Digital Gonzo 148: Mass Effect 3 [The Round Tables]
Now that much of the debate has been heard regarding the end of the game, this episode focuses on the rest of it. There are definitely still issues with combat and structure that affect the gameplay experience regardless of how you felt about its close, but there is also a deep and rich adventure to be had finding everyone and everything in the last hours before the galaxy takes on the Reapers. There were so many people who wanted to talk about this game that I couldn’t not confine them to a single, epic round-table, so instead we have three.
Appropriately you’ll meet many old faces and some new. Everyone has something to say. At the close we spend a good 48 minutes talking about the Citadel DLC with full plot spoilers for that as well as Leviathan and Omega. Everyone present agreed that Citadel was downright essential if you love the characters of Mass Effect so if nothing else, play that before you listen to the last third of this show.
Alex Shaw: On Taking Back Earth
Round Table 1: Margeurite Kenner & Alasdair Stuart
Alex Shaw: Some Statistics
Round Table 2: Neil Taylor, Jerome McIntosh & James Perkins
Round Table 3: Matt Ramsey, Leelee Scaldaferri & Sharon Shaw
The Idea Channel: Will Space Travel Save Us?
Alex Shaw: Shepard Effects
Citadel
Margeurite can be found on Cast of Wonders, Leelee is the artist for Extra Credits. You’ll also hear a segment from The Idea Channel which is available on YouTube and something I sincerely suggest you each spend a few hours delving into. Some incredible, funny, lightly delivered, deeply considered six-minute lectures on there. Kind of like TED Talks but with more visual flair and packed to the gills with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it geeky references.
It’s been a great ride on the Normandy. I hope some day soon we can come back and re-enter this universe which has played host to some of our favourite games of all time.
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September 25, 2013
I haven’t finished the podcast yet, but a small correction. The ending on Rannoch doesn’t depend on just your Paragon/Renegade score. It also depends on the outcomes of most decisions that you made involving the Geth and Quarians across all 3 games (including preventing Tali’s exile in her loyalty mission)
August 6, 2014
First off I just would like to say thank you. I have been listening to these podcasts for the past few months and they have provided hours of entertainment, crammed with insightful opinions and ideas. Keep up the good work.
Despite this, I have not felt the urge to make an account and post my own thoughts in the comment section, until now at least.
I have often said that Mass Effect is a great game, and the Mass Effect series is among the best out there, but Mass Effect the provides an unsatisfying climax. This does not mean I think the game is bad just no where near as good as it’s predecessors.
There where moments in Mass Effect 3 that struck me deep, Mordin’s final act, Thane’s last words to Shepard and the emotional bond you choose to share with one of your crew, are just a few of these moments.
So it came as no surprise that I was shocked at the outrage that came bundled with the ending. I had heard of the disappointment before I bought the game and prepared for the worst. I bit the bullet and bought the game (replaying the previous two instalments first of course), and experienced the ending first hand (the original one). And I was disappointed, not angry, just disappointed. I was not looking for a happy ending, I like that there is no way to get your cake and eat it too. I was disappointed with the presentation, and the seeming lack of coherence in an other wise coherent game series.
I would like to address a few points made throughout these podcasts (I assume at this point people listening to this one have already watched them). The first point being that people dissatisfied with the ending, wanted a happy one and simply spat there dummies out and stomped their feet. This was not necessarily the case, as stated before, some of us simply wanted coherence, but we knew this is not something that can be stitched in with a patch. Yet our voices where silenced by none other than Biowares own forum mods. Which is something that saddens me to this day. Many who provided constructive criticism on the Bioware forums had their posts edited, removed and even accounts banned if they dared speak out again (something that happened to a lesser extent with Dragon Age 2). Once all the smoke had cleared even the most well thought out and well reason forum threads came across as “This game sucks, give us a new ending”.
Not to mention the DLC content, the inclusion of which really hurt the core game, filling in the gaps in the story. Yet this came at a time where large groups of gamers where getting sick of EA cutting “important” content, or well slapping that content behind a pay wall. For many a Prothean was the straw that broke the camels back as a seemingly important lore figure caged to those who did not pay up after buying a game. But to me the biggest travesty was Leviathan, the information shared in the DLC made the ending much clearer and make much of the “Extended Cut” dialogue unnecessary as a result. DLC that those playing on the Wii U never received.
With Mass Effect 3, unlike the original and Mass Effect 2, they made the mistake of using content designed as a part of the story to use as DLC. This was a huge mistake, although Omega and the Citadel stand as true examples of stand alone content to expand your experience, rather than an “optional necessity”. I can’t help but feel that much of this animosity toward the game would have been avoided if they just put “From Ashes” and “Leviathan” in the complete game (but that’s just me).
I may seem like a negative Nelly here but I really do love Mass Effect, it shows what a game can really do in terms of presenting an interactive and engaging narrative. Unfortunately the way it was marketed and the way distributed also show the some of the worst of what the games industry has to offer, not to mention the aftermath on the forums and youtube, was a mess.
Although I could ramble on all day about this I won’t. I feel this comment is long enough and for those who read it all: Thank you.