Quick Look: Mass Effect 3: Omega

@Zuldim: That's a matter of opinion because as you mentioned those sections the GB crew had issue with and you overlooked or had no problem I had problems with and more. All those examples you gave, the earth invasion, urgency of the Reaper threat, the mechanics of getting side mission etc. were huge issues. The fucking minigame where you are being chased out of the map by Reapers if you get detected was HORRIBLE!! The production value in general was just sub-par for a series that felt like it used to pull out all the stops, like I thought the soundtrack was horrible upon listening to it next to the 2nd game and especially the 1st, which has an amazing soundtrack I still listen to today. Being a huge fan it felt, for lack of a better term, lazy. Even the media leading up to it was bad. The last novel they put out, the one not written by Drew Karpyshyn, had so many inaccuracies and plot holes it bleed into how rushed everything felt. It may sound stupid to complain about a video game novel but those previous entires were solid and provided good insight to the universe. I'm glad you found enjoyment in it because I did not and won't be checking out any new material for this universe ever.

Also I hope you don't take this discussion as hostile, I enjoy the back and forth and different opinions.

@msavo said:

@Zuldim: That's a matter of opinion because as you mentioned those sections the GB crew had issue with and you overlooked or had no problem I had problems with and more. All those examples you gave, the earth invasion, urgency of the Reaper threat, the mechanics of getting side mission etc. were huge issues. The fucking minigame where you are being chased out of the map by Reapers if you get detected was HORRIBLE!! The production value in general was just sub-par for a series that felt like it used to pull out all the stops, like I thought the soundtrack was horrible upon listening to it next to the 2nd game and especially the 1st, which has an amazing soundtrack I still listen to today. Being a huge fan it felt, for lack of a better term, lazy. Even the media leading up to it was bad. The last novel they put out, the one not written by Drew Karpyshyn, had so many inaccuracies and plot holes it bleed into how rushed everything felt. It may sound stupid to complain about a video game novel but those previous entires were solid and provided good insight to the universe. I'm glad you found enjoyment in it because I did not and won't be checking out any new material for this universe ever.

Also I hope you don't take this discussion as hostile, I enjoy the back and forth and different opinions.

Yeah, I understand it's a matter of opinion, I'm just genuinely baffled as to why the game was received so poorly by so many (other than, again, the ending. You know what, anytime I make a statement about the quality of the game, just assume I'm tacking "other than the ending" onto the end of it).

I thought that the soundtrack, for example, was great. I still listen to it semi-frequently. It might even be my favorite game soundtrack of the year. Honestly, I hardly remember the minigame where the Reaper chase you out, although you're right, I remember it being annoying. I just feel like it's such a small portion of the game, that, again, I don't even remember it. It's not that I liked it, or even that I was willing to overlook it, as I was with the eavesdropping side missions, it's just that I had literally forgotten about it until now.

Although, I should mention that I'm one of the crazy people who spent waaaay too much time scanning minerals, and wouldn't have had a problem with that returning. So yeah.

The novel thing was totally absurd, I agree 100%, especially since I read the first book, and liked it quite a bit. I don't feel that a genuinely bad piece of tie-in material effects the quality of the game itself, though. If it does, man, nearly every game that's ever had a book released about it, is screwed.

And I don't think the conversation has been hostile at all, and I too enjoy the back and forth of things like this.

@Zuldim: It just felt kind of forced to me. Everything gets resolved too quickly, cleanly and easily after hundreds of years of conflict. It's all tied up in a neat package. Then comes the trainwreck of an ending.

It's a good game with high production values, but some of the charm was lost from ME1-2.

@EnduranceFun said:

@Zuldim: It just felt kind of forced to me. Everything gets resolved too quickly, cleanly and easily after hundreds of years of conflict. It's all tied up in a neat package. Then comes the trainwreck of an ending.

It's a good game with high production values, but some of the charm was lost from ME1-2.

I guess I get that. I liked seeing the resolution to all these problems, but I guess I see why you would feel that way.

@Zuldim: I loved scanning too although the music probably helped a lot. Also I can see where you are coming from, I know some people who share the same views on the game as you, but for me it was just not an enjoyable experience. The novel thing may have soured me a bit going into it. I still can't believe that happened. I mean I would assume someone in charge of story for the games read through it, it wouldn't have taken long, and should have pointed out the glaring issues.

If you haven't read the other books after the first I would recommend doing so, especially if you liked ME3. There are some nods, mind you very small nods in the grand scheme of things, that 3 makes to certain characters that are cool.

@msavo said:

@Zuldim: I loved scanning too although the music probably helped a lot. Also I can see where you are coming from, I know some people who share the same views on the game as you, but for me it was just not an enjoyable experience. The novel thing may have soured me a bit going into it. I still can't believe that happened. I mean I would assume someone in charge of story for the games read through it, it wouldn't have taken long, and should have pointed out the glaring issues.

If you haven't read the other books after the first I would recommend doing so, especially if you liked ME3. There are some nods, mind you very small nods in the grand scheme of things, that 3 makes to certain characters that are cool.

It's on my list, eventually. I read the first one in the lead up to the third game, and I still plan on doing on playthrough of all three games with all DLC back-to-back-to-back, so I'll probably read the other two (there's three good ones total, right? Plus the terrible one, I definitely won't read.) before doing that.

The novel thing is totally unforgivable, but like I said, I just don't hold it against the game.

@Zuldim: Yup the novels, other than the last one Mass Effect: Deception, are solid in my opinion. The first one, the one you've read, is the best.

I don't know what it is about Giant Bomb and the soldier class.  Biotics powers give the game such a different feel from everything else.

@msavo said:

@Zuldim: Yup the novels, other than the last one Mass Effect: Deception, are solid in my opinion. The first one, the one you've read, is the best.

Any idea how the other tie-in stuff, namely the comics, are?

Brad says you could only get the "from ashes" dlc in the collectors edition, which is not true. I got mine as a preorder bonus at launch through gamestop.

I was so disappointed by ME3 that no DLC no matter how good will make me want to play it again.

@smatticus said:

Brad says you could only get the "from ashes" dlc in the collectors edition, which is not true. I got mine as a preorder bonus at launch through gamestop.

It's also available for $10 on all platforms and has been since day 1. There was a pretty big uproar over it.

@Zuldim said:

@msavo said:

@Zuldim: Yup the novels, other than the last one Mass Effect: Deception, are solid in my opinion. The first one, the one you've read, is the best.

Any idea how the other tie-in stuff, namely the comics, are?

The comics are ok. The art isn't particularly great in any of them. The only arc that is interesting, in my opinion at least, is Mass Effect: Evolution which is a couple comics that go through the back story of the Illusive Man. Even that is just ok. I've been spoiled by real comics that these scream transmedia to me.

"How am I gonna fit I'm not sitting in the middle bitch"- Vinny

Skimmed through the comments and I don't think this was mentioned already: the "new" gun, the N7 Valkyrie, is not so new. It was a pre-order bonus when you pre-ordered from Gamestop (in the US, other retailers elsewhere) and they have not made it available otherwise until now. So that's a tad lame of course.

Similarly, the "new" gun in the Leviathan DLC (AT-12 Raider) was the bonus when you pre-ordered from Origin.

I will say that it's good that they've at least made these guns available in some form. Mass Effect 2 had a Gamestop pre-order gun and armor that were never made available in any other form for PC or 360 - which I'm still butthurt about, as the gun is one of the coolest heavy weapons in the game.

I'm fine with pre-order bonuses, but retailer specific pre-order bonuses need to die.

I have to give Vinny a lot of credit for knowing the word contrapasto and using it correctly.

After playing the multiplayer, I find all the singleplayer classes boring.

All the alien races look more interesting and have unique moves like flamethrowers, blade armor and a jetpack charge.

@Brad I totally played this game last week without Javik. Never noticed a lack of Prothean, what essential stuff does he bring exactly?

Leviathan???...Where's Sam and Dean?. Son of a bitch...

@clumsyninja1: I never thought I'd see a Supernatural quote here. I've been marathoning the seasons and literally every ep has Dean going "DERMMIT SERM" and Sam going "DEAN BUT WHY" and then the rock music.

But yeah, nice QL!

@adam1808: A lot of it is context. The big one that I remember is that your understanding of the Asari home world is greatly diminished. He is the one character that can do more than speculate about the Reapers. Shepard is making guesses that are more educated than everyone else, but Javik has lived the entirety of his life at war with the Reapers and witnessing what that war looks like hundreds of years in. Even where the technology you have now is a guess to everyone else but him to an extent.

As far as missions go not a ton, but as far as explaining the fiction goes, a lot.

Ah. A quest with crazy casino lady. Nice.

Man. I just can't enjoy Mass Effect content anymore. As much as I'd like to go back and llau some of this dlc, 3 was such a disappointment. Can't get excited. Always get bummed out thinking about it. Such a shame.

I'd love to know why ME3 is such a "disappointment." At least it had more universe and story development than ME2, which was just a static narrative with great character development. That's fine and all, but not enough happened.

In my opinion, nothing will ever top the atmosphere, soundtrack, and story of the original. However, I very much enjoy both sequels.

The last thing I want to do is play through some more Mass Effect 3 combat. The combat encounters in that game became incredibly repetitive as I played further and further into it. It was always just the same grouping of enemies over and over again.

On a side note; I remember that Elcor secret agent advertisement. The next Mass Effect game should have players playing as that Elcor as he infiltrates enemy bases James Bond style.

Woah, contrapposto used in conversation? Nice.

I may have a problem. I say this was up so I had to download and play it because I don't want spoilers but I don't want to miss giant bomb content =/

Didn't know that Carrie-Anne Moss did the voice of Aria before this quick look, the more you know

@clumsyninja1 said:

Leviathan???...Where's Sam and Dean?. Son of a bitch...

LOL that was my first thought as well.

The DLC for this game has been pretty good so far. Leviathan was good and I'm in the middle of Omega now. I'd love for Aria to be a permanent squad mate in a future game. Plus I just love her sweet ass jacket.

Carrie-Anne Moss is really phoning it in here.

@Marokai said:

@kyrieee: I don't understand what you expect the game to tell you? You get a description of the classes and their unique strengths up front in every game, and not only that, but this was an entire trilogy. Sure, you missed out on the interesting classes in 1, fine, but by now? It's not fair to blame the game for lack of imagination. What more was the game supposed to do so you didn't play as a warrior/brute/barbarian?

I didn't blame the game for lack of imagination, I like the combat and I don't play as a Soldier. What I said was that it is a fact that more people played Soldier than all other classes combined, and the difficulties are tuned in such a way that if you play on Normal you don't need to understand anything about how the combat works. If there is a great combat system there and the majority of players never use it then that's the game's fault. When you have people talking about the combat and mostly bringing up the quality of the shooting then something went wrong somewhere.

@jozzy said:

Can I just say that Vinny is the best.

Vinny and Drew just need to get married and have a bunch of kids already.

...and in my Giant Bomb Slash Fiction, they have...

Also THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR PLAYING THE MOST BORING CLASS IN MASS EFFECT!!!!11

15 dollars? 1/4th the price of the game (only on release at that) for maybe 1/20th the amount of the content at best. Digital content no less. I never understand the logic behind these margins.

I neglected to buy ME3 in the first place because of the Javick stuff anyhow. EA really needs to cut it out with the "sliced out of the middle of a story" DLC before I start buying their games again. Like Brad said; he's getting the better experience just by waiting for the game to be "more complete".

It is cool to see a female turian though; she's definitely designed in what would you would think one would look like.

Just finished Omega on Insanity last night, and I loved every minute of it. Fuck the naysayers. Also, if you play as a Soldier, you don't really get to say the combat is boring; Biotics and tech powers make the Mass Effect combat so unique and fun.

i don't like the Aria character. She doesn't quite work. It's all serious face Aria serious business frowny high collar sit in dance club booth with arms crossed pointedly not deriving any enjoyment whatsoever from loud bassy music.

I just noticed Shepard photo bombing Aria in the video still.

Never understood people that play with default character models instead of customizing it. Thats like my favorite part of any RPG or game in general.

Brad is right on the mark. Not worth 15 bucks, way to combat heavy, doesn't reveal anything. Gameplay's alright but if you don't need it,don't get it.

Oh, Mass Effect. You were so good once. Where did it all go wrong?

This made me sad... ME3 you bastard.

goatee + accented english = evil.

Default Shepard is a weird looking guy.

This is so fucking awesome. Loved Aria so pissed she didn't get expanded on more in the game now I r so happy :D

@Cactusapple said:

Oh, Mass Effect. You were so good once. Where did it all go wrong?

the ending I guess :(

"It's about 80 to 90% combat."

No, thank you. I think I'll pass.

I am sorry, but playing any Mass Effect game except 1 as a soldier is just dumb. Especially Mass Effect 3.

Every time I see someone playing anything else than a Vanguard in ME2/3, it looks so boring in comparison.