GhostofAnakin

That is pretty nuts. I don't think I'd spend $5000 on a video game, even if it was my dream game where the developer/publisher let me add/change anything I wanted along the development cycle. Kudos to Doublebear, though. The game's definitely on my radar.

On the final stretch for my FO: NV play through. I'm going to side with Caesar for the first time ever.

I liked the story in Dead Money quite a bit. I just thought the exploding collar and associated beeping detracted from it because I spent a lot of my time concentrating on that rather than anything else going on.

Finished Dead Money. I have to say those beeping exploding neck collars almost ruined the entire DLC for me. It wasn't fun, and it didn't add tension. It was just annoying.

I'm finding Dead Money more annoying than fun, what with all that beeping and running around empty spaces with only those ghost things to interact with. The exploding collar and the poisonous fog make exploring the buildings a chore.

If you play PC there are mod for that. XBox 360.

Onto Dead Money for me. The only disconnect for me with regards to these DLCs is that I can't bring any of my current companions with me.

There were a handful of areas on the map I didn't bother unlocking, including a couple of caves. So maybe that's where a lot of the information was found. I just stuck mainly to the quests given to me, and the areas associated with those quests, or the areas I'd come across as a direct result of walking toward those quest locations.

I finished Honest Hearts for New Vegas. Unless I missed a whole bunch, it wasn't very long and was mainly a lot of fetch questing instead of quests unlocking new information about the story or key characters in the story. I also thought it was going to have a lot to do with Joshua Graham, but he was almost just a side story to the main point of the DLC.

After downloading the EC, I tried the Destroy ending. I hadn't touched ME3 since about two weeks after it was released, so any MP games I played were pretty much wiped out since you start to lose Galactic Readiness percentages each day you don't play MP. I still managed to get the "breath" cinematic. I didn't expect every single choice to end up having a noticeable effect, but the big ones? Saving or killing the Rachni Queen was built up as a massive choice ... couldn't they have made a cutscene about that, depending on if you saved her? Same with the decision to save the Destiny Ascension, that was another massive choice. The big decisions should have had a noticeable impact on the final battle, whether it be ground assets at your disposal, or different cutscenes showing the advantage (or disadvantage) making those decisions had for you.

You know what would have been awesome? If your EMS score actually made a noticeable difference. You know, so the decisions you made along the way actually impacted how the final battle went down? Like, I don't know, a Rachni Queen showing up when you're pinned down and about to be killed? Or maybe the Destiny Ascension turning the tide in a space battle because you chose to save them? Instead, your EMS score essentially ended up being nothing more than a number in the background that determines whether you "breath" or not.

Wasn't Karpyshyn the lead writer for the first game, but then moved onto the TOR team either before or in the middle of ME2's development? That could explain the disconnect between the games. The new writers maybe decided to put their own stamp on things, but the result was a disconnected jumble.

Wasn't it always their intent to plan this out as a trilogy?

So basically no games I've ever played. Alright, momentary crisis averted.

I re-watched the Synthesis ending on Youtube. My God is it creepy. It's the one ending that makes absolutely no sense to choose.

What games did they make?

The decision to include the Starchild baffles me. I don't know whether they just ran out of time and came up with an easy way to end things (in their mind), or whether they actually believed it to be a genius way to end the series. Whatever the reason behind his inclusion, I just don't know how they could believe fans would react positively to it. The Starchild has to be universally regarded as the one thing that if asked, "if you could remove or change one thing from ME3, what would you choose?", would be that feature.

While I'm still not a fan of the ending (stupid Starchild was such an unnecessary add-on at the last minute, lazy writing IMO), I can't help but wonder whether there would have been the same backlash if they'd included the extra scenes from the EC in the original game release. People still might not have liked the ending, but there'd likely be a lot less of the "WTF JUST HAPPENED?!" reactions.

I did not know that. I figured they all needed me to be high level.

Finally nearing the point in FO:NV that I can attempt the DLC. I'm at level 28 now, and counting. This time I decided to do a lot of the outside New Vegas quests first. I haven't even made it inside the strip yet.

The only way that works is if they do games set before the events of ME1. But even then they'll be constrained if they want to use humans as a protagonist. Humans are new to the galactic community thing, with the First Contact War as the only reasonable setting for a game. If they set the game after the events of ME3, then the universe is indeed in vastly different states. Even if they put it way, way into the future, you can't really get around the fact that in one ending the Reapers are destroyed, and in another ending Sheppard controls the Reapers but they're largely still in full force. That's a pretty massive plot point to have to write around. My guess is they'll do things the easy way --- they'll just turn the franchise into a MP-only game.

I wonder how much they're going to retcon about the ending when the inevitable ME4 to ME6 trilogy is made. Either that, or they'll have to make one of the current endings cannon, because the three endings result in a vastly different state of the galaxy.

Anyone?

This is a good question. I only played through the Destroy ending from the moment Shepard gets beamed aboard the Enterprise ... err Citadel, and then watched the other endings on Youtube. So does the EC actually change anything before that point Shepard takes on Marauder Shields?

That question had already been answered ... it just was never a good or logical answer.