Current Events > Mass Effect 3 was originally planned to be done in under 2 years

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_3#Development

Mass Effect 3 was originally planned as a project that could be finished in under two years. However, by March 2011, it was clear that more development time was required, so BioWare moved the game's release date from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012. In order to meet this deadline, the company also made some story concessions, such as the removal of a new, Prothean squad mate from the base game. In November, a private beta of Mass Effect 3 was leaked onto Xbox Live, which allowed players to access unreleased plot details, and forced BioWare to alter some aspects of the story at the last minute. Mass Effect 3 was officially approved for distribution, making it effectively finished, in February 2012.

The shortest development time for the final game in a trilogy where all of your decisions made finally reach their epic conclusion.

What could go wrong?
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So sad
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Power to the players.
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Most of the sidequest levels, and some of the main story levels, being rehashed multiplayer maps really shows the shortcuts they took to get this thing out the door.
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When it comes to the end of the game, even before the patch I got the one thing I wanted. Shep had to die.

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008Zulu posted...

Most of the sidequest levels, and some of the main story levels, being rehashed multiplayer maps really shows the shortcuts they took to get this thing out the door.

Yep. Also stuff like the War Resource meter thing as some catch all thing.

And of course...the ending. The moment where Bioware's reputation plummeted and still hasn't recovered.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQdEi3zYc74" data-time="&start=60
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Darmik posted...

What could go wrong?

Probably the whole selling your company's soul to EA for a bunch of money thing.
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Javik being on disc DLC was the dumbest fucking thing

DarthAragorn posted...

Javik being on disc DLC was the dumbest fucking thing

Isn't this a myth?

Javik's SKIN is on disc but all the actual content, mission, voice etc was not?
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Yeah I think Javik was probably done between the game going gold and being released.

Of course they could have been nice and released it as free DLC if they wanted to.
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Javik and From Ashes might have be constructed after the game went gold, but I refuse to believe that he/it and its launch day release was not part of the plan much earlier.

If you think that day one DLC featuring a new playable character (of absurd lore significance) has no relationship to the squad selection of the base game being incredibly gimped from the last installment, I have like seven different bridges to sell you.
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Yeah don't get me wrong day one DLC is universally shit for a single player game and is only a little bit less worse than on-disc DLC. It's pathetic.

Scaling back Javik? Sure. Stuff like that happens. Charging him as day one DLC? Nah that's extremely lame.
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I remember in the initial hours of Mass Effect 3's launch, people thought it was great.

Even after the ending, I heard a lot of people say "The game itself is great until you get to the end."

Now suddenly everyone realized it was actually hastily thrown together mess?
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KillerSlaw posted...

I remember in the initial hours of Mass Effect 3's launch, people thought it was great.

Even after the ending, I heard a lot of people say "The game itself is great until you get to the end."

Now suddenly everyone realized it was actually hastily thrown together mess?

wut

Mass Effect 3's ending was hated from the start
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Mass Effect 3 is ace.
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UnfairRepresent posted...

wut

Mass Effect 3's ending was hated from the start

I didn't say it wasn't.

I'm saying people used to say the *game* was good, up until they got to the ending, and even then I still heard favorable things about the game itself
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KillerSlaw posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

wut

Mass Effect 3's ending was hated from the start

I didn't say it wasn't.

I'm saying people used to say the *game* was good, up until they got to the ending, and even then I still heard favorable things about the game itself

I think the start of the game is bad

the end of the game is shit

Everything in between was 94% excellent

sure there are flaws, Kai Leng, Allers and the terrible journal system

but everything major between leaving Mars and the finale on Earth is great
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