oh but the ending was awful hurr durr. naw i loved it a bunch even with the ending. i have no idea what people were expecting, but i don't care. the journey was awesome. i still feel that 2 was better than 3, but then again i think i'm just in love with the whole recruiting a team idea. i still have yet to make it to the end of 2 without anyone dying lol
The ending was awful and despite trying I will probably never be able to forgive them for it. All citadel did was make me sadder with what we did get man. Introducing a new character in the last five minutes who prattles nonsensical bullshit at you that your own actions have just contradicted and not even being able to talk back was assinine. Then because the little dictator demands it you pick one of three explosions, to get a vague nonsensical ending that leaves more questions than answers before BOOM a screen comes up that literally says "good work now go buy some DLC".
Speaking of the journey, there were a lot of other bad decisions along the way, killing Emily Wong off on twitter of all things and replacing her with an awkward Chobot, requiring use of multiplayer to get the best ending, introducing a last minute mcguffin to resolve the series with, marginalizing Mass Effect 2 characters (Miranda had to have had 3 minutes of dialogue), requiring you to buy dlc to get the Prothean or return to Omega, setting up a confrontation with harbinger that never happens. I could go on and on. Not saying it didn't have it's moments but every time I'd start enjoying myself I'd run into something that reminded me this game fell short of Mass Effect 2.
What were we expecting, I would have loved for the game to be more like mass effect 2 man. If I do a mission for the volus to open up "buy tanks for the volus" then I actually go to the super spectre special shepard space ship supply store console and commit resources to buy some tanks for the volus how about at some point I see some goddamed tanks being driven by some goddamned volus?!? I buy a cannon in ME2, I see the cannon at some point. And the cannon actually makes a difference. That is like writing 101. Chekhov's mutha'-fuggin' gun... er thanix cannon. The writer who wrote Mordin Solus put it very well when he said he wanted to see charging krogans running at brutes and Asari fighters blowing up banshees. Yeah man! That's the ending I wanted, bringing the galaxy together like always! Hope beating back fear! Epic scale! Not some lame bleak shit where everybody's human, I get talked at in a bad 2001 homage and we break up the emotional gravitas with an awkward turret segment. Then the worst ending, which actually gives the reapers what they want, the thing we spent all of Mass Effect one struggling to keep Saren from trying to accomplish is... The hardest to get... And sold to us as the best option... Again I could go on and on.
I woulda been real happy with an ending that felt more interactive, more commitment to following established plot threads, some more time with ME2 characters (Hey, we grew to love them too) and an epilogue. An outright happy ending wouldn't have hurt either.
I mean arrival is like
Harbinger:
You and I Shepard, I will assume control of your ass this Sunday at Citadel-Slam.
Shepard:
Bring it on!
That seems unlikely.
Fuck you. Fuck your squid mother.
Then I contact my pay per view provider... And I learn Harbinger has left the building. It's like one of those bad episodes after a main character leaves a sitcom.
Hackett's all: "Shepard, we think we just spotted Harbinger coming this way."
And: "Hey guys, you'll never guess who's on the phone from south America? Iiiiiiiiit's Haaaarbinger! What... What do you mean you're not coming back for prom? ... I know but... It's the final battle."
Then we spend two games building up Emily Wong, we even include a bunch of clips of her in shadow broker... And they kill her off in text. Outside of the game. I was looking forward to that interview for like... Seven years man.
Sorry btw man not going off on you, it's just that "huuur duuuur"? Seriously, that's insulting. You don't care? Well you should care. Oh. You should allllllllll care. That's right. I'm not the crazy one here my friends. Oh no! That's why I had to kidnap Casey Hudson's family... Okay maybe I'm crazy to care, but I feel like Bioware really blew that finale. But I loved that series man. I played through ME2 4-5 times. And that isn't counting all the replays I did of the last mission to try different tech experts, shielders and B-team commanders. I only played through ME3 once. ME2 however was great and I too loved building the team. Classic space opera. Conversely to your experience btw I actually managed to have nobody die my first play through, no guides, though I kid you not, I spent half an hour deciding who should go in the tunnel, who should lead b team, if I should send someone back with the scientists, if I wanted my guys to guard the door ect ect. Took Miranda to the human reaper just because she was one of my favorite characters (I took the three "best" characters imo, the "leaders" shep/miranda/garrus) and that turned out to be one of the steps to save her. Was proud when she told the Elusive man to stick it. Anyhow I digress.
In answer to the thread, Civ 5 I suppose. Not a console game but probably your best bet. Or a doa extreme beach volleyball game. So I can contemplate every day how very much I miss blue skies, warm beaches and women as I eat paste from tubes on shitty, cold, barren, dry and lonely mars.
