

Thinking back, my biggest problem with ME3 is (still) that in the end it didn't feel like any choices you made throughout the 3 games actually had anything to do with how it ended. I know by the 3rd game there's a lot of different routes people could have taken with choices but I think that's why it really needed another year of dev time and all of that fleshed out to have made use of what was one of (in my opinion) best features of the series and to be honest why I was interested in ME1 waaaaaay back in the day when I first saw a preview in Games(tm).

Ah well. I moan but I still really enjoyed it overall, just a shame they could have done better and I just wish I didn't get the feeling that EA wanted it done and out and less complex to suit their needs / financial years bank balance.

[seregrail7]

I got bored a few hours in and haven't gone back. I got bored with talking to a guy on the ship, landing on a planet and shooting baddies for ten minutes, then doing it all over again for every mission. I thought I had made no progress then my friend told me I was at least half way through.

[markbilly]

I got bored a few hours in and haven't gone back. I got bored with talking to a guy on the ship, landing on a planet and shooting baddies for ten minutes, then doing it all over again for every mission. I thought I had made no progress then my friend told me I was at least half way through.

That sums it up way better than my rambling.

[delve]

Thinking back, my biggest problem with ME3 is (still) that in the end it didn't feel like any choices you made throughout the 3 games actually had anything to do with how it ended.

This might crystallize your feeling about the ending. Caution, there be spoilers there

[markbilly]

Shit, hang on I think I played the new ending without realising... You mean to tell me there is a different ending that is even worse?

EDIT: Oh, no I played the real one, I just didn't realise there was three(?) choices. Huh?

[Bob Chambers]

Well, the new endings came out. Pretty much the same, although now you can ask Space Kid some more questions. And then shoot him for an extra ending. Also there's some added cutscenes, and a fallout-esque slideshow.

[Dan]

I really really can't be bothered. I loved ME2, but just can't muster the enthusiasm for 3.

[Bob Chambers]

True that. My main thought was "well, I'll boot it up, hopefully I won't have to redo London all over again". Turns out my most recent save was right before Marauder Shields so I didn't have far to go.

[delve]

In the future all Wifi hotspots will be red phone boxes.

Sometimes I'm so prescient I scare myself. These aren't red, but it can't be long till this comes to London.