The Mass Effect thread

[esuriospiritus]

Then, in typical BSG season 3/4 fashion, we were supposed to judge her harshly for her heroic act.

no lol, her heroic act was heroic and at least 5 different kinds of awesome.

[esuriospiritus]

Spoiler: kotor in a nutshell

"Hey guise I'm gonna be light side all game"

95% of the way into the game...

"sup Bastila, what's that? darkside? sure whatevs"

>dark side ending<

It's an okay game but the way the morality system impacted the story really needed some work.

also HOLY FUCK the combat system was awful. Mindnumbingly boring so much that it got to the point that I eventually turned it down to the easiest difficulty so that I could just pretty much ignore the "combat" and play the game for the story.

[esuriospiritus]

Spoiler:

basically, in the end, you get a prothean male that you can sex up as male or female shep, if i remember correctly

uh no, you can't

it is a pretty necessary dlc though imo, you won't get

the kick-ass revelations on Thessia regarding the asari

otherwise. He also has some amazing dialogue.

[esuriospiritus]

nope, anderson's name ends up on the memorial in that one EC scene

[esuriospiritus]

nah, there are shots of the citadel being repaired/on the citadel in general in the endings, so it's entirely possible his body was recovered there

[esuriospiritus]

oh right


well that's an interesting plothole, then

[esuriospiritus]

According to Google Images, the answer is dancing lemmings:

[esuriospiritus]

Because I literally have no idea what the "casualization" is.

I'm tellin' ya, the answer is 'lemmings'.

Yay umbrage! definitely don't forsake school in favor of the game though <.<

[esuriospiritus]

lol, sounds about right. I love the whole series but having to play through all the minutia to get to the (imo superior) me2 and me3 without missing out on stuff in

those

games drives me nuts. XD

[esuriospiritus]

Yeah, Bioware, stop being total sellouts.

Spoiler:

(and this was within the same game)

besides, have you

seen

Benezia's honkers? Liara was young by asari standards and still probably had some growing to do <.<

[esuriospiritus]

that's.... really not that big a difference <_<


I suppose you wouldn't know this, not being a girl and probably not spending a whole lot of intimate time with girls, but a subtle change in the clothing one wears can make a BIG difference in the size your tits appear to be, especially from the front... and it looks like this might be the case.

If we're really bent on figuring out just how much her tits changed (FOR SCIENCE, of course, who pervs over pixels amirite ^_^~) a full side shot for 1 and 3 would be more reliable. better yet, snag pics from the romance scenes for 1 and 3 so we can compare the pixel boobs directly, BECAUSE YOU CARE

SO MUCH

I am sad this series is over and that the only thing left to do in between dlc is argue about liara's breasts...

I wish Knights of the Old Republic was remade on Mass Effect 2/3's engine.

I know that feel bro, I know that feel


I played kotor for the first time after playing the first two ME games (and before 3 had come out) and it was really hard to immerse myself in it cuz of the graphics. Not just that though, the fact that they reused the same ~7 npc models with ~3 lines for each model really hurt it for a game I found myself playing in 2011.

If it got a remake with a higher budget and maybe a few extras tossed in, I would probably buy it full price.

PS: playing as this chick was the best:

[esuriospiritus]

no idea, I just found a picture on the internet. I played it on PC though.

[esuriospiritus]

Can't think of anything else that would have consequences.

I sure can.

Did you do the thing with Jenna (the girl in the bar working for c-sec)? What did you do about Conrad? Did you talk to that derp couple about the unborn kid? Did you finish any of the planetside collection assignments? Love interest? Council alive/dead? Did you save Kirrahe? What did you do with Dr. Michel? What did you do on Noveria with the pink-dressed spy chick? Did you do the Nassana Dantius mission? What did you do to al-Jilani? What did you do with the asari clerk on Virmire? What did you do with the Feros colonists for their colony? Did you kill/save them?

That's just off the top of my head; there's probably more than that.

Anywho, I want to kill off a few squaddies in ME2 just to shake things up and keep it interesting. I'm thinking Samara, Thane, Tali, and Grunt since they're my least favourite characters. Any preferences?

hi I'm bored and will now list the consequences as closely as I can recall them. Gotta earn the right to wear this N7 wristband all the time. >_O

If you kill Garrus

you certainly won't see him on Palaven, but I'm not entirely sure what the consequences are beyond that. I have a feeling it might effect negotiations betwen the krogan and turians. Since I don't know the consequences offhand, I might have to kill him on my Asshole Shepard playthrough I'm going to start soon after I'm done travelling...

Since Wrex is dead

you're going to have to deal with Wreav in both 2 and 3 -- although on the plus side, I believe having Wreav as the krogan leader is one of the conditions for the only way to keep Mordin alive in 3. I haven't played through that particular permutation, just watched it on youtube, so idk much about that.

If you kill Tali

it's going to be much harder -- if not impossible -- to resolve the quarian/geth conflict in a way that doesn't end in genocide. I'd prefer it to watching her kill herself in 3 if she's alive and you side with the geth, though. So sad. You'll also likely miss out on a lot of additional quarian lore, if that's something that you like.

If you kill Miranda

then grats, that's not as easy to accomplish. blah blah something to do with her sister and Kai Leng and... you know what, I know what happens if she dies in 3 but I really don't remember what happens in 3 if she dies in 2.

If you kill Jacob

I am pretty sure nothing particularly devastating happens. Some civilians at some refugee base might die I guess. Less war assets for you. Etc.

If you kill Thane

then not only are you a cruel heartless bastard, but you also miss out on some of the best scenes in ME3 and also I think Kirrahe and/or the salarian councillor will die? something about salarians dying, anyway. Thane's death is unavoidable one way or another, but his sendoff in 3 is just... very well done. One of a few times I teared up playing through it.

If you kill Grunt

then you're going to have to accept the death of some random unnamed krogans in ME3, IIRC. You might also fail the whole rachni queen thing in general, not sure. I watched it once but it just... really wasn't that memorable. On the other hand, if you let Grunt die in 3, it is another great sendoff. He can survive, though.

If you kill Mordin

then you're an even worse person than if you killed Thane. Some interesting changes, though. For one, pretty sure Eve will die unavoidably, no matter what you do with the genophage cure in ME2. Mordin will be replaced with either Kirrahe or the-salarian-named-after-Patrick-Weekes-whose-in-game-name-I-forget for the krogan-related missions (Sur'kesh and Tuchanka IIRC). Some of those Kirrahe/Weekes scenes are pretty great and worth watching on youtube, but frankly nothing beats Mordin's send-off if he ends off dying in ME3 -- from the paragon death, anyway. The renegade way of him dying is... pretty much the most renegade-y thing you can possibly do in all 3 games, IMO. Only a sociopath would do it and not cry tears of pain and cut themselves as they were doing it.

If you kill Samara

then something will undoubtedly change on the planet of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery, but I'm not clear on exactly what that something is off the top of my head. You also have the option of her killing herself in ME3 although the writing for that particular death is kind of stupid IMO. Bonus: If you kill Samara in 2 not on the suicide mission, but by taking Morinth's side over her, Morinth shows up in ME3 as a banshee. Creepy.

If you kill Legion

you're missing out on some great scenes, but I'm not sure any particularly major consequences are had. His death in ME3 is better, as per usual.

If you kill Zaeed

I think you just miss out on his little side mission and some war assets. Not really sure. I believe he can die in ME3 if he's not loyal in ME2, but not sure.

If you kill Kasumi

then I hate you almost as much as I hate you Thane and Mordin-killers. Same as with Zaeed I think, though. They obviously didn't want to make whether you'd played a previous game's DLC have a HUGE OMGWTF impact.

If you kill Jack

then the Grissom Academy mission (a big nod to the tie-in novels, by the way) is... probably not as interesting nor successful, I'd guess? Also not sure about this. also I think if she wasn't loyal in ME2 then she shows up as a banshee in ME3...? I remember something vague about that at any rate; don't remember some of these details as much as I'd like to.

If you kill Kelly, and... I think it was Gabby of the Ken+Gabby couple that died? by not rescuing your crew right away,

then you obv won't see Kelly in ME3 but I think there are no major consequences for that. Ken I think still shows up on your ship in ME3 but he's depressed without Gabby.

as far as my preferences go, I thought Thane was much better in 3 than he was in 2 so you might want to let him live and give him a chance to shine. If it was my file and I haaaaaaaaaaaad to kill some people, I'd probably kill Zaeed, Samara, Jacob (though Samara is also a little better in 3 imo).

Some of the above information may be inaccurate. Feel free to correct me/add to it.

[esuriospiritus]

That's an interesting choice, actually. I don't think I've seen any videos that had them both dead.

[esuriospiritus]

oh wait I just remembered the Nassana Dantius thing has a permutation for 2, and I don't think it has any for 3. Consequence of playing ME2 on PS3 first, I guess.

the rest of those should have

some

effect in 3, even if it's very minor.

[esuriospiritus]

I'll admit, I laughed.

[esuriospiritus]

http://kotaku.com/5931451/riding-a-mech ... iathan-dlc

why the fuck are people talking about it like it's after the ending?

[esuriospiritus]

Legion was dissected by Cerberus though

This just made me have such a sad.

[esuriospiritus]

why the fuck do i play these games if i have so much spiteful hatred for them?

lol.

[esuriospiritus]

I did an adept insanity run for ME1/2 and the hardest part for me IIRC was Horizon. Fighting two of the scions and the praetorian with a whole bunch of husks chasing you... no matter who I brought with me, my squadmates dropped like flies and literally the only way I was able to complete that was by running like fuck from cover to cover until I glitched the enemy pathing AI.

I had to do the same thing for getting through all 5 waves of Object Rho, and once I did it was like an hour of slowly spamming singularity and warp until things died.

[esuriospiritus]

I might actually read that if you make it not a textwall.

[esuriospiritus]

yep. and my ex has my xbox. ><

[esuriospiritus]

exbox?

yeah basically

also he's a dick so :<

[esuriospiritus]

holy shit, that's actually a cosplay. o_o

[esuriospiritus]

...you

are

RC. Holy crap.

[esuriospiritus]

Heh.

The honest answer is that Umbrage and I haven't talked about running another one.

Maybe when I eventually replay the series I'll get into obsessive mode about it again and want to run one...

(it would also help if I could get Pie into the series and then have him co-mod <.<)

[esuriospiritus]

you mean pie

as in inflatablepie?

yes...?

come on now, don't tell me you live under a rock <_<

(it would also help if I could get Pie into the series and then have him co-mod <.<)

YESH

DO IT

USE YOUR FEMININE WILES

I INTEND TO

but I really don't see the point until such a time as we're living together cuz it's too long of a game to just let him play while he visits and he's too far away for me to be okay with him borrowing it.

MAYBE I WILL BUY THE FIRST GAME FOR HIM. AHA.

[esuriospiritus]

No. But why would I let someone I love borrow something I love when there's no guarantee that he'll love it (and if he doesn't, I can't get it back for an indeterminate period of time that is likely greater than 2 months)?

Especially given that I

will

be replaying the series before the end of the year is up, it just makes more sense to buy him a copy if he's interested.

[esuriospiritus]

Seriously? Somebody needs to run one.

NAO

/headdesk

[esuriospiritus]

meh.

[esuriospiritus]

Hey Umbrage. Something just occurred to me.

How would you feel about taking the original mass effect mafia, tweaking the setup slightly, and re-running it with me? I mean, the setup was already basically open, soooooo... yeah, I don't see why we couldn't.

and maybe I'll actually feel more like running a sequel afterward.

[esuriospiritus]

Seriously? Somebody needs to run one.

NAO

/headdesk

Presented by ReaperCharlie, esuriospiritus, and Umbrage.

The defense rests, your honor.

(You don't even NEED to read the game to know that nuclear apocalypse levels of horror and despair that radiated out from that one)
(Also there was that Tony Montoya game with 16 serial killers or something)
(So yeah, someone should do a Mass Effect game someday)

[esuriospiritus]

Seriously? Somebody needs to run one.

NAO

/headdesk

Reading context is tech, esurio.

<.< I wasn't sure if you were being dense intentionally or unintentionally and decided to cover my ass in the case of the latter.

[esuriospiritus]

I got my xbox back. Replay/Leviathan time when I'm not busy dealing with midterms. :3

[esuriospiritus]

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, SPOILER YOUR SPOILERS PLEASE

[esuriospiritus]

ahahhaa. That's great.

[esuriospiritus]

Better than Overlord/LotSB?

[esuriospiritus]

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey welcome back! \o/

[esuriospiritus]

I have Pie.

Close enough?

[esuriospiritus]

IDK if they're still doing that Mass Effect movie, but if they are and it's not too late, I've decided that they need to cast Norm Lewis as Anderson. Mostly because I've been binge watching Les Miserables' 25th anniversary concert for the last week and I want to see him in more things. And even better if they randomly make it a musical so he gets to sing more!

Alternatively, they could always buck convention and make Shepard

not

a white male and cast him for that...

[esuriospiritus]

I had a dream that I decided to buy the collector's edition of ME3 and then I was broke and stressing out about the fact that I had no money. But at least I had ME3!

Also in my dream I actually had a car and it was cute and I wish I had one like it IRL.

[esuriospiritus]

yep :3 I've been having really vivid/memorable dreams lately. Not sure why, but I'm certainly not complaining.

[esuriospiritus]

Yeah, I've played the PS3 and 360 versions of ME2 and the PS3 generally has slower wait times even after numerous patches trying to fix it.

[esuriospiritus]

wtf is that gif and why can't I stop watching it

[esuriospiritus]

iirc, spam singularity for the first game.

[esuriospiritus]

I am seriously, seriously looking forward to having the time on my hands to replay this over the summer.

Like a month left of this semester to go and then I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (sort of; still taking summer classes)

[esuriospiritus]

That sounds like it was cool, Jason.

While I'm in here, I heard from a fairly reliable source that we're getting some new info on ME4 early this week, possibly Monday...

edit: oh, I guess it's e3? I'm out of the loop. That makes that news less impressive than I'd originally thought. Oh well.

[esuriospiritus]

I'm playing ME3 on insanity. Only had one prior playthrough, and it was on Normal. It was also pretty much right after the game came out, so it's been like 2 1/2 years and I don't remember the maps very well, none of the dlc was out, etc.

I've played through ME1 and ME2 on insanity and done fine, but man... ME3 enemies are kicking my ass. So many grenades -- and IDK if this is because I'm an adept, but they one-shot me if they hit me. So many smoke bombs. Lots of dying in stupid ways (I can't tell you how many times I've rolled when I was trying to go into cover and died because of it. Whose bright idea was it to code rolling and taking cover inextricably to the same key?)

But I'm having fun... I think. There are some fights I remember having a lot of trouble with even on Normal, and I'm terrified to get to those (particularly anything with Banshees, ugh). But I'm kind of enjoying it despite the frustrations. I've always gravitated to stupidly difficult video game challenges, but they're usually in classic-style JRPGs or tactical RPGS (FFT, Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem), not shooters.

Also really looking forward to playing Omega, Leviathan, and Citadel for the first time.

[esuriospiritus]

I think Adept was on the weak side in ME2/3 after being OP in ME1? I know for sure that they were weak in ME2 because of how armor and such interacted with your abilities.

You might be right. It definitely feels less underpowered in 3 than it did in 2 though, and daaaaaamn having two singularities (Liara's + mine) is great for crowd control. Mostly it seems like it's really, really good against some enemies (husk hordes) and really, really bad against others (the grenade-throwing assholes). Once I get more squadmates, I can probably take teams of people who help balance out my weaknesses.

Is there any significant change in ME2 if you go Renegade after the Cerberus Project? I don't mean anything that adds a new arc to the game but moreso something that reflects that Shepard was good in ME1 but he's now bad in ME2 and the Cerberus Project might've had something to do with that.

Miranda specifically states at some points near the start of the game that the goal was to bring back Shepard exactly as s/he was before, so roleplaying it this way will conflict with her statement, but you can obviously play it however you want. It's an interesting idea if you're trying to be heavier into the roleplay.

I have played almost entirely renegade-ish Shepards and... no, I don't think there are major changes. Your scars will flare up and get worse if you're renegade and don't do the upgrade that heals them. There are obviously certain specific scenarios where picking the renegade option gives you a different outcome (but you said you weren't talking about arcs). But whereas ME1 renegade shepard is kind of an asshole, ME2 renegade shepard is just... idk, a badass that is also sometimes an asshole? And ME3 renegade shepard seems like a pragmatist more than anything imo.

If you're wanting to spin your Shepard that way, you're probably best off analyzing each conversation tree as they come up and not necessarily trying to be "renegade" for the sake of renegade unless that's really the response that fits your Shepard the best.

[esuriospiritus]

*necros*

soooo I just finished my replay of the series that I'd been working on here and there for most of the year. It was my first time playing with Citadel, Omega, and Leviathan DLCs. I ... confess to skipping ME1 this time -- I gave it a go and just couldn't do it. I wanted to be a completionist and do all the sidequest-y stuff but it's

just so tedious

and I couldn't bring myself to waste all that time when I'd done it all before once or twice already. I played on PC and used a save file editor to get the permutations from ME1 that I wanted, instead.

The ME3 dlcs definitely add to the game. Omega and Citadel were both pretty good... Leviathan was meh but

arguably necessary to help explain the ending

. But I don't know if I'll replay it again. Only thing I can see bringing me back anytime soon is doing an Asshole Shepard run, where I do everything possible to be the dickliest dick to everyone in the entire universe. And probably die horribly in the process

ME2 end:

completely fucking up the suicide mission

or

ME3 end:

picking Destroy because murdering EDI (especially after shipping her + Joker) and the geth (especially if saving them earlier!) is like, the

ultimate

dick move

.

I actually find that kind of playthrough interesting to think about. Do you do the most asshole thing you can immediately do, every time you're given a choice? Or are you occasionally nice to people just so you can fuck them over harder later? Whose deaths do you orchestrate and when to fuckify the galaxy to the max? How many people's hearts can I break by stringing them along and then saying "no thanks" at the last possible moment? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE

almost

ENDLESS

I also need to play something that isn't Adept for once. Because jesus christ I love playing adept, and there's nothing better than being an adept in 3 and staying in the far back, sniping things and shooting warps and singularities everywhere, but I've done it for hundreds and hundreds of hours now. I need to play a vanguard or something.

[esuriospiritus]

I don't know if I have it in me to do that last one. I've watched video of it before, though.

[esuriospiritus]

It's not a hologram in Citadel. It is audio, however.