Mass Effect 3 Retaliation DLC free on XBox Live Marketplace

Quote from Parker1974 : Mostly that's true re: N7 rating, but I've seen some amazing players at 120. That's the cap if you never promote. Some of these guys have all the URs and all the gold weapons maxed. They just see no need to promote, which I totally understand if 1) you're done with the SP, and 2) you don't care about any weekend challenges involving promotions (of which we've had 2 or 3, I forget). But similarly, I've seen players with N7 ratings over 1000 who simply suck. They may have all the good guns, but they haven't a clue how to use them. Yesterday I even saw a >1000 N7 guy putting AR gear (i think maybe warfighter package) on a character not equipped with an AR. Dumb. Or, perhaps, simply lazy. Below 120, I agree, those guys either are generally brand new, aren't very good, and/or just don't have competitive equipment yet. I'd avoid them on gold or platinum, but I'll play with pretty much anyone on silver or bronze. I mean, everybody's got to start somewhere, and even some of the noobs can be pretty good with the right setup. One thing I can agree with 100%: it takes a lot of time to upgrade all your weapons and gear. There's no way around it, unless you plan on dumping a ton of real cash into the game (which, as a SDer, I personally would never do). Especially now that they've released additional content (characters, weapons, gear, and mods). Volus Adept ftw! The great biotic wind!

You never know if the low or high N7 ranking players aren't being played by a friend who's already good. For myself, on X360 version, my N7 is almost 500 but I started playing on PS3 version which has low N7 rank. Of course, I'm more experience than I appear on PS3.

Good to know Volus Adept is good. Who would think that little guy can be that powerful. Just to show single player only missed out with the alien characters since in the story mode, they appear to be like weak character. In the single player story, you never get to play as the outlaws characters that joined in to fight the reapers and never knew how powerful they can be in MP. Also, the special N7 characters and how powerful they are.

In other words, single player only gamers have missed out knowing those characters and never knew those N7 forces characters. Shepard's team is not the only one to know in ME3. There are so many others who helped and contributed in winning the galactic war. That's why I hope Bioware will release single player DLC that are about the story of the rest of the heroes without Shepard.

gallatic readiness is bullshit. all the ABC endings were garbage.

I played with the DLC last night and think they added some difficulty to it too. The Collectors enemy is definitely the toughest now especially playing on map with the dust storm going on so you cannot see far. They changed up the maps too including walls, stairs, and ammo boxes so will take a little bit to get adjusted and remember guys can sneak up behind you now too.

Quote from paayter : wouldnt it be the hottest deal? and who cares?

No, its the very epitome of the exact opposite of a deal. A deal implies you're getting some item for less than fair market value. When fair market value is $0.00 and you get said item at $0.00 you received the item at exactly what it was worth, hence, no deal.

This would be more appropriate in the Freebies forum .... for you know .... items that are free.

Thanks, added to queue. Always like to see these at work; something to look forward to later.

Some newbie-ish questions:

Can this be played if the person isn't a gold member?
Is it through xbox live, or through the game itself?

I just finished ME3 last week, and never bothered trying out multiplayer. I had planned to try it, and also wanted to do a replay of ME 1-3 (I skipped a lot of content in ME1 the first time I played it). But after seeing the endings, I sort of lost my will to play the game anymore -- and they were the supposed extended 'fixed' endings I saw. I can't help but wonder what Bioware was thinking with those endings ... it's like the lead writer was having a stroke while he wrote them... just complete nonsense. I feel even worse for everyone who played the game with the original endings -- not that extended was that much better, but at least with extended there is some closure, even if it's stupid closure. They did lower the EMS requirements for the 'good' ending with the extended DLC, so never needed to bother with MP for readiness stuff.

Anyway, just curious if MP is even worth bothering with. I am primarily the RPG type, but am okay with some combat. But the single player story is what mostly interested me with the game.

Quote from jtbndy : No, its the very epitome of the exact opposite of a deal. A deal implies you're getting some item for less than fair market value. When fair market value is $0.00 and you get said item at $0.00 you received the item at exactly what it was worth, hence, no deal. This would be more appropriate in the Freebies forum .... for you know .... items that are free.

i c..but most people dont go the free items forums for news liket his, so lets keep it here. deal? u get more notice on the hot deals forums. whats it matter to you if its in the hot deals section? does it really put a hamper to your day? does it make you shed a tear? are you damaged in any way because its here?

Quote from jonheffley : I got this, but I notice that 3 other multiplayer DLC's are also free. Were they already free, or were they left out of this? If there were already 3 free ones... well I don't know if a fourth multiplayer DLC is a very big deal...

they've all been free.

Quote from Namelessme : Some newbie-ish questions: Can this be played if the person isn't a gold member? Is it through xbox live, or through the game itself? I just finished ME3 last week, and never bothered trying out multiplayer. I had planned to try it, and also wanted to do a replay of ME 1-3 (I skipped a lot of content in ME1 the first time I played it). But after seeing the endings, I sort of lost my will to play the game anymore -- and they were the supposed extended 'fixed' endings I saw. I can't help but wonder what Bioware was thinking with those endings ... it's like the lead writer was having a stroke while he wrote them... just complete nonsense. I feel even worse for everyone who played the game with the original endings -- not that extended was that much better, but at least with extended there is some closure, even if it's stupid closure. They did lower the EMS requirements for the 'good' ending with the extended DLC, so never needed to bother with MP for readiness stuff. Anyway, just curious if MP is even worth bothering with. I am primarily the RPG type, but am okay with some combat. But the single player story is what mostly interested me with the game.

ME3 is basically their transition into ME Online, IMO. They're more interested in just turning it into another generic MW, COD clone etc.. with a ME skin than what the games were actually about. The point of the crappy endings is so that in the next game the old protagonist will be dead "so new heroes must arise" like in every MMO and it'll no longer be an RPG at least in anything more than the superficial sense.


ME1 IMO is still the best in the series. The problem with ME2/3 from a story perspective is that they suffer from sequel syndrome. The characters in the first were just people thrown into a situation and had to deal with it. The second and third, they keep the same characters because it's what everyone wants in sequels, but it creates major problems especially in a series like this where the premise of the first is that they were mostly lucky they were able to stop the reaper from calling home. In the first, there was a circularity to the reaper invasions of the past - new races learn from advanced tech of former races, reapers come wipe them out. It created a strong story that their only hope was to stop the reaper from calling home or else destruction was inevitable. The problem with the latter 2 games is that the reapers become a legit enemy that can actually be fought where it was clear in the first that they were practically invincible or at least so overpowered that it takes an entire fleet to down one of their ships.


It was also baffling to me that they picked the "let Sovereign take over the citadel" ending of ME1 as the premise for the rest of the series. When I started ME2, I was really confused by the fact that they were still talking about reapers when sovereign had already been destroyed and prevented from calling home (depending on which ending you picked). I don't think that was a realistic ending given I can't imagine too many people picked "save the council and assure the death of all life in the galaxy" instead of "focus on sovereign".

Quote from compguy : ME3 is basically their transition into ME Online, IMO. They're more interested in just turning it into another generic MW, COD clone etc.. with a ME skin than what the games were actually about. The point of the crappy endings is so that in the next game the old protagonist will be dead "so new heroes must arise" like in every MMO and it'll no longer be an RPG at least in anything more than the superficial sense. ME1 IMO is still the best in the series. The problem with ME2/3 from a story perspective is that they suffer from sequel syndrome. The characters in the first were just people thrown into a situation and had to deal with it. The second and third, they keep the same characters because it's what everyone wants in sequels, but it creates major problems especially in a series like this where the premise of the first is that they were mostly lucky they were able to stop the reaper from calling home. In the first, there was a circularity to the reaper invasions of the past - new races learn from advanced tech of former races, reapers come wipe them out. It created a strong story that their only hope was to stop the reaper from calling home or else destruction was inevitable. The problem with the latter 2 games is that the reapers become a legit enemy that can actually be fought where it was clear in the first that they were practically invincible or at least so overpowered that it takes an entire fleet to down one of their ships. It was also baffling to me that they picked the "let Sovereign take over the citadel" ending of ME1 as the premise for the rest of the series. When I started ME2, I was really confused by the fact that they were still talking about reapers when sovereign had already been destroyed and prevented from calling home (depending on which ending you picked). I don't think that was a realistic ending given I can't imagine too many people picked "save the council and assure the death of all life in the galaxy" instead of "focus on sovereign".

Aw, you've got to say "spoiler alert" before you say something like "the old protagonist will be dead". I didn't know.

Quote from jonheffley : Aw, you've got to say "spoiler alert" before you say something like "the old protagonist will be dead". I didn't know.

Meh, like I said, you're playing the second 2 mostly for the gameplay because the stories are mostly junk. The first was just a motley assortment thrust into a historic conflict, whereas the second and third were just basically rehashes anyway. Suddenly the characters from ME1 are all God-like superheroes. Meanwhile, the seemingly invincible enemy that you stopped in ME1 mysteriously reappears, but somehow your team of deities are able to fight them when it was perfectly obvious in the first that destruction was all but assured if Sovereign successfully contacted them. It makes 0 sense that they'd go for the "save the council" ending of ME1 when anyone in that situation would have gone with "focus on sovereign".


They basically said "ok, let's take the ending you pick if you were stupid and go from there" instead of the "ok, let's go with the smart ending and use the next game(s) to expand on the ME universe"


I honestly felt in ME2 that I was playing the same plot as ME1 but just with different controls (since it's a FPS/RPG where ME1 was RPG/FPS). ME3 is basically FPS/MMO-transition/RPG). If they make an ME4 it'll be FPS/MMO/.../..../......./........./RPG

Quote from compguy : ME3 is basically their transition into ME Online, IMO. They're more interested in just turning it into another generic MW, COD clone etc.. with a ME skin than what the games were actually about. The point of the crappy endings is so that in the next game the old protagonist will be dead "so new heroes must arise" like in every MMO and it'll no longer be an RPG at least in anything more than the superficial sense. ME1 IMO is still the best in the series. The problem with ME2/3 from a story perspective is that they suffer from sequel syndrome. The characters in the first were just people thrown into a situation and had to deal with it. The second and third, they keep the same characters because it's what everyone wants in sequels, but it creates major problems especially in a series like this where the premise of the first is that they were mostly lucky they were able to stop the reaper from calling home. In the first, there was a circularity to the reaper invasions of the past - new races learn from advanced tech of former races, reapers come wipe them out. It created a strong story that their only hope was to stop the reaper from calling home or else destruction was inevitable. The problem with the latter 2 games is that the reapers become a legit enemy that can actually be fought where it was clear in the first that they were practically invincible or at least so overpowered that it takes an entire fleet to down one of their ships. It was also baffling to me that they picked the "let Sovereign take over the citadel" ending of ME1 as the premise for the rest of the series. When I started ME2, I was really confused by the fact that they were still talking about reapers when sovereign had already been destroyed and prevented from calling home (depending on which ending you picked). I don't think that was a realistic ending given I can't imagine too many people picked "save the council and assure the death of all life in the galaxy" instead of "focus on sovereign".

** Spoiler Alert **

**
**
**

I realized before I started the game that Shepard may not be around for a sequel, but I wasn't prepared for the type of endings presented. My main beef with the endings weren't that they were a bit of a downer -- well, if I saw the original endings, I may have that beef too -- but the fact they were so utterly, completely stupid. I am fine with some suspension of disbelief, but nothing at the end makes any sense at all, neither from a story perspective, character perspective, or any type of game reality. If they wanted to 'start over', kill off the main character, there were a million better ways to do it. It would also have been nice if our actions during the game, gathering up military resources, etc would have played some role during the final battle. It made the game feel sort of pointless.

And I expect future mass effect games to become more like a shooter, with multiplayer stuff taking a larger role. Who needs writers and a story, when you can shoot stuff? Cheaper to make, anyway...

They also sort of written themselves into a corner with how the endings, well, ended up. If they plan to make any more mass effect games, they will have to take place in the past or the very same timeline as the reaper storyline, just with different characters. Unless they just make the destroy/shepherd breathing ending canon ... the other scenarios don't work so well (or at all, really). And based on the new characters in ME3, and writing overall, I don't exactly have confidence that Bioware can make up new characters in a different timeline worth caring about -- if they are all like James and that news lady, (Allers?), I'd actively root for some way for the protagonist to destroy the universe.

I do disagree with you regarding ME2, as I actually liked that game better than the 1st one. The overall story was worse, but character development and systems were better overall (in my opinion). But each sequel strayed further from being a RPG. And with multiiplayer, it's simply... 'shoot stuff', I am guessing? Again, was mostly curious if it's even worth the download, worth trying multiplayer out? I expect I'd play it for 10 min, then get bored with it, but at the very least it's free. The slickdealer in me sees 'free' and then tries to think of reasons why I may actually want it.

Quote from Namelessme : They also sort of written themselves into a corner with how the endings, well, ended up. If they plan to make any more mass effect games, they will have to take place in the past or the very same timeline as the reaper storyline, just with different characters. Unless they just make the destroy/shepherd breathing ending canon ... the other scenarios don't work so well (or at all, really). And based on the new characters in ME3, and writing overall, I don't exactly have confidence that Bioware can make up new characters in a different timeline worth caring about -- if they are all like James and that news lady, (Allers?), I'd actively root for some way for the protagonist to destroy the universe.

The only way they could fix things would be to start over and pretend ME2 and ME3 didn't exist. Call it Mass Effect Part 2: <some good subtitle> to differentiate it. Go on the assumption that you stopped sovereign in ME1 and that Jon et al have moved on to other things. Could star a character who was present at the battle with sovereign and there's new stuff to do, ie that doesn't include the reapers.

Quote : I do disagree with you regarding ME2, as I actually liked that game better than the 1st one. The overall story was worse, but character development and systems were better overall (in my opinion). But each sequel strayed further from being a RPG. And with multiiplayer, it's simply... 'shoot stuff', I am guessing? Again, was mostly curious if it's even worth the download, worth trying multiplayer out? I expect I'd play it for 10 min, then get bored with it, but at the very least it's free. The slickdealer in me sees 'free' and then tries to think of reasons why I may actually want it.

I felt ME2 was a mixed bag. Some of the character development was better, some of it was overdeveloped and just annoying. The combat was different, more traditional FPS. I liked the mechanic and I also like the combat mechanic of ME1.



Regarding the multiplayer, I'd say try it since it's free and see how you like it. You're not losing anything beyond a few minutes of your time if you don't like it. And maybe you can even get up your galactic readiness score to get the least sucky ending finally

Quote from compguy : I felt ME2 was a mixed bag. Some of the character development was better, some of it was overdeveloped and just annoying. The combat was different, more traditional FPS. I liked the mechanic and I also like the combat mechanic of ME1. Regarding the multiplayer, I'd say try it since it's free and see how you like it. You're not losing anything beyond a few minutes of your time if you don't like it. And maybe you can even get up your galactic readiness score to get the least sucky ending finally

I wouldn't go nearly as far as you regarding doing away with ME2. I preferred 2 over the 1st one, as although the overall story was worse, the character stories I felt were better. Yeah, some didn't work, but I thought the loyalty missions were well done overall. I preferred the combat mechanics of ME2 over ME1 myself, yet thought inventory, etc was too dumbed down in the 2nd one. Some of the issues I had with the 1st one were game mechanics, mostly, a confusing inventory system, side missions were sometimes quite bad (searching for an hour for some alien monkey w/some random item, etc.), and controlling the mako. The first time I tried the mako I drove straight into a lake of lava, simply because I couldn't even see where I was going.

** minor spoiler **

I'll give multiplayer a shot, but was unsure if we needed to have gold or not (my original question). If truly free, it's worth a try. I already got the least sucky ending (if you mean the breathing scene, I assume) with a readiness at 50% and an EMS a bit above 3000. I think they lowered the EMS requirements for the extended endings, as 3000-3200ish isn't difficult at all to reach. At least that was my EMS before the final Illusive man scenario... not sure if we got anything after that.