The Glade 4.0

I'm a big stickler for animation quality and when you start messing with the facial mesh that uses one set of animations, things start to get wonky in motion. That's probably the #1 reason for me using the default male face, lowest probability of seeing weird things like eyelids clipping or lips not connecting right.

For Lenas: This spoiler has plot spoilers.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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Things can't always go how you want, Taly. That's one of the main themes of part 3 :p

...and give some hint as to what your spoilers are in the future please. Especially since you've apparently made yourself aware of the entire plot prior to even stealing the game.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

This spoiler has plot spoilers.


And if I put it in a spoiler, I mean it!

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yeah, I thought it was going to be something along the same thread as we were already discussing... man I wish I hadn't looked at that spoiler.

Just goes to show, just because you know someone isn't playing a game and you think it's probably safe to look at their spoiler doesn't mean they won't look up the ending and post it anyway.

Wait... So you guys clicked a spoiler, and now you're getting upset that it contained a spoiler?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I loved ME2, it was one of my favorite games. I had every intention of playing ME3. I still might. I'm kinda hoping for DLC that gives more endings.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Only upset at myself. I didn't go off on Taly, I just asked her to put some kind of note about the spoiler. It's nice to know the difference between a romance spoiler and an ending spoiler. All I'm asking is that we all be decent human beings and put something like, "Re: ending" before you start dropping bombs like the one Taly just used to ruin my day.

I'm in this boat as well, also mainly angry at myself. I avoid spoilers like the plague, but in a momentary lapse of judgement coupled with the fact that I knew Taly wasn't playing the game, I clicked and ruined my day as well.

So, I've basically been using the N7 Valiant exclusively. Sniping is that good in this game. I was using the Valiant until I got the Black Widow and now I only use that. I was carrying the N7 Hurricane, but I've never once had to switch to it. So yeah, Black Widow V and it is pure rape. I get 40% bonus damage when cloaked instead of being able to use a power. Not really a big deal when cloak lasts 11 seconds and recharges in 2.

Nothing quite like having 4-5 guys standing in a line and shooting through all of them with a single shot Indiana Jones style.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

My friend says he's near the end of the game at 29 hours or so and he has no idea who the DLC character is when I asked him, so it does look like "From Ashes" is a Zaeed type situation. Side mission, squad mate and "flavor text" style character on the ship.

That said, anyone that has played the series will probably want the lore that the DLC has to offer. It's definitely changed my outlook on the

I'm about 8 hours in and I think I'm about to find out what came of my Rachni decision in part 1.

More ending spoilers (sortof)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I'm not going to read any replies to this particular post until I beat the game, since I'm sure Talya will take issue with it, but here is a spoiler-free guide to the 16 different endings

They're all the same except for minutia. Every ending is nearly identical. Also, the videos listed in your link contradict a stated essential plot element that WOULD be different, if it were true.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

The minutia is exactly what makes this series great. Mass Effect's parts are greater than its' sum.

The minutia is nice, but the fact that nothing you do can influence the eventual fate of Normandy or her crew (which I haven't spoiled anywhere), Shepard, or the galaxy as a whole, is somewhat odd considering how much your choices have mattered so far in these games.

Your actions can impact the fate of Earth, which, admittedly, is important to us humans, but in the grand scheme of things is just one planet out of thousands of inhabited worlds.

What I've always liked about Bioware RPGs are the character personalities and interpersonal relationships. (This is why Skyrim, for all its content, feels empty to me.) Mass Effect and Dragon Age really perfected these, but it's been true throughout most of their games. They make me invested in what happens to them, one way or another. (My favorite Bioware characters, btw, are not even romanceable: Varric from DA2, Mordin Solus from ME2, and HK-47 from KotOR.) I'm sure ME3 won't disappoint in that regard...so I'm still likely to play it through, but it will feel rather hollow without a way to get even a bittersweet ending.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Minutiae may or may not make an ending different. Take Mass Effect 1 - that game has only one ending. Shepard sends Sovereign packing. The Council may or may not survive, Udina or Anderson may end up as Earth's representative, but the ending is the same no matter how you slice it. Shepard is a pariah in Mass Effect 2, no matter how Mass Effect 1 ended.

Knights of the Old Republic 1 has two endings. In one, the Republic crushes the Sith Empire. In the other, the Republic is crushed under the boot heel of the Sith Empire.

The ending to Mass Effect 3 is a big deal. People have played through three games to see it. They're invested in the game and the character, but not just any character - their character that they imported into two games. Some people want their fairy tale ending. Some people want their survivors pick up the pieces ending. Some people want their no survivors ending. Some people want to have Shepard join the Reapers.

A movie can't satisfy all of those possibilities. Video games can. For a three-part series where the developers crowed about how many hundreds or thousands of decision variables they were keeping track of through all three games to make a completely personalized gaming experience, they damn well better. Minutiae don't matter anymore. That minutiae should have added up to a mountain by now. This isn't one of the two intermediary titles. Mass Effect 3 is the closer. All those minutiae from the first two games need to add up to fundamentally different endings. Otherwise, Bioware failed. What good was tracking all those decision variables if the only thing they do is influence a few lines of random dialogue that I hear while cruising the Citadel?

I have no idea what the ending is, because I haven't really read anything other than Shepard is back, and Earth is in trouble. However, the scope of this series has been hyped since day one. Bioware gave us a lot of big talk about how they were making the next leap forward in interactive storytelling. Now, they have to deliver.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I don't think it's fair to say that Bioware could have given us every single possible ending when no other game franchise has even come close to this level of involvement. I really think they did everything that they could, story wise, while still being able to deliver the same quality of game to everyone that played it.

Those minutiae don't need to all add up to a unique ending, culminating in some off-the-charts epic **** that causes you money shot your TV. They need to add up to different events throughout the entire story, where maybe the only person who would notice a difference is the one making the decisions. Which is exactly what's happening in my game right now.

Bioware never made the promise that every single person would have a unique ending to Mass Effect. They said your decisions would carry over. Just because people have a romanticized version of what that means in their head doesn't mean that Bioware lied or failed to deliver.

Coro, making divergent plots is hard. It's harder when you have to have voice acting for the dialogue. Voice actors cost money, and it takes time.

That's why Wing Commander was doing it with **** FMV (including possibilities for character deaths that do or don't show up in later scenes) in the 90's.

/facepalm

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Other game franchises haven't been talked up by their developers the way Mass Effect has. Other game developers haven't bragged about how many decision variables they were tracking the way Mass Effect's developers have. Other game developers haven't been selling the, "Your decisions matter," line for three games like Mass Effect's developers have.

As such, I am going to hold Mass Effect's ending to a higher standard than ChronoTrigger.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.