Mass Effect 3

[Maniacal]

Just saw the teaser trailer/announcement on Spike's VGA's. Mass Effect 3 involves this (and my impressions from the trailer).

Earth is under attack by the Reapers, who are, despite having done this a multitude of times before, really not doing well with their attack. Earth has a population of 9 billion people but apparently only 2 million died on the first day and 7 million in the first week.
Big Ben in London is still standing though, the narrator is a wounded sniper who is up there, he picks off some thing that was chasing a women through the rubble of a neighbouring building during the trailer and says that Shepherd needs to hurry up and convince the other species to form a massive armada capable of taking out the Reaper fleet that has laid siege to Earth before the planet is destroyed.

 

[Dachs]

"Ah yes, 'Reapers'. The immortal race of sentient starships allegedly waiting in dark space. We have dismissed that claim."

Spoiler srs bzns :

Interesting that they didn't just glass Earth, like they seem to have done with a lot of other planets ("orbital bombardment" figuring heavily in descriptions in ME2). And a situation where the non-human Citadel species are unwilling - or unable - to help Earth...hard to believe that the Reapers don't know where they are. Divide and rule, maybe? We'll see how important your decisions were at the end of the first Mass Effect, I guess.

 

[Maniacal]

I think they are attacking Earth (really, none of this is a spoiler yet) because they fear the humans (and Shepherd) the most, though perhaps fear may be more they realize they are an actual threat. The Reapers take out the central government first, but thanks to Shepherd they lost access to the Citadel from their deep space hide out, so perhaps Earth might have been closer and its clear the Citadel council has done very little about the Reapers anyways.

Unless maybe the Reaper's want Shepherd to bring a massive fleet there? Destroy the majority of the council's fleet in one pitched battle.

Though you'd also think they would stick to their divide and conquer plan, maybe they don't expect Shepherd to be able to raise a fleet large enough.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/entertainment/games/101211-mass-effect-3-trailer-is-down-to-earth

Trailer here, for those who want it

 

[schlaufuchs]

Looks pretty damned good.

 

[Maniacal]

So someone on another forum suggested that the death toll may be for London alone, which would make a lot more sense.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I hope it's not *too* earth-centric. I mean... A game that would be even more than just 50% earth-based would be sort of anti-Mass Effect-ish wouldn't it? ... Going around space and planets with my spaceship is what this game is about. Well we'll see.

I mean, I thought we were saving the galaxy and now we're saving earth (which I guess is now the center point of all the galaxy's focus and history from now on? Ah, I see, what happens on Earth will determine the fate of the universe? Who would have thought?... *snicker*)

 

[Dachs]

So someone on another forum suggested that the death toll may be for London alone, which would make a lot more sense.

Indeed. We're definitely not sure about the numbers at all.

I hope it's not *too* earth-centric. I mean... A game that would be even more than just 50% earth-based would be sort of anti-Mass Effect-ish wouldn't it? ... Going around space and planets with my spaceship is what this game is about. Well we'll see.

I mean, I thought we were saving the galaxy and now we're saving earth (which I guess is now the center point of all the galaxy's focus and history from now on? Ah, I see, what happens on Earth will determine the fate of the universe? Who would have thought?... *snicker*)

Leaked information from the accidental release yesterday indicates that Shep will be the one running around getting people to help save Earth, which one could also get out of the comments at the end of the trailer there. As for why the Reapers are going after Earth, well, wouldn't it be related to why the Collectors were doing the same? In that context, the death tolls make more sense, too, even if they're for the whole planet.

 

[Maniacal]

I suspect that Earth will be, at least with Shepherd, near the end. But yeah hopefully Earth won't be too much of the game. I'd love to have like 30-50 hours just preparing and gonig around the Galaxy with a 5 hour saving earth.

 

[Dachs]

Except BioWare games aren't that long.

 

[Maniacal]

ME2 was 35 or so hours.

 

[Dachs]

The first time, maybe...

 

[LightSpectra]

Given that it's already been revealed that earth is attacked, I'm going to assume that the "earth" campaign is the prologue and not the climax.

Spoiler :

I'm disappointed to see that they're going in for an all-out frontal attack. What made the Reapers interesting villains is that despite their overwhelming firepower, they resorted moreso to manipulation and working behind-the-scenes. The plot of ME1 was that Sovereign was going to activate the Citadel as a Mass relay to instantly summon the whole Reaper fleet and knock out the central Council government before anybody could react. I guess they just gave up on subtlety?

Also, I'm sticking to my belief that the plot-twist ending to Mass Effect 3 is that Shepard uses inter-dimensional portals to summon the Nameless One, Garion's last ward, the Hero of Neverwinter, the Jedi Exile and the Grey Warden, who use a collective mass charisma check to make the Reapers self-genocide.

 

[Dachs]

Given that it's already been revealed that earth is attacked, I'm going to assume that the "earth" campaign is the prologue and not the climax.

Unnecessary. For instance, it's incredibly unclear how the Reapers are actually getting into the galaxy. It's been suggested that maybe a third to a half of the game might be preparatory for the Reaper entry to the galaxy, attempting to get more groups on-side. This way, rescuing Earth quickly becomes somewhat more plausible.

I'm disappointed to see that they're going in for an all-out frontal attack. What made the Reapers interesting villains is that despite their overwhelming firepower, they resorted moreso to manipulation and working behind-the-scenes. The plot of ME1 was that Sovereign was going to activate the Citadel as a Mass relay to instantly summon the whole Reaper fleet and knock out the central Council government before anybody could react. I guess they just gave up on subtlety?

Also not clear! We still don't know how they even get there. Their arrival might have a great deal of subtlety to it - that's, after all, one explanation for why Shepard's got to expend so much effort to gather reinforcements. (The other part of the explanation is, of course, that they have dismissed her claims before they were even made.)

 

[Kozmos]

I wonder how are you going to save Earth if you made all the bad decisions in ME1 and 2. There was this one playthrough that someone did that left them with only one squad member alive in ME2 further compounded by killing all the potential allies in 1.

 

[Dachs]

Ecael on the BW forums was left with 2/13 squadmates, one of whom was Kasumi (paid DLC) and the other Morinth (duh). Dunno if 1/13 is possible without killing the Commander.

His descriptions of some of this stuff are hilarious:

Assignments
Vents - Jacob (dies)
Fire Team Leader - Any
Biotic - Miranda (bring Garrus and Tali, make sure Garrus dies)
Second Fire Team Leader - Grunt (dies)
Final boss squadmates - Miranda and Tali (both die)
Distraction Team - Morinth, Kasumi, Mordin (Mordin dies)

Deaths, before landing
Samara - Betrayed for Morinth, decapitated
Jack - No Armor Upgrade, laser'd
Legion - No Shield Upgrade, incinerated
Thane - No Weapon upgrade, impaled

Deaths, after landing
Jacob - Died by rocket to face
Garrus - Died by seeker swarm
Grunt - Died while closing second door
Mordin - Died holding the line, preferred to get job done and go home
Tali - Died at final boss
Miranda - Died at final boss
Zaeed - Died in a fire

 

[LightSpectra]

I lol'd at the description for Mordin but then felt sad because he's easily my favorite character.

 

[CivFanaticMan]

I think they are attacking Earth (really, none of this is a spoiler yet) because they fear the humans (and Shepherd) the most, though perhaps fear may be more they realize they are an actual threat. The Reapers take out the central government first, but thanks to Shepherd they lost access to the Citadel from their deep space hide out, so perhaps Earth might have been closer and its clear the Citadel council has done very little about the Reapers anyways.

Unless maybe the Reaper's want Shepherd to bring a massive fleet there? Destroy the majority of the council's fleet in one pitched battle.

Though you'd also think they would stick to their divide and conquer plan, maybe they don't expect Shepherd to be able to raise a fleet large enough.

No, no. This is why the reaper attack doesn't seem to be that affective:

Spoiler :

When the reapers in the past destroyed all sentient life, they fused the allien DNA with their own. Reapers have been doing this for millions of years. When they saw the potential of humans, they realized that humanity was the 'perfect species' and if they fused human DNA with their own, they too would become perfect. The reapers strength in the past always came from their surprise attack on the citadel that would impair the species of the galaxy, making the harvest much easier. They can no longer do this so a direct attack would be very costly. But they have humans, and if they can snatch them up, and escape to dark space fast enough, they will be complete.

 

[Maniacal]

No, no. This is why the reaper attack doesn't seem to be that affective:

Spoiler :

When the reapers in the past destroyed all sentient life, they fused the allien DNA with their own. Reapers have been doing this for millions of years. When they saw the potential of humans, they realized that humanity was the 'perfect species' and if they fused human DNA with their own, they too would become perfect. The reapers strength in the past always came from their surprise attack on the citadel that would impair the species of the galaxy, making the harvest much easier. They can no longer do this so a direct attack would be very costly. But they have humans, and if they can snatch them up, and escape to dark space fast enough, they will be complete.

Er, I don't think the Reapers regard the humans as perfect, they are simply more genetically diverse then the other species. They aren't going to just up and leave, its already past their scheduled/planned harvest time. Once they are done with Earth they are going to crush everyone else before they can build anything that could threaten the Reapers.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Awesome

Last time a reaper ship attacked it took entire combined fleet and citidel defences to bring it down. This time it looks like an entire reaper fleet unleashed.