Most people are gonna be bad, because they've never had to be terribly good at the game to beat singleplayer.

Remember, everything from Veteran on down is quite forgiving; it's only on Hardcore or Insanity that the enemies get dangerous at all.

 

It's legitimate if you didn't play the first and second games, and aren't aware of the facts that:

1.) Primitive humans were discovered by the Protheans in the waning years of their war with the Reapers when they knew they were going to lose, and humanity was genetically modified by the Protheans in an unknown manner for unknown reasons, and with unknown consequences and effects.

2.) Humans are the only species that can hear Indoctrination. It's completely silent to everyone and everything else, but humans hear it as an impossibly loud, grating noise. Humans also respond to it differently than any other species. Any other species that is exposed to Indoctrination for long periods of time will become obedient slaves without any will of their own. Humans snap and go batshit insane. We don't bend; we break.

3.) It is implied, after these two facts, that humans were meant to be weapons by the Protheans. Much like how they supposedly 'left' the Asari to inherit the ability to help run and maintain peace in the galaxy, they imbued humans with unique abilities that would allow them to not only fight against the Reapers, but actually counteract Reaper tactics and potentially win. Asari were made to be diplomats. Humans were made to fight and kill Reapers.

Humanity is extremely important. Possibly the most important living species in the galaxy, actually. It's just a dropped plot thread from the first and second game, kind of like how using Mass Effect fields speeds up the generation of Dark Matter and will eventually cause the stars to explode. Like, all of them. That was a thing in 2. Never mentioned in 3. Which is just ten kinds of stupid when you think about it, because "Mass Effect tech is actually going to destroy the universe" would have been one of the few arguments the Star Child could have made that would have lent his presented options legitimacy.

Grant you, the options themselves would still need serious modifications, but the whole 'auto-detonate the Relays' thing would have been totally justified.

They could have easily fixed that for new players by releasing a five dollar DLC recap comic for the first and second games, like what PS3 players got fo, that allows you to recap and pick through all the important decisions of the first two games.

New players would have gotten it to know what was going on. Old players like myself would have gotten it because it means we don't have to play two other entire games all over again to have a different ME3 experience. It would have practically been a required download for anyone who played the game, and pretty much everyone would have probably bought it. They could have sold it like hotcakes. Especially if it also contained information from the comics and graphic novels, because a lot of people didn't read that shit, and have no idea what the hell the Omega DLC is talking about.

Hell, they could have jacked it up to a 10 dollar download, and still pretty much everybody would have bought it. I know I would have.

She is, and her writer is a hack to boot.

It's only mind-blowing because you lack any context whatsoever. That's not on you; EA has been slanting the numbers forever.

The overwhelming majority of players picked Soldier, yes.

Know what the most popular background is by far? Spacer.

Know what the most popular history is by far? War Hero.

Know what the most popular gender is? Maleshep.

Know what the most popular face is by far? The one on the box.

Know why all of those lead their respective packs by upwards of 50%, if not moreso?

Because Spacer War Hero Soldier No Facial Modifications Maleshep is the default state of the character customization screen. Those numbers aren't tracking people making choices. Those numbers are tracking people who just went "accept, accept, accept, I don't care, accept."

Soldier isn't the most popular because it's good, or even because it's the most fun. The 'best' class in terms of kicking ass is the Vanguard, which is hilariously OP, and the most entertaining and rewarding classes to play in terms of tactics and a rich, immersive combat experience are actually the bottom three; Engineer, Adept, and Sentinel. No, Soldier is the most popular because it's the one you get saddled with if you sprint through the character selection screen, which is what everyone who isn't an RPG fan does.

It's not evidence of some mysterious trend. It's evidence that EA succeeded in their overt attempts at pulling in some of the Call of Duty/Halo/Modern Warfare/Battlefield crowd. You can find even further proof of this by looking at the most popular not-Soldier class. What is it?

Infiltrator; aka "OMG NAVY SEAL SPEC OPS NOSCOPE SNIPERZ."

The dumb FPS fans, or the ones who didn't care, went with Soldier. The smarter ones, or the ones who are bi-curious for RPGs, went Infiltrator. The leftovers are all of us, aka everyone else.

 

How could humanity have been discovered in the waning years of their war with the Reapers when the Reapers shut down all the Mass Relays from the start in that cycle? The Protheans couldn't travel anywhere without taking an extremely long time, and I doubt they would have been out exploring the galaxy in that brief time before they were completely subjugated instead of focusing all efforts on repelling the Reapers. It seems more likely that the Protheans encountered humanity before they ever knew about the Reapers, in which case they couldn't possibly have prepared humanity for a threat they didn't know existed.

We know the Protheans studied ancient humans, and we know they implanted at least one (but probably more) tribals with a tracking chip of some kind. Show me proof that the Protheans intervened to the level you're suggesting and altered human DNA.

One of the Salarian prisoners on Virmire heard whispers in his head. The Rachni heard indoctrination as a "sour note from space." Humans are definitely not the only species that can detect it. And the only time I recall indoctrination, or something like indoctrination, being associated with a loud grating noise is the end of ME3 when the Illusive Man confronted you and Anderson.

I'm not sure where you're getting that. Humans have been enslaved by indoctrination plenty of times. The Cerberus personnel in the derelict Reaper became slaves to what was left of it, throwing themselves on Dragon's Teeth to become Husks. Amanda Kenson in the ME2 Arrival DLC was made to open the way for the Reapers through the Alpha Relay. Paul Grayson in one of the novels was certainly enslaved and directed by the Reapers. And then look at the Illusive Man in ME3.

Considering how suspect your other two "facts" are, I'm not willing to buy into this theory.

:| Seriously? You're trying to demonize people for preferring a certain play-style?

 

There is no mention of such changes, the only race the Protheans did change are the Asari and their biotics.

Absolutely untrue. Like the one above me said other species have the same experiences. For example I remember that there is message about Rana Thanoptis, the Asari Scientist you meet in 1 and 2, getting crazy and killing fellow scientist after complaining about voices in her head.

Not sure where you get those ideas from. The Protheans never planned the future of those races like you describe it.
Humanity is nothing special in the games other than a new race still finding its place in the society, that is what made you so special in the first few games, not being the secret apex race.

Only the whole Dark Matter thing is true but even that argument stand on shaky ground.

 

By blind FTL travel, presumably. The Protheans scattered to try and hide from the Reapers, and were able to draw their extermination out by several hundred years in the process. Did you play the first game? The Prothean VI explained this.

It's not in the part that you quoted. You need to keep reading. Humans are the only species that can hear Indoctrination. They are also the only species that is driven insane by it, instead of becoming an obediant slave.


When taken with the fact that humans were interfeared with by the Protheans, and the logical timeline present for such interfearance, it strongly suggests that humans were modified by Protheans to be some kind of anti-Reaper species. At the very least, we resist Indoctrination in ways that other species not only do not, but literally can not.

The only thing that would make us 'special' in that way, is if it was the Protheans who did it. Unless you expect us to believe that humanity somehow magically evolved to be anti-Reaper Indoctrination-resistant when no other species ever has. Not even the Rachnai could do it, and they vocalize in the same subharmonic frequencies that Indoctrination does.

After he had already been enslaved, yes. First you hear nothing. Then you start to hear whispers, but by the time it's progressed that far, it's already too late for you. Benezia said as much, and Saren confirmed it indirectly through his own dialogues. Humans are the only ones who hear it from the very beginning, and it's utterly repulsive to us. Kaiden said he could "feel his teeth shaking," and the humans in the intro of the first game said that the noise Sovereign was emitting sounded like "the screaming of the damned."

Only humans experience this.

But we are the only ones who can hear it before it's too late to do anything to stop it. The Rachnai heard a "sour note," but that was after their species had already been Indoctrinated, started an intergalactic war, and was in the process of being exterminated. And it wasn't heard by the Rachnai who were being Indoctrinated. It was heard by other Rachnai who were listening "at" those Rachnai.

After being driven insane. Also, retcons. There's a reason a lot of fans of the first game were pissed at the second. The massive sweeping retcons is one of them.

Don't forget, Terminus space wasn't originally a giant Mos Eisley. It was filled with dozens, if not hundreds, of legitimate upstanding goverments and alien species who simply didn't want to be a part of the Council, and were not part of Council law.

There was way more to it than slavery, space pirates, gangs, and Aria. It wasn't a wild west. ME2 retconned it into that.

That's certainly your choice.

I for one will choose to believe that you have an alternative one, instead of assuming that you believe that humans magically resisted Indoctrination and magically heard it because they magically evolved that way in spite of never being exposed to anything to do with the Reapers at any point.

Humans have an ability that is singularly unique among all other known species, or at least, they did until it was retconned. Humans were also meddled with by ancient aliens for unknown purposes and reasons. The math adds up.

Somebody never found the Consort's secret~

Now I know for a fact that you have no idea what you're talking about. Javik flat-out TELLS Liara that they did this to the Asari for exactly those reasons I listed above. They had a huge goddamn fight about it. The Asari "Goddess" is just a female Prothean scientist who headed the project. The Protheans left dozens of caches of advanced alien technology all over Thessia for the Asari to find and help them along in this, only they never did, because the Asari were stupid or lazy or too busy pole dancing to find them, or whatever excuse you prefer.

That was actually one of the best things about the From The Ashes DLC. I would have bought it just to hear Javik shit-talk the entire Asari species for being a disappointment and a failure at what they were literally spoon-fed to do. It's freaking hilarious.

It's not demonizing if you're quoting something you've heard word-for-enunciation over an Xbox headset.

Maybe you should feel bad for assuming that I'm trying to demonizing anyone simply by quoting them. How dare you!?

 

I have to say, the whole idea of human exceptionalism has always annoyed me in any setting. What I liked about Mass Effect initially was that humans were very much the new kids on the block (though that appears to have changed somewhat with 3, which is something I didn't particularly care for). Every other race had significant advantages over them, as was appropriate given that they'd all been in space for much longer. The idea that humans are somehow 'anti-Reaper' weapons is not something I'm inclined to accept. It's too far-fetched and I'm glad it was removed from the game.

As for your 'demonizing' people who choose certain classes, I think you may be looking at things a little too broadly. The reason I played Infiltrator on my first playthrough was so that I could get through the combat parts faster and listen to story, lore and character development sooner. I used Vanguard to actually enjoy the combat system.

 

Like I said.. this is simply untrue. There is no indication that humans react different to Indoctrination. There is simply not enough data in the games aboiut it,

That is true.. even the 3rd is full of them.

Actually I did.. I simply don´t infer that observation and genetic, world wide manipulation is the same thing. We only know that Protheans observed earth.

Javik only says that the Asari were an experiment but he never indicates the reason for it. And the experiments clearly happen before the Reapers appear. The Asari get attacked by an Alien race but by the time the reapers attack the Protheans control every spacefaring race.

And the caches of Alien technology aren´t a Prothean idea.. this way the architect ensures that evolution follows the same paths.

 

In a surprise move as well as almost totally pointless, they decided to release an interactive comic named only: Genesis 2.

Mass Effect: Genesis 2 is included on-disc in Wii U copies of Mass Effect 3. It is available for 320 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360, 320 BioWare Points on PC, and $3.99 USD on PlayStation 3.

It was apparently just released for everyone besides Wii U users on April 2nd. I never would have noticed had I not been checking how much citadel costs for my PS3 version of ME3.

Wow... sure could have used that earlier you know...

 

The Mother of all Necros but I felt this deserved it. Mass Effect 3 ending rewritten. 118K words, 539 pages and it is.. something.

Enjoy.

 

EDIT: Well okay, it's not really a fanfic. Not really a story even. Just skimming through it (I'm not reading all that right now), looks like the guy went through the whole game and made a detailed list on how he'd change things like romances and companion dialogues and everything. The actual ending rewrite's only part of it.

 

I'm sorry, but it's far too late for anybody to actually give a shit.

I wish it wasn't. But it is.

 

Huh. Thanks mate. I might take a look at this whenever I get around to my next playthrough.

 

So I was reading some ME fics and got a hankering for some gameplay. Wanted to kill a few hours before family gets here and tried to load up ME3.

Origin has lost my game and my game code. My email does not have a product code in it anywhere and my order history for my account, the account I only used to play this one fucking game, does not have my order for this game in it.

Google yields a bunch of answers that don't yield solutions, and bioware/ea's help is undermanned today. Is it possible to issue a chargeback on a 2 year old purchase?

 

First of all, link to all this exciting fics?

 

Not at all exciting in any way. Mostly just stupid fixit fics that advanced humanity before first contact.

This one wasn't completely awful:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7973924/1/Hello-Time-Bomb

edit: To clarify, it's not completely awful if you like fluff

 

Doesn't sound awful. A humanity that doesn't cowtow to the citadel probably would have made me like ME enough to finish it...

 

Well then here's a C2 for you. Alternate First Contact War C2

Be warned that most of them are bad, and a lot of them are crossovers.

But there's some decent stuff in there somewhere.

 

Yes. Let's instead antagonize the races whose military might outstrips ours several times over >.<

That is actually one of the few things about early ME canon I didn't mind - Humanity was very much a second rate power, and treated as such. Treated quite well all things considered, probably in light of its growth potential and the fact they are much more likeable than Batarians. Made a nice break from HFYs.

 

Dozens of intelligent species did exactly that according to the lore. Or were you under the impression that the Terminus Systems was just the Batarian homeworld with Nar Shaddaa as a pit stop going in plus a few small-time space pirate gangs for flavor?

Telling the Council to fuck off doesn't mean what you think it means. You choose not to follow their laws, and in turn, you don't get to enjoy any of the benefits of being associated with them. That's it. They don't conquer. That's not what they do. They're literally the opposite of conquerors. They're anti-expansionist. They fight all attempts of turning the Council itself into something approaching an actual democracy, and they block all attempts at opening new Relays.

They want to keep everything as contained as possible, and they want to keep the power in as few hands as possible. That's the political game they play. And you can't play that game by declaring war on everybody who tells you your deal is shit and walks away from the table. Not only do they allow that, you could build an argument that they arguably encourage it, considering the way they treat certain segments of the galactic population.

Half the reason I'm pissed over that one Halo/ME crossover is that it died before we got to any of the good shit, where the Council found out that a race, singular, held off a coalition of religious zealots approximately as large as the three core Council species by themselves, figured out a way to attain FTL using sustained stabilized black holes, and has built ships, singular, that are approximately as large as the individual arms of the Citadel, if not larger.

The other reason is because of the blatant mishandling of the inter-species politics between the Humans and the Sanghili, the insistence in making a random fucking person that wasn't Shepard important, the Asari wank, the Energy Sword wank, the military wank, and the "ONI did nothing wrong" fanboy apologism.

But it was mostly because it died before the Council got to look an alliance of alien species just as strong as they were, if not stronger, that did not need and did not rely upon Element Zero in the slightest to do what they do, square in the eye. It could have been "the fic where the Council realizes they aren't the biggest fish in the pond."

And it died.

And holy shit the wank got bad near the end, Jesus Christ.