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List Price: $29.99
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***|EDIT|***
i assume amazon has fixed their digital downloading process of the game but if not, i leave my original post below.
like most people, the story was quite a disappointment. it really didn't connect well altogether. that said, i'm still leaving my 5-star rating because i still found the game fun to play and right now find myself really liking multiplayer. if you're planning on purchasing ME3 in anticipation of an amazing story and sequel to ME1-2, i would say be cautious, maybe if you have a friend who already has it play around with it first. otherwise, i would say try to play the game for the battle sequences and don't focus too much on the plot.
***|END EDIT|***
Don't delete the files from Amazon if you've downloaded it already!
this is for people who have downloaded the pre-load off of Amazon's digital game and software service and have no idea what to do with the files. first of all, understand that you will NOT be able to play the game until EA's release of March 6th. this is simply to get ahead of the crowd by having everything ready to go at the stroke of midnight.
so like some others, i tried to install the game from the files downloaded by amazon and like the others, failed to get anything going with it. this is my first amazon game download so i don't know if this is supposed to happen and everything magically comes together on release date. so for those of you who would like some sort of validation that you did indeed download the right files and what have you, you can do a little sneak around.
before you can try anything with ME3 you'll have to install Origin (essentially EA's version of Steam). create a user blah blah blah...
within Origin, click the settings button and from there "Redeem product code" (redemption code provided by amazon, don't forget the redeem code for the gun as well as the game)
now if you're like me, you did this and tried to install ME3, only to find Origin trying to download the entire 10 gb again. then you tried Setup.exe in the amazon-downloaded files but kept getting errors. again, no need to delete the amazon files and try redownloading the files.
here starts my little instruction list. from here on out, you have downloaded everything from amazon, installed and set up Origin, and have redeemed your product code so that ME3 shows up in your games list in Origin.
1) if you installed Origin normally, you'll have two folders in your program files folder in C: drive names "Origin" and "Origin Games" (My Computer -> Local Disk(C:) -> Program Files (or Program Files x86 for 64-bit users) -> Origin Games)
2) within "Origin Games," create a new folder and title it "Mass Effect 3" (i think it is case-sensitive)
3) now locate the files downloaded from Amazon (most likely a folder titled "Mass Effect 3 Digital Deluxe Version (Pre-load Available)" in whatever directory you set as default for Amazon game downloads)
4) you should have 9 files in that folder, one of which is the zip folder that contains everything (~9.7 gb)
5) unzip that file into the "Mass Effect 3" folder created in step 2 (depending on your computer speed, took me ~5 minutes) (you'll need a program that can unzip files)
6) so now your "Mass Effect 3" folder should contain the "_Installer" folder, Binaries folder, BIOGame, etc (6 folders and 1 .dll file i believe)
7) run Origin and in your "My Games" folder click download/preload/install for ME3 (i can't remember what the button said exactly)
8) the status bar should turn blue and display "preparing..." or something like that
after about 5-10 minutes, when all is said and done, you have completed everything you can for ME3 (if you try to play it you'll just get a date-check prompt).
so if you're like me and have below-broadband speeds, you did not waste several hours downloading from amazon. the above process should take 20-30 minutes depending how fast your computer is. so if you thought about re-downloading the game from amazon or Origin but instead followed my steps, you've saved yourself hours and hours of anguish.
now just wait until march 6th. i pre-emptively rated the game 5-stars because i know it's going to be that good (and to share this technique)
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I adore the Mass Effect series for all of the changes to the world that happened based on my character's actions, things as grand as wether a civilization lives or dies, or if some guy gets his refund in the citadel markets. I felt like Shepard made her mark in the galaxy and earned her reputation, for better or worse. The first 99.9% of this game is the same, which why I gave this review a 3 star instead of 1. The reason it doesn't get a 5 is that all of those moments are rendered meaningless in the final minutes of gameplay. The entire plot takes a left turn, and rail-roads you into 1 of three options that change the color pallete of the final cutscene, screws-over gallactic civilization, and strands your crew on some unknown planet, never to be heard from again. There is no epilogue, no closure.
Unless something is done, I will never trust Bioware with my gaming dollars, and more importantly: my time, again. I recommend that you don't either.
Best Deals for Mass Effect 3 Digital Deluxe Version
Hard to put into the words how disappointed I was with this game's ending. I feel so strongly about it that it has overtaken my ability to meaningfully comment on almost every other aspect of the game. I'll speed through it.
Per usual, the combat isn't innovative for a Shooter (although being able to roll is a nice change) and the controls have interactivity and general response issues from time to time, but lifting "main powers" (Slow-Down Time, "Blinking" across the map, Invisibility, etc) from other games in genre, and then using them as the centerpieces for the six classes, provides a lot of diversity. I've always enjoyed replaying the games of the series for that reason, but I'm not sure I can endure the disappointment of not being able to alter Shepard's or the galaxy's fate in any significant way.
Music, set design, and cinematography also come through strongly, with the game world really feeling like a galaxy going through a desperate time -until the final hurdle, where the fight scenes become stratified (can't change them unlike Mass Effect 2) and generic (just lots of bland and confusing action on the screen, think beginning of Episode III in SW Prequel Trilogy).
So now we get to the part I really want to talk about. The game's ending.
SPOILERS:
So aside from the things noted in the above observations, what's wrong with the ending?
Well, first of all, the conclusion of the series is making a split second decision to resolve a tension that was never a central theme of the series -the inability of Organics and Synthetics to coexist peacefully. Obviously this theme mattered in relations between the Quarians and the Geth, but the Quarians and the Geth were only one part of a larger story, and I was never able to make much of connection between Geth and the Reapers ... because the narrative itself stressed that the Geth and Reapers were too different for there to be much of a comparison between them. In fact, Mass Effect 2 retreated from the idea Reapers are Synthetics at all, instead positing they were a species of Cyborgs. Mass Effect 3 doesn't explicitly backtrack that, but they don't affirm it either, and we seem to return to the Mass Effect 1 idea that Reapers are Synthetics, with the added stipulation (loosely coaxed from Mass Effect 2) that they function as storehouses for organic civilizations. My basic point is that the Reaper's motivations, which have been an awkward specter throughout, are brought to the fore after being a mystery for so long so we can upset the themes that were actually developed and derive a sub-par ending from that. Reminds me of the Matrix trilogy.
Now, despite the fact Shepard is capable of demonstrating that Organics and Synthetics CAN live in peace (very successfully), the ending insists that the differences between the species are too immense, and that some kind of radical transformation is required to do what has already been done. Okay. So basically the ending choices revolve around a moral choice that the game never *really* developed up to, but the tone and setting implies that it HAS, in fact, developed up to, which has confused and sickened long time fans.
So the choice itself a a bad one. The consequences are even worse. All of the real choices of the series, from the relationships you develop to the resources and allies you gather, are completely undermined -the galactic civilization you came to know and love is destroyed despite all of your efforts to save it. That's right. After 4-5 years, hundreds of dollars, and dozens of hours of playtime, there is no way to save it. Mass Relays get destroyed in all endings (ending galactic civilization as we know and love it), and something (or multiple things) you struggled and put additional effort into to saving is lost for no real reason, be it the Geth/Synthetics, Shepard himself, galactic civilization as a whole, the structural integrity of the human spirit and its innocence, etc...
Choice #1: you can destroy the Reapers, but then you also have to obliterate the Geth and other friendly AI, who it has already been established CAN coexist with Organics and have a just claim to life. I think the development team ought to have taken a glance at this and realized it would have left a bad taste in the Paragon audience's mouth, but there you go. Choice #2: Transform into a wave of energy which propagates a mutation of all beings into Organic-Synthetic hybrids, a nod to the classical science authors who enjoyed writing about huge paradigm shifts in evolution creating dramatically new modes of existence. I will concede this choice has some appeal, but it needed to be handled differently, and in a broader context of choices, as a pricey , ambiguously Utopian solution to the galaxy's problems. Choice #3: Take control of Reapers. The Renegades get the best deal of everyone; all the power they craved is theirs at last. Still, even they probably have issues with the execution.
Shepard HAVING to die/being separated from his friends is an extremely poor way to reward fans. Shepard did die in the introduction to Mass Effect 2, but only to illustrate how unstoppable he/she truly was when he/she came back to life. That was pretty cool. This seems to be the final 'death' though, at least as a being with a personal form and identity, and that should have been reserved as a PUNISHMENT or as a PRICE. Specifically, punish people with death for not completing the multitude of optional objectives, or demand it as a PRICE (like destroying the Arch Demon to be 'true' Grey Warden and destroy the threat once and for all); as I said, choice 2 (which is what I ultimately went with) had a lot of promise as an expensive UTOPIAN solution, but there should have still been an option for Shepard to ride off into the sunset into his 'ordinary' galactic civilization if that's what the player wanted.
I really don't understand the logic of this mediocre ending, especially since they seemed to be actively bending the plot to make it happen, against more natural and rewarding endings. Until the last 15-20 minutes, Mass Effect 3 was a great conclusion in some ways, and at least a comfortable one in others.
I don't see why they were so strongly against providing us with the option for a comfortable ending, when the structure of the RPG always seemed to necessitate that such an option should exist for the players who worked for/desired it.
Honest reviews on Mass Effect 3 Digital Deluxe Version
Hey all,
So if any of you were in the same position I was in this morning, you downloaded Mass Effect 3 from amazon.com, preloading the game in anticipation of saving the Earth, shooting guns, seeing your romance to the end, etc etc. But after I downloaded it and ran the autorun.exe in the folder that mass effect 3 was in, when origin opened up I got an installation failed notice, then swore at my computer screen and specifically at origin(since it is a piece of ____ (insert curse word here)). So, I started moving around the games files, extracting them to different places, renaming files. And after one fix I tried, I got Mass Effect 3 to install! Steps for my fix are included below:
1. Go to your program files directory, find the "origin games" folder and open it. In that folder, create a new folder called "Mass Effect 3". Next, go to the folder with the files you downloaded from the amazon servers and open it up.
2. Find the .zip folder called "Mass Effect 3" and right click on it. Select "extract All" from the drop down list and extract the files in the .zip folder and extract them to the new folder called "Mass Effect 3" in your origin games folder (the filepath should look something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3).
3. After all the files are finished extracting, run origin and log in, Mass Effect 3 should be in your games tab, ready to install!
4. ???
5. Profit!
I'd give this 5 stars but the installation is a hassle. Hope amazon customer support sees this and lets other customers know how to fix it. Hope this helps someone else who is frustrated by EA's incompetence like I was :P
Have a good day,
Mike
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Mass Effect 3 Digital Deluxe Version
The BAD:
1) Brevity: in almost 20h you finish this game, while in the previous game you got 50h and still lots fun of things to do.
2) Shepard, the Stalker: you get side quests by overhearing people talk on the Citadel. Sometimes you don't even have to listen till the end! It sucks and the quests are mainly "scan planet->send probe->get item->deliver item at Citadel".
3) Mechanics underdeveloped: the scan and reaper's alertness mechanics are a very good idea, in theory. The implementation is poor. The same goes to the gun's customization bench. It is a great idea, but the interface is poor, you can't compare things properly, you can't have a big picture of available customizations.
4) If you play the vanguard class, you'll be surprised when your Shepard uses a omni knife he/she is not supposed to have in a KEY cut scene. Makes no sense.
5) Quest's log underdeveloped: I said in "2" that the side quests were not so good, but the quest log makes it even worse. When you get a quest item the quest log doesn't say you already have the item. You have to keep track of things for yourself. It's annoying.
6) Prothean day one DLC: I got this DLC for free, but it's a HUGE part of the game. Providing background history that is very important to understand things. It's a shame people who bought the regular version didn't get this for free. There's no other name to this except "d*ck move".
7) No Steam version: to play this you have to install a program called ORIGIN. Unlike Steam, this program is really bad. If you are, for example, in Japan, the program is part in English (or the language you choose in installation) and part in JAPANESE. I understand that if you are in Japan the prices will be in yens, but text in Japanese? Makes no sense.
8) Multiplayer: they said you didn't need to play multiplayer, but the truth is, if you don't complete all those bad side quests mentioned in "2", you WILL have to play MP. I can't stand the multiplayer, so my dear boyfriends took pity on me and played some games in MP so that my end options would be a little less lame.
9) End makes no sense: everything you learned in games 1 and 2 are thrown out the window. New things, characters, and dynamics are introduced in the end cut scenes and dialogue. It's like magic, but NOT. Also, it doesn't matter what you did choose along the games, the paragon/renegade points, etc. None of this have any effect in the end. You just played 3 games full of choices for the end to be exactly the same. And this same end makes no sense.
10) Multiple ends promise is a LIE: there are 8 ends that I know of. They are exactly the same, except for some subtle changes that doesn't matter that much to the big picture.
11) Adding insult to injury, after viewing the poor developed end a message appears urging you to play more and BUY DLC.
The GOOD
1) While I didn't personally like some emotional scenes (too much cliche), there were some incredible good scenes and dialogues. I would focus in the dialogues with people who Shepard is friends with. Some moments you spend with a squad mate that you're not romancing. The friendship part was GREAT. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of love interests...
2) The armor customization is nice. You can choose more colors and patterns.
3) James Vega is a fun friend. He needed a lot more work, but is a promising supportive character. I don't think he's a good choice for the spin off anime though. Garrus would be a more natural choice I guess.
4) Liara, Garrus, and other beloved character from the pervious games are all there! Too bad those nice loyalty missions are not. So, if the character is not developed by the second game, just forget further development in 3...
