Quick Look: Mass Effect 3: Omega

Can I just say that Vinny is the best.

Overlord and Shadow Broker were tits.

Great quick look as always guys. I agree with Brad that the Asari mating thing is weird but it's also one of the coolest things in the context of the ME universe. I remember in ME2 there was that great easter egg in the bachelor party with the Asari stripper. A human, Turian, and Salarian were entranced by her and arguing about which race the Asari resemble the most. The implication is that they appear differently in the eyes of each race. This is great because it makes it clear why the Asari appear to have womanly curves and humanoid faces because only humans would be playing this game and not aliens. Even Bioware is capable of space racism. Thanks and keep up the great videos!

@onan said:

What kind of statement are you even making? Yes, you could get rid of all of the companions across all games, and then you'd end up with 100 hours of The Arrival DLC when you run around solo for the majority of the game. Yes, it would be functional, and wouldn't be broken. Is it worth playing at that point? Is it interesting? Is it recognizable as what most people consider Mass Effect to be? I don't think it would be.

Obviously it's not critical to have, but Javik contributes more to the story of ME3 and Mass Effect lore as a whole than almost any other character in the franchise except maybe Shepard him/herself. I'm not sure what's the point of disputing Brad's statement, unless you were just railing against the use of hyperbole -- on the *internet* -- in which case, good luck with that particular sisyphean task.

The statement I am making is precisely that Javik does not "contribute more to the story of ME3 and Mass Effect lore as a whole than any other character in the franchise (outside of Shepard)". Or, since you seem to want me to make it more explicit: I disagree with you and Brad regarding Javik's importance. I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about that.

The point I made about the replaceability of all companions was not meant to imply that I'd rather have a game like The Arrival DLC but, rather, that BioWare's character writing for ME3 was an utter disappointment to me; where I cared about what each of them was doing in ME1 and 2, ME3's character plots failed to pull me in for the writers made those characters more one dimensional than they were in previous installments.

I wanna play all these DLCs when they're all finally out, and then jump into the extended ending.

It's so weird to hear Brad bitching about wanting to take all the weapons and being heavily penalised on power cooldown for it, then saying he has no powers except ammo types. So you have to wait an extra 2 seconds for your Concussive Shot? Big deal. No wonder he finds the combat of Mass Effect boring, he's playing it like Call of Duty. The idea that bringing up the power wheel annoys him shows how little he inputs to the combat and really you get out what you put in. Adept was my most fun play through with the right team mates you're causing biotic explosions left right and centre and testing out combinations of loads of varied powers rather than how your concussive shot interacts with your bullets. Yawn.

"I think it's dumb that they don't put the weapon you have equipped in cutscenes."

I don't understand it at all. It's so counter-productive to the high production look they go for. Especially in 2, if you don't play as a soldier and you can't even use assault rifles, you still have that gun in like every action scene.

Even your teammates, people who can't possibly have an assault rifle in any scenario, will be holding that default AR in some scenes.

@Yummylee said:

The way they streamlined the dialogue wheel, now only giving you 2 instead of 3 choices to select from, and how so much of the game has Shepard on autopilot during cutscenes and conversations is what I especially disliked about ME3. Mass Effect to me was never a series about making choices, since barely any of them matter anyway, but as a way for me to roleplay and sculpt my own different Shepards.

Through Mass Effect 1 and 2 I had 5 different Shepards that to me at least felt somewhat distinctive from one another, because in prior games (the first one especially) you selected like 99% of what Shepard would say.

And dear God, any who played through the games as default male paragon Soldier Shepard (IE: Jeff and Brad) are such a bloody bore. It just irks me when they give people this much to play around with and yet they would still stick to the most generic of choices across each aspect.

I always customize my characters if given an option, but John Shepard actually looks like a real dude (Not a huge surprise considering he's based on a real dude). None of the combinations you could make out of the Create-a-Shepard tools creates anything even remotely like a real person. It's very clear who is and isn't based on a person in the Mass Effect universe, and personally (and ironically) I didn't want a cookie-cutter Shepard that looks like Colonist #52. I think the most jarring example if it in my game was when I met Miranda's sister and father in ME3. I was thinking, "Wait, so Yvonne Strahovski is related to these people? ...Was she adopted?"

It's not even a choice between boring and world-of-possibilities, it's a choice between normal-looking and somewhat emotive and caricature I'm supposed to empathize with. You could stick my XBL Avatar in there and I feel it would be equally off-putting.

I also went paragon, but made my fair share of renegade choices when I felt I had to. It still feels like "My Shepard."

I am so so so sick of the unskippable internet explorer touch game music. Eurgh!

I just noticed the Shepard photobomb in the screencap. So good!

@PimblyCharles:

If Brad thinks that Mass Effect 3's color coordinated waves of technology destroying magic is Hard SciFi, he's wrong.

@paulunga said:

I also disagree with the notion that Javik (the Prothean) is all that important. Yeah, he's a cool party member that gives some more insight into the Protheans but you could get by without him. Your other party members are plenty interesting as is.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with all of this. The (not unforseen) revelation of the reality of the Prothean empire is kind of a big deal. Still, I think it was a little silly how they introduced him. There should have been a much longer lead up than the five minute mission to his already unearthed stasis pod.

@ExplodeMode said:

"I think it's dumb that they don't put the weapon you have equipped in cutscenes."

I don't understand it at all. It's so counter-productive to the high production look they go for. Especially in 2, if you don't play as a soldier and you can't even use assault rifles, you still have that gun in like every action scene.

Even your teammates, people who can't possibly have an assault rifle in any scenario, will be holding that default AR in some scenes.

Most likely because the assualt rifle looks good in cutscenes, some of the scenes would probably look goofy with a sniper rifle or rocket launcher, or they'd have to adjust the poses for every scene.

Oh, and the Asari fullfil basically the same role as the Twilek in Star Wars, i.e. fanservice.

So damn frustrating watching Brad play this game when he just sits in cover not doing anything. And yes, of course he would think the combat in the game is bad when he doesn't really engage in the combat the way it's meant to be. Also, why bother taking the shotgun when you're not going to use it? Realistically you switch between two different weapons, so just take the two you use and don't complain about the cooldowns, especially when all you use is concussive shot anyway.

It's interesting that he says $15 is too much, then is impressed by how long the DLC is, and how impressive the environments are. I don't know what Brad was expecting story-wise, it would just be silly for there to be some deep galactic bombshell revelation pop up while you're helping a crime-boss reclaim her empire. In fact this seems more akin to the kind of story everyone was hoping future Mass Effect games would take, dealing with the seedy underbelly of galactic society and not worrying about galaxy wide catastrophes.

Sometimes it feels like there's nothing the ME franchise can do to please anyone anymore. People complain that it's kinda dumb that you wrap up all of the long running conflicts in this game, (genophage, geth/quarian war) but then if they didn't everyone would complain that they left too many things unresolved.

Reavers, Reapers... I would play the hell out of a Mass Effect-style Firefly game.

I need to stop reading ME comments at this point, all it does is get me angry...

ITT: people angry about Mass Effect things.

yea 15 bucks is a little steep for me given the length of this. Try the 5-10 bucks range.

Mass Effect 3 is sub par compared to the previous two. Boom.

Mass Effect Trilogy Endurance Run starring Brad & Vinny. Make it happen!

Vinny was referring to Blasto the Hanar Spectre. There is a movie poster by Presidium Commons in the Citadel. It's a nice Easter Egg. I wished Bioware did more audio plays of their fake movies like Fleet and the Flotilla or Elcor doing more Shakespeare productions.

It's funny that Brad finds himself being penalize for carrying three weapons but hardly uses any biotics.

@WiqidBritt said:

So damn frustrating watching Brad play this game when he just sits in cover not doing anything. And yes, of course he would think the combat in the game is bad when he doesn't really engage in the combat the way it's meant to be. Also, why bother taking the shotgun when you're not going to use it? Realistically you switch between two different weapons, so just take the two you use and don't complain about the cooldowns, especially when all you use is concussive shot anyway.

I think the combat is good, but guess what, most people played as Soldier and barely used any powers. That's the game's fault because it's not good at teaching you the combat or forcing you to explore the interesting parts of it.

Mass Effect is soooo goddamn boring. The combat sucks too. First game was unique, it didn't need two sequels. Especially bad ones.

@Mechanized:you are out of your mind that fist game is garbage to this day I can never play thought that one I always skip it. It sucked when it came out and it sucks now.

@iceman228433 said:

@Mechanized:you are out of your mind that fist game is garbage to this day I can never play thought that one I always skip it. It sucked when it came out and it sucks now.

three maybe, but come on two was pretty fucking awesome

@WiqidBritt said:

So damn frustrating watching Brad play this game when he just sits in cover not doing anything. And yes, of course he would think the combat in the game is bad when he doesn't really engage in the combat the way it's meant to be. Also, why bother taking the shotgun when you're not going to use it? Realistically you switch between two different weapons, so just take the two you use and don't complain about the cooldowns, especially when all you use is concussive shot anyway.

It's interesting that he says $15 is too much, then is impressed by how long the DLC is, and how impressive the environments are. I don't know what Brad was expecting story-wise, it would just be silly for there to be some deep galactic bombshell revelation pop up while you're helping a crime-boss reclaim her empire. In fact this seems more akin to the kind of story everyone was hoping future Mass Effect games would take, dealing with the seedy underbelly of galactic society and not worrying about galaxy wide catastrophes.

Sometimes it feels like there's nothing the ME franchise can do to please anyone anymore. People complain that it's kinda dumb that you wrap up all of the long running conflicts in this game, (genophage, geth/quarian war) but then if they didn't everyone would complain that they left too many things unresolved.

I wish more people were like you. About everything.

I'm (obviously) as Mass Effect diehard and while I get the complaints people say, it's become utterly ridiculous even amongst our own fan community.

Combat in ME is great if you don't just shoot everything. Biotics are extremely engaging powers.

@Krystal_Sackful said:

@PimblyCharles:

If Brad thinks that Mass Effect 3's color coordinated waves of technology destroying magic is Hard SciFi, he's wrong.

So, I guess EMPs don't exist or anything like that.

Yes Brad, that effect is huge. One could almost call it... massive.

All this talk about Javik makes me pissed. I bought the DLC before I started playing ME3, but apparently there was a bug which i some cases prevented the DLC mission from appearing in game. I beat the game before I realised I never saw the DLC content and I doubt I will ever replay it.

@Mezmero said:

Great quick look as always guys. I agree with Brad that the Asari mating thing is weird but it's also one of the coolest things in the context of the ME universe. I remember in ME2 there was that great easter egg in the bachelor party with the Asari stripper. A human, Turian, and Salarian were entranced by her and arguing about which race the Asari resemble the most. The implication is that they appear differently in the eyes of each race. This is great because it makes it clear why the Asari appear to have womanly curves and humanoid faces because only humans would be playing this game and not aliens. Even Bioware is capable of space racism. Thanks and keep up the great videos!

I think the implication was supposed to be that the Asari put out some mild biotic telepathic thing (EMBRACE ETERNITYa lil bit.) that makes them universally attractive to all other races, like psychic pheromones. They probably don't "actually" look like that.

You know; I understood why people played the Soldier in ME1 considering the way the weapon system worked in that game, but I see almost no reason why anyone would play a Soldier in 2 or 3 considering how streamlined the combat system became. You can be just as effective with weapons on almost any other class at this point. So of course you're going to be bored when you pick the class with almost no distinctive characteristics or interesting abilities. Brad talks up how interesting the technology and the fiction of the universe is, and then tries to play it like Gears of War.

@WiqidBritt said:

Sometimes it feels like there's nothing the ME franchise can do to please anyone anymore. People complain that it's kinda dumb that you wrap up all of the long running conflicts in this game, (genophage, geth/quarian war) but then if they didn't everyone would complain that they left too many things unresolved.

That's ridiculous. No one expects changes in faction relationships ever. No one complains that the horde hasn't resolved their issues with the alliance, why the Borg are still in conflict with the Federation, etc. These are the things that makes the ME galaxy unique, and resolving them takes away from the complexity of the whole.

i don't get why anyone would play this game as a soldier, the abilities is the best thing about the mass effect combat. i play as a vanguard, using sniper and a super light smg. I use liara's statics bubble and just line up head-shots all the time. got through the game on the hardest difficulty without any problems at all

I really want to watch this, but as someone whousually buys ME dlc when its on sale, I don't want spoilers. Oh well, I'll probably end up watching it to see if its worth buying.

Brad playing Mass Effect 3 is an endurance run on to itself -_-

Edit: Brad playing anything is an endurance run on to anybodies patience -_-

Boo! stop using the most boring classes for Mass Effect Quick Looks Brad , what's wrong with using some cool ass Biotic shots that go over cover? or use the Engineer drone to lure enemies out of cover and burn them! , this is the only shooter that lets you do stuff like that (other than Bioshock) but they never use it and then they ask for crazy stuff in other shooters.

Best trilogy of the generation, by far.

Would love to play ME3 again, but thanks to Origin and a stupid error that won't allow me to download anything, I can't even play the base game let alone any DLC. Fuck you EA, fuck you.

I am absolutely sick of seeing people doing nothing but bash ME3 in comments in anything ME3 based. If you don't like the game, fine, fuck off. I love Bioware games, but I hate Bioware 'fans' as they all seem to be up their own arse and self righteous. The vocal ones are at least.

@WiqidBritt said:

Sometimes it feels like there's nothing the ME franchise can do to please anyone anymore. People complain that it's kinda dumb that you wrap up all of the long running conflicts in this game, (genophage, geth/quarian war) but then if they didn't everyone would complain that they left too many things unresolved.

That's ridiculous. No one expects changes in faction relationships ever. No one complains that the horde hasn't resolved their issues with the alliance, why the Borg are still in conflict with the Federation, etc. These are the things that makes the ME galaxy unique, and resolving them takes away from the complexity of the whole.

@Marokai said:

You know; I understood why people played the Soldier in ME1 considering the way the weapon system worked in that game, but I see almost no reason why anyone would play a Soldier in 2 or 3 considering how streamlined the combat system became. You can be just as effective with weapons on almost any other class at this point. So of course you're going to be bored when you pick the class with almost no distinctive characteristics or interesting abilities. Brad talks up how interesting the technology and the fiction of the universe is, and then tries to play it like Gears of War.

I find this especially hilarious when Brad talks about how awesome Aria's special power is, when it's basically a beefed up Biotic Explosion on a cooldown, (Which is, used correctly, admittedly awesome.) and there's a class in the game that can essentially do that effect ALL THE TIME. He'll never see it though, because he wants to play the game like Gears of War.

As an Adept expert and enthusiast, it saddens me...

Jesus. I can't imagine playing these games as a Soldier.

@LegendaryChopChop: I thought it was pretty damn good man! especially if you know the further backstory from the comics and stuff. I see your point though! and yes! ARIA IS AMAAAAZING!!!

@DeadDorf said:

Best trilogy of the generation, by far.

Agreed, only one I can think of with a strong beginning, middle, and end, with a strong story for each individual chapter.

It's a shame the last ten minutes of game are all anyone talks about (and admittedly, I hated the ending as much as anyone), when 99.9% of the series was so fantastic.

@Zuldim said:

@DeadDorf said:

Best trilogy of the generation, by far.

Agreed, only one I can think of with a strong beginning, middle, and end, with a strong story for each individual chapter.

It's a shame the last ten minutes of game are all anyone talks about (and admittedly, I hated the ending as much as anyone), when 99.9% of the series was so fantastic.

99.9% wasn't fantastic though. ME3 simultaneously tried too hard and not enough, if that makes any sense. Weirdly I found the online of ME3 to be the best part, which is both good and bad when talking about a Mass Effect game since it's a story driven franchise. It will never diminish my love for those first 2 games, playing through 1 again on the PC is reminding me why it is still one of my favourite games, but ME3 did kill the franchise for me in terms of future games, books, comics etc.

To be fair, it's viable to play a Soilder, your team can provide thebackup Biotics, that is, to me, what makes the combat fun being able to play any way you want, like any RPG. YOu can melee, ranged, magic or some sort of hybid, all viable ways. Not all fun to watch, but still viable.

I am of course saying this,as I played a Infiltrator Sniper FemShep.

@msavo said:

@Zuldim said:

@DeadDorf said:

Best trilogy of the generation, by far.

Agreed, only one I can think of with a strong beginning, middle, and end, with a strong story for each individual chapter.

It's a shame the last ten minutes of game are all anyone talks about (and admittedly, I hated the ending as much as anyone), when 99.9% of the series was so fantastic.

99.9% wasn't fantastic though. ME3 simultaneously tried too hard and not enough, if that makes any sense. Weirdly I found the online of ME3 to be the best part, which is both good and bad when talking about a Mass Effect game since it's a story driven franchise. It will never diminish my love for those first 2 games, playing through 1 again on the PC is reminding me why it is still one of my favourite games, but ME3 did kill the franchise for me in terms of future games, books, comics etc.

Thing is, I've heard people say that before, and I just can't disagree any more. Mass Effect 3, other than the last ten minutes (and the kid dream sequences, which were garbage) was one of the most meaningful, wonderful game experiences I've ever had. If the game had a satisfying ending, and if it had cut out those kid moments, it would have blown 2 out of the water in my opinion, and that's as someone who adores the series. Mass Effect 2 is probably in my top 3 games.

I know, for example, the Giant Bomb crew were kind of lukewarm toward it overall (not just because of the ending), and I just didn't agree with a lot of their complaints (I know I'm kind of getting off on a tangent here, but stay with me). They didn't like that it starts with Earth's invasion, I loved that, it gave everything a sense of urgency. We already knew that the eradication of a galactic civilization was a long, slow process, from comments in the first game, and this kind of let us see that. They didn't like how "mechanical" things felt, with you running into people you knew already from the previous games, but I did. I wouldn't have wanted them to just write off every character, and most of them had legitimate reasons why they couldn't join your crew. Most of those who die get great send offs, as well. It wasn't flawless, and I agree with pretty much everyone that the way you got a lot of missions in it (eavesdropping) was bad, but that's such a minor complaint in my opinion, that it didn't even effect my love, my absolute adoration of the game.

Mass Effect 3, if it hadn't been for the ending (which is, admittedly, a huge issue!), would be leagues ahead of the other two, already phenomenal, games, in my opinion. So yeah, 99.9% of the games are fantastic.

@Bored_Ming: Yes. yes she does!!! if u havnt played it, or plan too. just wait till the end.... AWWWWWWWWESOME!!