Brontoforumus Archive

Game Boards => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Arc on May 27, 2008, 02:50:35 PM

Title: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on May 27, 2008, 02:50:35 PM
Mass Effect for PC came out today, right? Time to plunk down $49.99 + Sales Tax and load that up.

:derp: LALALALALALALALA
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Brentai on May 27, 2008, 04:29:09 PM
Mass Effect for PC

ARC, NO!  IT'S A TRAP!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on May 27, 2008, 04:48:19 PM
Mass Effect for PC

ARC, NO!  IT'S A TRAP!

:derp: LALALALALALALAWHATTHE

OHGOD SAVEYOURSELVES AAAAHHHUUGGGLLUUGGGHHHH
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Cthulhu-chan on May 27, 2008, 06:24:24 PM
He died as he lived.


Assaulted by tentacles.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Brentai on May 27, 2008, 07:19:30 PM
He died as he lived.


Assaulted by a trap.

 :gay4:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on July 22, 2008, 04:55:58 PM
So, like, I'm replaying Mass Effect with a brand-new Shepard, this time an Infiltrator.

What the fuck good is the sniper rifle in this game?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on July 22, 2008, 05:26:34 PM
Is your sniper rifle skill track maxed? Are you using the mark X spectre rifle? Are you using triple high explosive ammo mods? if you answered "no" to any of these questions, sniper rifles are not for you!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on July 22, 2008, 07:22:54 PM
How to play a sniper:

- Open the door to the room with enemies and fire your pistol into it until it overheats, hide against the door.

- Take potshots until they stop sticking their heads out from cover.

- Send your party into the room with the enemies and order them to just stand there.

- See step 2.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Fredward on July 22, 2008, 10:08:24 PM
The sniper rifle was good for the few times in the game with open terrain fighting. Nearly all of those times were out and about on planets (read: times where the Mako aka DEATHMOBILE was very much the easier choice). Plus, it saved my ass near the end of the game, with those five fucking rocket turrets. I don't even know how one is supposed to handle that without a sniper rifle and XXXplosive ammo.

Infiltrator was the first class I played. I hardly used the tech skills at all, though, so it sort of felt like a waste.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on July 22, 2008, 10:18:51 PM
Huh. Actually found the Sniper Rifle useful during the Bringing Down the Sky sidequest.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on July 22, 2008, 10:20:28 PM
If by "near the end of the game" you mean [spoiler]climbing the Citadel Tower[/spoiler] then how I did it was ... be a Soldier.  Throw some +Resistance armor mods into the right suit of heavy armor, and suddenly everything is doing like 1% damage tops.

Once you have some points in it, to steady the aim, I found the Sniper Rifle to be excellent in any mid-to-long range fight.  Basically, if it's too long-range for the assault rifle to be accurate, the sniper rifle is excellent.  Even just a long hallway is a good opportunity to crouch behind a crate and pop some heads off.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on July 23, 2008, 01:07:57 PM
Playing Mass Effect I got the "Kill X enemies with Sniper Rifle" before I got any other gun unlock achievement. And after that it took me like a hundred or so enemies to get the shotgun one.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on July 23, 2008, 09:03:18 PM
I think I hit a glitch in the game. Not anything serious, or, hell, even that big of a deal, but kind of obnoxious:

I'm playing renegade, and I just finished Feros. For some reason, [spoiler]none of the remaining NPCs are talking as if I had just doomed the colony. Which I did.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on July 23, 2008, 09:35:59 PM
Ha ha, no you didn't! nothing you ever do makes the slightest bit of difference.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on July 23, 2008, 09:43:37 PM
They reacted that way the last time I played renegade, though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 20, 2009, 01:13:00 PM
it's in me room, waiting to be hooked up.

Right. Do you have Mass Effect right now? Play it.

Like, right now.

Play a female Vanguard.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on January 20, 2009, 02:48:41 PM
No!  Play default Shepard first.  Kill everything that moves with your choice of gun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Brentai on January 20, 2009, 02:51:37 PM
WAIT WHAT IF THEY'RE WEARING CORTOSIS WEAVE ARMOR
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on January 20, 2009, 03:41:06 PM
Throw & Lift are far more interesting when given to teammates. Every conflict quickly becomes Duck Hunt RPG.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 20, 2009, 03:46:53 PM
No no. Lift then Throw. On the same enemy. Outdoors.

He'll literally fly off miles into the sky.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on January 20, 2009, 03:56:15 PM
Throw & Lift

Worded as such since advancing Liara's throw unlocks lift, not because I'm a jacktard, you grieftard.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 20, 2009, 04:01:23 PM
Snipe power that does 3x damage+explosive shells=EVERYTHING DIES.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on January 20, 2009, 09:49:59 PM
Essentially, pick a gun, any gun, they do fun things.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on January 22, 2009, 11:39:15 PM
(http://i358.photobucket.com/albums/oo22/driftycity/mass.jpg)

EVE Offline, so lovely is thy form, that I've begun a replay. Only Chrono Trigger & Mike's Radically Excellent Journey To Stop The Ultimately Colossal Revenge Of Zoda The Terrible Conqueror: StarTropics II have been honored before with such.

Mass Effect Playthrough Captures (Spoilers): MegaUpload (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ASPO871Z) / RapidShare (http://rapidshare.com/files/188052145/MassEffect.zip.html)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on January 23, 2009, 02:28:46 PM
Mass Effect is the best elevator sim I've ever played.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 23, 2009, 03:28:26 PM
I never thought a game would replace Elevator Action 2, but...
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on February 19, 2009, 10:41:35 PM
Today I learned that Mass Effect 2 is gonna be so awesome.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 19, 2009, 10:42:26 PM
Source?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on February 19, 2009, 10:49:15 PM
Source?

Parish. (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8981619&publicUserId=5379721)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on February 19, 2009, 11:52:23 PM
well that's neat that that contains spoilers
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on February 20, 2009, 12:26:32 AM
"i am going to read about the sequel to the game i have not finished playing yet!"

also i would guess they're actually POTENTIAL spoilers

aerith may or may not die depending on your charisma points
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on February 20, 2009, 12:46:16 AM
Well why would he start going on about how Mass Effect ends?  That doesn't make any sense to me.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on February 20, 2009, 01:32:56 AM
I guess because the entire post is about how Bioware wants Mass Effect 2 to begin depending on how Mass Effect 1 ended for you.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Büge on February 21, 2009, 06:31:22 AM
I guess because the entire post is about how Bioware wants Mass Effect 2 to begin depending on how Mass Effect 1 ended for you.

So basically, Quest for Glory.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 26, 2009, 04:50:29 PM
Having wrapped up Fallout 3 until Pittsburgh, I'm trying out both Mass Effect and Oblivion. Both for a change of scenery(I'd have played STALKER, but Bioshock->Fallout3->STALKER would probably kill my interest in the setting forever...) and because I grabbed ME for a quick $20 and Fallout 3 convinced me that Oblivion deserved another chance!

Mass Effect: I hate the way your character runs, the guns-out-at-all-times thing bugs me... but I love everything else about the aesthetics! I'd kill for a fast-run option while on foot, similar to how everyone who ever played KoTOR spammed the +speed skill as soon as they got it..

I'm love-hate with the combat. Infiltrator. I absolutely adore the design of it and the use of tactics and such, and the Sniper Rifle wins my heart after Fallout 3's nonsense about not being hitscan based... but.. some of these fights are just fucking harsh, y'know? [spoiler]When that Krogan ambushes you when you save Tairi, holy fuck, that took me ten god damn tries. You got hit by the physics gun? You're gonna get gunned to zero health before you even begin the stand-up animation! The Colossus ambush before wasn't as bad, but I definitely died once because I was insta-gibbed as soon as the cutscene ended. Literally within two steps.[/spoiler] I love the thrill and challenge outside of those moments where you're killed so fast you're still hitting WASD.

And I have not gotten farther than that. Went back to main quest hub to fart around and do quests. Definitely a "in short bursts every day or two" game.

Oblivion: I've successfully modded out my greatest pet peeve in the game: character grunts made when fighting. Now maybe I can play the damn thing...
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 26, 2009, 05:47:24 PM
I'd kill for a fast-run option while on foot, similar to how everyone who ever played KoTOR spammed the +speed skill as soon as they got it..

On the 360, you can hold A to ... zoom the camera in? And maybe go faster? I really still don't know whether you go faster while running, or it just looks like it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 26, 2009, 07:57:27 PM
It just looks like it. If you're in combat, you can use the same button to actually sprint at triple speed for a short period.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 07:40:34 AM
Guns out all the time?  Pretty sure you can re-secure those things on your back when it's not shooty time.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on February 27, 2009, 07:55:13 AM
some of these fights are just fucking harsh, y'know?

Turned off auto-leveling, maxed out the Pistol and then Sniper Rifle. Death became but a fleeting visitor, coming and going only every fourth mission or so. Midway, a deluge of item drops take your credit situation from nonfunctional to maxed-out before the final quests appear.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 27, 2009, 07:56:07 AM
Guns out all the time?  Pretty sure you can re-secure those things on your back when it's not shooty time.

No, No, I think the on-the-back thing is the silliest law against concealed weapons I've ever seen.

Maybe if I could sell the Assault Rifle and Shotgun I will never use as an infiltrator.

Auto-Leveling is off, I'm no sucker. I guess the sniper approach is jolly well boned when your cutscene ends with you in the middle of six enemies. I usually sprint to cover and pray.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 08:08:52 AM
Yeah, I never did understand why everyone was equipped with guns you cannot improve upon.  Get good at sniper rifle and planet-landing encounters can be ended from damn near miles away.  Spontaneous SURPRISE encounters simply mean you need to pull out that pistol and run to cover as you suggested.  If you're in a building you just have to find a choke point because the enemies will simply huddle in cover around it.  Grenades are your friend for flushing them out of cover.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on February 27, 2009, 08:09:42 AM
Can't recall using cover (doorways excepted) more than thrice throughout the entire playthrough. The Pistol can become that powerful.

What teammates are you using for the majority? On my Infiltrator run, Ashley & Wrex worked as Team FuckShitUp, while Liara & Tali serviced as Team Discovery Channel. Kaiden & Garrus were left on latrine duty, but even then I still handed down weaponry to them (after the others) before selling off the scrap.

The inventory system also reaches a limit at 150, so beware. Nothing worse than being on an inescapable mission, only to reach the limit, forcing you to gel some hearty resales.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 08:11:07 AM
I did enjoy the fact that the game warns you with a big dialog that you are running out of inventory space, not that 'you have no more inventory space, what do you want to scrap RIGHT NOW?'
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on February 27, 2009, 08:13:46 AM
The limit itself is absurd, random, and artificial. With correct management, it'll never occur anyways, so why place the damned abomination there in the first place?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McFrugal on February 27, 2009, 08:24:54 AM
To encourage correct management?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 08:41:22 AM
Because someone decided carrying 151 guns was just absurd.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 27, 2009, 09:48:11 AM
I'm maxing all the Electronics/Decryption stuff on myself, so I have Garrus and Wrex for Team Alien Buddy Movie.

On one of many elevators in the distant future...

Wrex: Hey Garrus, who do y'think would win in a fight between you and Shephard?

Garrus:  :gasp:

Wrex:  :whoops:

The idea is that they take all the hits while I snipe shit. This is the only way I eventually defeated [spoiler]Krogar the Destroyer on Tairi Mission.[/spoiler]

 :HUGE: WREX IS THE BEST CHARACTER AND ON THIS ONE ISSUE THERE CAN BE NO COMPROMISE
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 27, 2009, 09:48:58 AM
Wrex is just a Thraddash with a name.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 27, 2009, 09:49:53 AM
 :perfect:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 27, 2009, 09:51:02 AM
Now, see, if Mass Effect had Fwiffo....
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 09:56:11 AM
Wrex really /really/ likes you if you play Renegade.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 27, 2009, 09:58:36 AM
[spoiler]I did shoot that gang-leader fucker in the face as soon as I was offered the choice.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on February 27, 2009, 09:59:27 AM
Tali & Wrex were my original line-up until I finished maxing my sniper and could refocus on hacking and unlocking skills myself. Tali went back to her hole and Garrus came to carry our shit while Wrex and I killed everything ever.

I ran a planet once with Tali and Garrus where I ran out of grenades and had to send them in to lure guys out for me to pot-shot. Basically they would pull out two of three guys from every small section of each room we took on and then die, leaving me to hunt down the last guy with my pistol before they would revive and we could move on.

I ran several missions where Wrex and 'X' were with me and I ran out of grenades. When I sent them in as decoys, Wrex would kill everyone before they would cross into my line-of-sight.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 27, 2009, 10:08:25 AM
:HUGE: WREX IS THE BEST CHARACTER AND ON THIS ONE ISSUE THERE CAN BE NO COMPROMISE

This is very true. Very, very true.

I'm holding off on Mass Effect for now. I've had two and half Renegade playthroughs with Nephele the Vanguard and Juno the Infiltrator and my every attempt at a Paragon run with Molly the Adept has been less than successful. That's why I'm waiting for the new DLC to come out before trying again.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on February 27, 2009, 12:10:14 PM
My first (and second and half of a third...Extreme Power Gamer!) times through the game, I started out as a Soldier and pimped around with Liara and Tali in my party because salvage and decryption were like things of wonder then because I felt bad leaving Liara hanging after she spent an extended amount of time in the captain's quarters while Tali's voice was just too damn alluring to ever part with.

Then I played a Vanguard and cackled with glee as I locked up enemy weapons like malevolent computer who'd just been given a recall order on everything in the universe.  Wrex and Kaiden seemed like they were only there to watch the show.

I've got an Infiltrator and Biotic sitting around waiting to take an adventure through the universe now when I can be assed to play again.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Pacobird on February 27, 2009, 12:17:25 PM
The only thing I really remember about Mass Effect is how natural it felt to lie about believing in God in order to get laid.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on February 27, 2009, 12:27:40 PM
Funny, I remember the horrible reality of being honest with everyone and ending up stuck with the weird looking girl that no one else would talk to.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 27, 2009, 01:36:23 PM
... which one?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on February 27, 2009, 03:06:28 PM
To encourage correct management?

here's the trouble with this logic.

they literally throw guns at you no matter where you are or what you do.  if you kill something, you get guns, if you open a locker you get guns... you're basically one enormous magnet to which every weapon in the universe is attracted.

they make you scroll through a hideously slow interface to scrap things that you don't want anymore, and then every time you scrap something, it puts you back at the top of what can get to be a very long list.

eventually I just stopped doing sidequests or opening lockers.  my gun was fine and i didn't want more shit.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Fredward on February 27, 2009, 03:28:56 PM
I maxed out my money in my first playthrough of Mass Effect.  :nyoro~n:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 27, 2009, 04:22:02 PM
I like the fact the reward for getting insane amounts of money is the ability to spend it all on the best guns in the game.

And they are permanently on the shopping list.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on February 27, 2009, 04:33:31 PM
I dislike that each gun acts like each other gun of the same type.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 27, 2009, 06:10:28 PM
The... let's say, third worst thing about the inventory system, though, is that there's no real contest between the different brands. The Pheonix armor, in addition to being ugly, sucks. The Mercenary armor is always great, though. There's just no reason to use one type of equipment over another.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 27, 2009, 06:28:30 PM
There are a few exceptions near the top of the line -- do you want to focus on damage absorption or shield recovery, for example.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 27, 2009, 10:54:36 PM
Technically, yes, but that sort of choice falls apart when there's a a clear optimum strategy.  I found that focusing on shields far, far outpaced damage absorption right up until the very endgame, when I could get absorption up to 100%.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 28, 2009, 08:59:27 AM
Meh.  At any rate, it's not hard to get good endgame human armor.  It's a little trickier for Wrex and Garrus, and a monumental fucking pain in the ass for Tali.  Stores with randomized inventories are a neat idea in theory; in practice, the time I spent saving, talking to the clerk, and restoring probably came out to hours.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 28, 2009, 10:02:24 AM
Eh. I ended up getting some high level Geth armor for Wrex at one point without too much trouble.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 28, 2009, 10:06:35 AM
Yeah, Wrex is the easiest nonhuman to get armor for.  Which makes good sense in terms of the plot, really.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on February 28, 2009, 09:40:24 PM
Why do I need to have a character in my party before I can see if a piece of equipment in a shop will be an improvement or not for that character?  This is doubly bad when using the acquisitions officer on the Normandy.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 28, 2009, 09:46:11 PM
ARGH, YES.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Fredward on March 01, 2009, 03:13:34 PM
Started a new playthrough. Realised why I had an instant dislike for Ashley Williams: she looks like a stormtrooper barbie doll.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 01, 2009, 03:24:31 PM
I had an instant boner for her for the same reason.

Unfortunately, I played through as a chick, and you're not allowed to be real gay, just space gay.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on March 01, 2009, 06:28:40 PM
Ashley's Bitchy Hollywood Action Female personality and dialogue put me off, but I picked her over Liara once just to see the dialogue.

Man, if some chick gave me sass like that after sex, I'd show her and her vagina the door.

Liara wasn't terribly appealing either though, but I do loves me some Tali.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on March 01, 2009, 06:50:27 PM
You don't know what horrors lie under that biosuit.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 01, 2009, 07:50:32 PM
You don't know what breasts lie under that biosuit.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on March 01, 2009, 10:39:50 PM
... In bed.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 01, 2009, 11:12:11 PM
You don't know what horrors lie under that biosuit.

Hey, I don't care if she reproduces like a sea horse. She's cute.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on March 02, 2009, 12:05:05 AM
And that voice!  Mmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  :want:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 02, 2009, 12:25:16 AM
The accent in particular.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on March 02, 2009, 12:40:47 AM
Alright so. I keep hearing "this game is awesome", "best character ever", that kind of thing. But I also keep hearing things like "well that's dumb", "the inventory is retarded", "nah it doesn't matter what you do", "that vehicle is stupid", "that entire (insert aspect of the gameplay here) you shouldn't even bother with", and "elevators wtf". So in the end I can't tell if the game is worth playing on its own merits or if it's just recommended because of the art direction or whatever. Is it, you know, any actual fun a significant portion of the time, or is it nuggets of true greatness in between bouts of interminable tedium and annoyance?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Arc on March 02, 2009, 01:03:29 AM
Discussing the flaws of a product makes for a more enduring conversation 'round these parts. The majority of my comments on the Babble thread skew negatively, even on titles I thoroughly squick'd. The faults discussed here are minor in the broad sense, but irritatingly blatant in how they could have been handled in a superior manner.

Mass Effect successfully materialized the concept I've envisioned for over a decade, the futuristic role-playing shooter. The rest is space gravy.


"that vehicle is stupid"

:gasp: Blasphemer!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 02, 2009, 01:05:30 AM
Mass Effect is proof that Bioware, while some of the best writers in the games biz, are not equal to Fred Ford, Paul Reich III, and... and the third guy they got to help with the script for Star Control 2. I will keep making this comparison because the game kept begging for it to be made.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on March 02, 2009, 03:35:48 AM
Mass Effect is a good game but I personally hate it. If you don't mind the fact that Bioware tried to imitate Tolkien in the sheer amount of useless crap there is, you'll be fine. I have a person problem that renders me unable to play it because of that.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 02, 2009, 06:27:12 AM
To be honest, I'm more excited about their Dragon Age Origins whatever whatever, because I want to slay me some A-Rabs horrible unholy creatures from beyond the kingdom's southern borders.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 03, 2009, 04:49:09 PM
Is it, you know, any actual fun a significant portion of the time, or is it nuggets of true greatness in between bouts of interminable tedium and annoyance?

It's actually the reverse of this -- nuggets of tedium and annoyance periodically interfering with a game that's generally pretty great.

Mass Effect is a good game but I personally hate it. If you don't mind the fact that Bioware tried to imitate Tolkien in the sheer amount of useless crap there is, you'll be fine. I have a person problem that renders me unable to play it because of that.

Yeeeeah, don't read the data entries.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on March 03, 2009, 05:13:38 PM
It's odd, I enjoy reading the data entries.

Then again, I enjoyed reading the data entries for Xenosaga 1 and 3's museums/encyclopedia things.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 03, 2009, 05:22:08 PM
That stuff, and the super-long personal dialogue you can have with each character between each mission, is there for the people who would enjoy it.  You can skip it if you hate it.

Which is frankly disappointing.  I was hoping to be rewarded for sitting through it all, like Ashley Williams would suddenly demand to know if you recall which of her sisters does Tai Chi, and if you get it right she rubs her ass on the screen or something.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on March 03, 2009, 05:25:05 PM
Yeah, see, I like games like that.  Mass Effect both fleshes out the world and satisfies my technobabble quota for all the bullshit science that fits in to sci-fi, and that the additional party members actually have some sort of interesting thing about them that makes them more than just a set of numbers that you plug in to your party.  Only character I haven't really messed with is Tali.  I love Wrex and Aleko too much.

EDIT:

You know, reading that post again got me thinking.  I'm actually pretty gender biased in RPGs.  Maybe it is just the extrapolation that I like to hit things with swords until they die, and most RPGs will generally relegate the "not hit things with swords" ability sets to females.  There are obvious exceptions to this (Ayla, Ashley), but yeah. 
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 03, 2009, 05:33:57 PM
You do get experience points for finding information that's added to the codex!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 03, 2009, 05:36:24 PM
or, y'know.  killin' on some geths.

funny story, later in the game I was getting tired of hearing dialogue, so I was hitting X to skip through the asari scientist who was all "oh noes i work for saren but i didn't know he's mean, please spare me" and on my good-person playthrough I accidentally picked the option for "WE'RE NUKING THE PLACE FROM ORBIT, BETTER START RUNNIN' HUR HUR"

delightfully out of character.  i almost peed my pants.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on March 03, 2009, 05:42:30 PM
Well, I've spent 20$ on less recommendation before, I think I'll get it. Thanks for clearing that up everyone.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 03, 2009, 05:49:08 PM
oh, yeah, no, make no mistake, i loved it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on March 03, 2009, 06:26:59 PM
It's the only sci-fi that I've seen that, even though it is really deep in to its own universe, it doesn't have any of the silly "bridge bunnies shouting technobabble when shit is hitting the fan" things that you might see in Star Trek.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Fredward on March 03, 2009, 06:50:02 PM
Yeah, Mass Effect has flaws, like any Bioware game, but overall, it's pretty much :wuv:.

But if you get the Bringing Down the Sky DLC, do yourself a favour and don't do that mission first. [spoiler]HOLY SHIT minefield+rockets exploding IN YOUR FACE.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 03, 2009, 07:08:51 PM
or, y'know.  killin' on some geths.

funny story, later in the game I was getting tired of hearing dialogue, so I was hitting X to skip through the asari scientist who was all "oh noes i work for saren but i didn't know he's mean, please spare me" and on my good-person playthrough I accidentally picked the option for "WE'RE NUKING THE PLACE FROM ORBIT, BETTER START RUNNIN' HUR HUR"

delightfully out of character.  i almost peed my pants.

I assume that is the good guy option, since the renegade option is to shoot her in the fucking face.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 03, 2009, 07:24:52 PM
The paragon/renegade options were always a bit wonky. They are either "Let me be a pansy" or "Let me punch you in the face."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on March 03, 2009, 08:51:59 PM
So fairly standard in the spectrum of Bioware's Good/Evil choices.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Pacobird on March 03, 2009, 08:57:57 PM
mass effect gets points for rather than being "saint or baby-eater" it's "saint or kind of a dick"
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Cthulhu-chan on March 04, 2009, 12:20:46 AM
I felt it was more of a "doormat or douche" conundrum, myself.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on March 04, 2009, 08:04:39 AM
"Ask question"

or

"Ask question while pointing gun for emphasis."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 04, 2009, 01:35:09 PM
Actually some of the renegade choices do result in facepunching. Other than that, yeah, it's the same old Bioware stuff.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 04, 2009, 08:33:12 PM
I assume that is the good guy option, since the renegade option is to shoot her in the fucking face.

The back of the head, actually.  Execution style.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 04, 2009, 08:44:41 PM
No, that's the first one. I think Kazz was talking about the second. I know I was.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 04, 2009, 08:54:48 PM
...oh right, there's more than one.

(But technically the order's not set.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 04, 2009, 09:26:02 PM
I didn't want to spoil the wheres of the extra-terrestrial misogyny for everyone who hasn't mercilessly murdered an Asari.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 04, 2009, 10:53:17 PM
I actually wasn't able to get out of the situation where there's a cowardly douchebag at the research place with the mind plant without shooting him in the face.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 04, 2009, 10:59:40 PM
You pretty much need a close-to-maxed out charm/intimidate to let him live.

But where's the fun in that?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 04, 2009, 11:04:34 PM
I had as many points in Charm as I could at the time, but I guess your max cap rises slower as a Vanguard than as other crap.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on March 05, 2009, 05:34:25 AM
I think I remember reading that Charm/Intimidate caps rise as you progress in Spectre Training and also how many Paragon/Renegade points you've earned.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on March 10, 2009, 01:56:09 PM
OH
MY
GOD
WHY
CAN'T
I
COMPARE
A
SHOP'S
INVENTORY
WITH
THE
STUFF
THE
PEOPLE
WHO
AREN'T
IN
MY
PARTY
RIGHT
NOW
ARE
WEARING
AAAAAAAAAGH
GODDAMN
USELESS
FUCKING
SHIP
MERCHANT
THEY'RE
STANDING
RIGHT
THERE
WHY
DO
I
GOTTA
RUN
TO
THE
LOCKERS
AND
MEMORIZE
A
BUNCH
OF
STATS
FUCK
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on March 10, 2009, 01:58:12 PM
i bypassed all my worries about that by simply setting Combat Difficulty to "Casual"

Then we could all be using slingshots and we'd still destroy everyone
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 10, 2009, 02:53:48 PM
Why bother using different party members? You'll miss out on the Ally achievements if you use different characters.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on May 23, 2009, 10:38:15 AM
Man, I love Mass Effect, but it's sort of a abusive sort of relationship. The game really likes to fuck me over. FOR EXAMPLE: I hit a glitch in the Scan the Keepers / Two idiot Scientists sidequest. Since I'm rolling a more Paragonian Shepherd than I usually play, I decided to be all coy and stop scanning the Keepers (with 16/21 gotten) with full knowledge that I'd be able to resume scanning them later.

Except I can't. The Volus scientist gives me his scanner and everything, but the game tells me that I decided to stop. Mother Fucker. Also, that Helena Blake woman suddenly hovered five feet in the air when she propositioned me to kill her partners.

On a related note: Wrex looks fucking boss in HD.
Title: Effects of Mass: I'm gathering specialists for a mission
Post by: Disposable Ninja on May 31, 2009, 08:00:41 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIpIgisDxo8
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on November 07, 2009, 12:10:21 AM
HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT I JUST GOT FOR PC

I WILL READ THE FIRST PAGE OF THIS, AS SURELY IT WILL GIVE ME HINTS ON HOW TO BE THE BEST SNIPER THAT I HAVE ALREADY STARTED BEI

 :nyoro~n:

anyway.  Anything I should look out for obnoxious interface wise?  Any mods I should get to fix them?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 07, 2009, 12:14:26 AM
Uh if i remember most problems with the game were fixed for the PC, so what you should do first is pat yourself on the back for not getting the XBOX beta.

The other thing you should do next is put Wrex in your party for the whole entire game because he makes other playthroughs much more pleasant.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on November 07, 2009, 12:33:29 AM
SURRENDER

OR DON'T

THAT'D BE MORE FUN
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 07, 2009, 12:35:44 AM
don't know how many times i've heard that trying to play through on insane difficulty ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 07, 2009, 12:43:01 AM
As far as I'm aware the only problem with the PC version is that the Inventory system still sucks total scrotum nuts. Just turn every object you find into Omni-Gel once it becomes even only slightly obsolete.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 07, 2009, 12:45:51 AM
I would advise you just do that with every single class 1 and 2 item you come across, and sell every single other thing you pick up that isn't instantly equipped or slotted into a gun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 07, 2009, 01:05:20 AM
Basic strategy remains the same: go into your item menu every 10-15 minutes and melt down almost all of your equipment into Omni-Gels. It's a hassle, yeah, but it beats having to spend 15 minutes every hour turning over a hundred items into Omni-Gels.

There's a 150 item limit and nothing stacks. And you get four weapon mods every time you look left.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 07, 2009, 01:48:52 AM
Basic strategy remains the same: go into your item menu every 10-15 minutes and melt down almost all of your equipment into Omni-Gels. It's a hassle, yeah, but it beats having to spend 15 minutes every hour turning over a hundred items into Omni-Gels.

There's a 150 item limit and nothing stacks. And you get four weapon mods every time you look left.

pretty sure the item limit was removed for pc brotenkhamen
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 07, 2009, 02:08:57 AM
That might be even worse.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on November 07, 2009, 03:31:01 AM
I like the dialogue when it's not important and nothing else about Mass Effect

I have a short essay somewhere on another forum

Yet here I am on my second play through just to hunt out more amazing gems (on the god damned 360 version)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on November 07, 2009, 10:29:14 AM
i don't care if i ever leave the citadel
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on November 07, 2009, 11:30:02 AM
Basic strategy remains the same: go into your item menu every 10-15 minutes and melt down almost all of your equipment into Omni-Gels. It's a hassle, yeah, but it beats having to spend 15 minutes every hour turning over a hundred items into Omni-Gels.

There's a 150 item limit and nothing stacks. And you get four weapon mods every time you look left.

pretty sure the item limit was removed for pc brotenkhamen

It was not.  I didn't run into it until that one moonbase, because i dumped everything I had no interest in every time i had an opportunity, but it's very much there.

Best not to go with Omni-gelling things until you have the 1 million funbux that unlocking the Spectre store requires.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on November 07, 2009, 12:23:26 PM
I remember there being a text file you could edit to take out the item limit, but I'm too lazy to Google it for you.

I always preferred a defensive soldier Shepherd, where you would just stand in the middle of a million things and cycle your cooldowns (one of which you would always have up) to pretend like you had turned on Godmode.

That being said, every other time I've played the game it has involved Jedis with shotguns.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on November 07, 2009, 12:26:07 PM
Sniping is fun but it's definitely turning on Harder Than Normal Mode.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 07, 2009, 12:59:16 PM
i don't care if i ever leave the citadel

It's fun the first time, but on subsequent playthroughs you'll really grow to fucking hate that place.

I bought Pinnacle Station because I was not in the mood for the bullshit. That was a mistake.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on November 07, 2009, 01:11:44 PM
Yeah, at least early on when neither you nor your gun has any scoped accuracy or heat dissipation.  Sniping tears shit right up later, though... when any other gun can also do that.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on November 07, 2009, 02:20:17 PM
Right now my sniper rifle is a rocket launcher, which is pretty fucking good, actually
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on November 07, 2009, 05:21:14 PM
For some reason, I've enjoyed playing the engineer-type classes, the ones that have you equipping an omni-tool, and specializing in pistols.  Sure, it might not be as glamorous as assault rifling everything down, but it gets the job done.

Also, sniper rifles.  I like them once I get trained up a bit in them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 07, 2009, 11:02:57 PM
The pistol is a fucking monster in Mass Effect, actually. Especially when you use your Pistol Talent (I think it's called Marksman?), which basically turns every blast into a headshot.

Personally, I'm more drawn to Biotics. Creating mini-black holes is fun!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on November 28, 2009, 12:58:52 PM
Tali may still not love you, but she's a confirmed crew member again. WHY CAN'T YOU LOVE ME LIKE I LOVE YOU, MY ENCOUNTER SUITED BUTTERFLY?!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 28, 2009, 03:27:10 PM
This is good news, as we now have at least one person i would actually want to have in my party. All the characters who are described as "ruthless, unpredictable and extremely violent" (i.e. all -tali) can stay on the Normandy, thanks a lot.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 28, 2009, 09:57:36 PM
Confirmed characters:

Black dude.
White woman.
Nearly naked lady with no hair.
Notwrex.
Tane (http://tane.us/).

AND TALI! YAY TALI YAY!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on November 29, 2009, 01:36:40 PM
Quote
Tane

Are you serious because that will make my party Taaaaaaaaaaaaane.us and Tali forever.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 29, 2009, 01:52:17 PM
Sorry. His name is Thane. He is "The Deadliest Assassin ever to have lived".

Didn't mean to get your hopes up.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bleck on November 29, 2009, 01:52:28 PM
Why can't I romance Tali, I asked? I received no answer. The question still burns in my heart.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on November 29, 2009, 01:53:50 PM
Sorry. His name is Thane. He is "The Deadliest Assassin ever to have lived".

Didn't mean to get your hopes up.

UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BARF IS THERE ANY CHARACTER IN MASS EFFECT 2 THAT WASN'T WRITTEN BY A FUCKING 13 YEAR OLD


T Bleck
[spoiler]You can't romance Tali because her species can't handle GEEEEEEEERMS which is why her suit is full-body[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 29, 2009, 01:57:48 PM
UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BARF IS THERE ANY CHARACTER IN MASS EFFECT 2 THAT WASN'T WRITTEN BY A FUCKING 13 YEAR OLD

There might be. There's like twelve player characters.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on November 29, 2009, 02:25:15 PM
T Bleck
[spoiler]You can't romance Tali because her species can't handle GEEEEEEEERMS which is why her suit is full-body[/spoiler]

Or maybe that's all just what her species's leaders have been telling them for generations and generations and nobody's ever thought to question it until Tali is driven to by her love for Shephard's mighty thews and then it turns out that microorganisms don't really cross species that well and she's totally fine and leads a revolution among her people.

Basically I have no faith in the writers of this thing.  What would be awesome is if you suggest that and she goes with it and then five minutes after the love scene she just died, but they're not gonna do anything hilarious.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 29, 2009, 08:57:34 PM
UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BARF IS THERE ANY CHARACTER IN MASS EFFECT 2 THAT WASN'T WRITTEN BY A FUCKING 13 YEAR OLD

Just Tali

Also IIRC the dudes at the place said tali wasn't susceptible to human bugs so consider that a definite "maybe"

But this IS Bioware and they simply do not allow the best character in any of their games to be romanceable (Neeshka, Wynne)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on November 29, 2009, 09:18:57 PM
I thought that NWN2 was done by another company and that a proper Neeshka romance was removed due to time constraints?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on November 29, 2009, 09:34:30 PM
Wynne
:wrong:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on November 29, 2009, 09:56:39 PM
I thought that NWN2 was done by another company and that a proper Neeshka romance was removed due to time constraints?

Yeah, that's what happened.  Oblivion has a habit of being told to make Bioware sequels, making them leagues better, and then having their funding cut short and having to ship the game 80% done.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on November 29, 2009, 10:42:48 PM
Wynne
:wrong:

OK, OK

Oghren
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 01, 2009, 02:33:40 PM
New character: Samara (http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3177113), an Asari with... issues.

She's a step up from Liara, at least.

Nevertheless, it's good to know the first game's obsession with brutally murdering Asari is in full swing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 01, 2009, 03:22:43 PM
UNPREDICTABLE AND VIOLENTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 01, 2009, 03:47:03 PM
I seem to recall reading about the Justicars in the background world material from the first game. Best summed up as crazy zealous bitches.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: PhoenixUltima on December 02, 2009, 12:25:45 AM
Wait, wait, Neeshka was the best character in NWN2? Did I miss some secret quest that makes her not a selfish whiny prick or something? Because whenever I had her in my party (which wasn't very often, seeing as my first character was a rogue!) she pouted and whined whenever I didn't want to be a completely selfish asshole (I was playing Chaotic Good, so this was fairly often). Honestly, I didn't really care all that much about the characters in NWN2, but my favorite would either have to be Shandra, simply because she's a normal person and not a total self-absorbed whiny cock, Bishop, because he at least is totally honest about being a complete self-absorbed cock and revels in it (although I don't actually *like* him so probably not him), or mmmmmmmmaybe Khelgar just because he's so fun to listen to.

Of course, you can pick pretty much any character at random from Mask of the Betrayer and they're guaranteed to be 500% more awesome than anyone in the original campaign. But then, most characters would pale in comparison to, say, [spoiler]THE GOD OF BEARS.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on December 02, 2009, 01:13:19 AM
[spoiler]Ammon[/spoiler] was also a kind of neat character, if for no other reason than because he made the influence system seem more dynamic than it really was.

Yeah, I would have liked the ability to meaningfully sway more of my companions' alignments in the main campaign. Coax Neeshka into being less of a selfish bitch, akin to the ToB alignment change you can trigger in Viconia, for example. Also, I was a bit annoyed with some of the dialog tree railroading that went on, but I guess that's to be expected.

I imagine in about a year we'll see an independent group re-release the main campaign the way it was "meant to be" ala team gizka (only actually being done in a reasonable span of time).

EDIT: Maybe some of this discussion should get merged elsewhere? I know I've gone pretty far off track from Mass Effect.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 03, 2009, 11:46:56 PM
Mercy Fuck, looks like Mass Effect 2 will be 2 discs long (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/04/mass-effect-2-to-span-two-discs/).

... How does that work with a Bioware game?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on December 04, 2009, 01:02:56 AM
The second disk is all codecs. :ohshi~:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on December 04, 2009, 01:46:03 AM
So...Xenogears?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on December 07, 2009, 03:49:05 AM
In April Bioware said they'd take the elevators out of ME

Quote
We have a completely new system to handle transitions between areas that speeds the load times and turns the loads themselves into part of the game experience. It's one of many points of feedback we've heard and directly responded to in enhancing the gameplay in Mass Effect 2.
then on Friday they said this
Quote
The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens. However there were a lot of complaints, so we've gone back to loading screens and movies. We still have elevators in ME2, but you don't wait inside them. We'll cut to a loading screen instead.
Quote
We'll cut to a loading screen instead.
Quote
We'll cut to a loading screen instead.
Quote
We'll cut to a loading screen instead.
Quote
We'll cut to a loading screen instead.

HOLY
MOLY

HATERS GONNA HATE IMO (http://kotaku.com/5419999/completely-new-transition-system-in-mass-effect-2-is--loading-screens)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on December 07, 2009, 03:49:30 AM
(http://tyler.suckramento.org/imgs/ME2.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on December 07, 2009, 07:28:42 AM
The elevator thing, I thought, was a good idea for area transition.  Of course, just watching your dudes chill there doing nothing was boring with muzak and everything.  However, I liked hearing the news reports about Shepard's exploits and the various conversations between your allies, and the latter served to expand the group dynamic between your supporting cast.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 07, 2009, 10:08:44 AM
Quote
However, I liked hearing the news reports about Shepard's exploits and the various conversations between your allies,

THIS! Why are people so god damn stupid?! The elevators were perfectly fine!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 07, 2009, 10:14:31 AM
But but but Doom you had to look at your characters and you couldn't move for like 45 seconds!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 07, 2009, 10:15:09 AM
WREX AND GARRUS SAID HILARIOUS THINGS!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on December 07, 2009, 10:41:05 AM
Aren't they not in the game anymore? So really we aren't going to miss anything at all.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 07, 2009, 11:01:10 AM
Yeah, who wants to hear what these new guys have to say?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 07, 2009, 01:44:55 PM
I'd actually let Subject Zero hang around with me if every elevator conversation was Tali sincerely inquiring as to why she's so god damn stupid.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 07, 2009, 02:49:26 PM
The second disk is all DLC. :ohshi~:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on December 07, 2009, 09:32:37 PM
Only thing that I think could top it is some left or right pundits mouthing off about said exploits.  I wanna hear Rush Limbaugh lend his vocal talents to say that the Spectres, being above the law and outside of C-Sec jurisdiction is a terrible thing.  WE NEED ACCOUNTABILITY.  JUST LOOK AT SAREN.

I'm no good at pretending to be a pundit.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 08, 2009, 01:31:24 AM
I don't think that's the stance Limbaugh would take, regarding Spectres.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 08, 2009, 01:40:22 AM
Well, that depends. If you got the [spoiler]Renegade ending in ME1 and then chose Ambassador Udina to rule over the entire galaxy,[/spoiler] then no, that would not be the stance he would take.

Any of the other endings, though? He'd be blowing it out his red sand-hole.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 11, 2009, 10:50:35 PM
Okay, so they got Worf to play a Krogan battlemaster.

But he's not the Krogan who's a part of your crew.

I feel rage.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 11, 2009, 11:00:54 PM
 ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 11, 2009, 11:36:04 PM
 ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 11, 2009, 11:37:00 PM
 (http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 12, 2009, 12:31:59 AM
Seriously every single thing they say about this game is a qualified disappointment.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 12, 2009, 12:39:58 AM
Well, except that Martin Sheen voices a shadowy, G-Man like CEO figure that guides Shepherd through the game seemingly similar to the Council in ME1.

That's pretty fucking straight up awesome.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 12, 2009, 01:28:21 AM
Yeah, but then they put Michael Jackson in your party. And it's not even Space Michael.

(http://daniel.suckramento.org/mj.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on December 12, 2009, 02:21:33 AM
im gonna put mj in my second slot so he tells me to do bad things. :)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 12, 2009, 08:20:55 AM
Michael Jackson and Tali will make an acceptable party. The game is saved!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 13, 2009, 09:40:19 PM
...what if the load screens have voiceovers?

Anyway.  Were the elevators worse in the Xbox version?  Because yeah they weren't terrible in the PC version.  It did get irritating hearing the same news story more than once, but there's a pretty simple solution to that.

...next time I apply to BioWare, I will tell them that I am willing to spend eight hours a day just writing wacky news stories.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 13, 2009, 09:44:02 PM
Anyway.  Were the elevators worse in the Xbox version?  Because yeah they weren't terrible in the PC version.  It did get irritating hearing the same news story more than once, but there's a pretty simple solution to that.

The one on the Normandy takes about 40 seconds, so.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on December 13, 2009, 09:50:35 PM
Imagine a world where all data must be streamed off the disc, and none can be stored on the system you're playing it on.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 13, 2009, 09:54:21 PM
Anyway.  Were the elevators worse in the Xbox version?  Because yeah they weren't terrible in the PC version.  It did get irritating hearing the same news story more than once, but there's a pretty simple solution to that.

The one on the Normandy takes about 40 seconds, so.

Yeah, but honestly that's about the worst of it. There are teleport stations complete with load screens all over the Citadel, and you only use the elevators planetside once or twice each.

Anyway, I hope Legion the renegade Geth Trooper is a crew member. Then I'd use it and Tali for the whooooole game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 17, 2009, 06:56:36 PM
Retail version DRM is disc check only (http://meforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=710074&forum=144).

Fuck yes.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on December 17, 2009, 07:33:40 PM
Anyway.  Were the elevators worse in the Xbox version?  Because yeah they weren't terrible in the PC version.  It did get irritating hearing the same news story more than once, but there's a pretty simple solution to that.

The one on the Normandy takes about 40 seconds, so.

Yeah, but honestly that's about the worst of it. There are teleport stations complete with load screens all over the Citadel, and you only use the elevators planetside once or twice each.

Anyway, I hope Legion the renegade Geth Trooper is a crew member. Then I'd use it and Tali for the whooooole game.

Superior party banter, for real.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 20, 2009, 09:58:29 PM
If the party banter in this is anything like as good as that in Dragon Age, I can't wait for the elevators
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 20, 2009, 11:37:45 PM
Dude, weren't you paying attention? They took the elevators out.

Unless you're talking about playing ME1, in which case you should have said so.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 21, 2009, 05:19:32 AM
I was paying attention, what I meant to imply is that they should bring them back if I can listen to some Alister/Morrigan quality banter while I'm riding in them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 21, 2009, 05:30:57 AM
HEY HOW MUCH DO YOU ENJOY BEING ON THE EDGE AND INTENSE

PRETTY MUCH A LOT!! UNPREDICTABLE VIOLENCE IS #1 IF YOU ASK ME
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on December 21, 2009, 06:14:43 AM
BUT ONLY IF THERE'S TITTIES TOO!!!!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 22, 2009, 03:17:40 PM
Garrus is back.

So.

Shephard/Garrus/Tali.

Feels good, man.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 22, 2009, 08:17:45 PM
... is he? I've only seen confirmation of a cameo.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 22, 2009, 08:24:56 PM
Achievements were mined and suggest he's back.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 22, 2009, 11:30:46 PM
Mined?  Zuh?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on December 23, 2009, 03:33:46 AM
Mined?  Zuh?

Temp-scum game testers (http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-07-11/news/testing-video-games-can-t-possibly-be-harder-than-an-afternoon-with-xbox-right.php?page=full) with access to the developer-and-media-only Xbox Live server called Parternet can access the info pages of not-yet-released games and read the games' achievement lists.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on December 23, 2009, 05:48:12 AM
That's all well and good but is there a source for this? When I Googled earlier I got GameFAQs posts talking about this without sources and nothing else relevant
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 23, 2009, 10:29:39 AM
Shamelessly lifted from the Wiki, then added a real link. Spoilers aplenty, though just from what appears to be a demo.

[spoiler]"Just like old times, Shepard."


In Mass Effect 2 Shepard is advised to recruit a tactical genius and infiltrator known as 'Archangel'. [1] Shepard's search for Archangel leads the team to Omega where they find Archangel under assault from a group of Eclipse mercenaries lead by Jaroth, a salarian. After Shepard's team gets through to Archangel he removes his helmet, revealing himself to be none other than Garrus. After Garrus explains the situation to Shepard, Shepard's team assists Garrus in taking out the mercenaries, who have kept Garrus stuck on one side of a bridge, and escaping [2]. At some point, presumably after this, Garrus is confirmed to join Shepard's squad. [3] [/spoiler]

And apparently a nice big demo is making the rounds, lending credibility to that Wiki excerpt. (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1041365p1.html)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 07, 2010, 07:59:44 PM
You wouldn't think a game as heavy on player choice as Mass Effect would lend itself very well to a comic...and you'd be right!

First off: Shepard is never referred to by a pronoun.  Sound awkward?  It is!

While the comic manages to avoid defining a gender for Shepard, it DOES eventually have to narrow itself down on which ending it follows.  It's not the one where the entire Council is replaced by humans.  Other than that, it's still open.

Anyway, very meh.  I think it would have been better if it were a prequel, or something only very tangentially related to Shepard's story.  Expand the universe a bit without worrying about having to accomodate player choice.  Because there isn't any, because it's a fucking comic book.

(Although it occurs to me that there is actually untapped webcomic potential here: it would be fairly trivial for BioWare to rig up an online version of the comic that loads a save and very slightly alters dialogue based on it.  That would actually be pretty fucking cool IMO!)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kazz on January 07, 2010, 08:49:39 PM
if only you worked for them

 :itsmagic:

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on January 07, 2010, 08:53:28 PM
(http://www.nikumatic.com/images/ohsnapbear.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bleck on January 07, 2010, 09:12:02 PM
Garrus and Tali? My old team, reunited!

Garrus always felt like he was Shepard's apprentice, which was cool, and Tali has a vaguely European accent and the widest hips oh man.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 11, 2010, 05:32:35 PM
Mass Effect didn't think I had it in me to explore every star system as soon as I got out of the Citadel, but who has 800,000 credits now, huh.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 11, 2010, 05:42:14 PM
Mass Effect didn't think I had it in me to explore every star system as soon as I got out of the Citadel, but who has 800,000 credits now, huh.

I no longer have the energy to do that, which probably would explain why I still don't have a decent Paragon playthrough.

Well, that and killing Asari is too much fun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 12, 2010, 09:00:02 PM
So I finally got around to resuming my ME save to try to finish it before ME2 comes out.

SIDE QUESTS SIDE QUESTS OH GOD MUST DO THEM ALLLLLLLL

I'm never gonna finish this game in time :(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 12, 2010, 09:13:22 PM
I think if you just limit yourself to Side Quests that actually matter, you'll do fine. Anything involving Cerberus, for example, since they seem to play a pretty big part in the next game for example.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 12, 2010, 11:34:53 PM
Just keep track of which system you've been to and methodically cleave through them.

It added about 6-8 hours to my play-time to "nearly" explore every star system the second I could leave the Citadel. I have maybe two quests left. One won't show up in the system(what) and I got the other while taking off from a plot planet.

[spoiler]Every system only has one landable planet and you just drive from map objective to map objective, only deviating for an unmapped mineral cluster. And most of the side missions are copy-pastas of small hallways with a conversation and/or a gun-fight.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Man, the actual Quest Quests are really well done after all that side-quest copy-pasta crap. I was giddy on Feros(Tower Ruins Planet) and Verimire(Salarian Commando Planet)[/spoiler]

[spoiler]So.. I am back at the Citadel and I guess I must advance the plot a bit more before I unlock the obligatory pre-finale surprise dungeon and then beat the game and shoot the Council to death. Hoo-ray.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 13, 2010, 10:55:10 AM
Ugh, I got Krogan Ally but I didn't get Turian Ally because I had the "gall" to use Liara for [spoiler]her Momma's planet[/spoiler]. Bogus.

I think what makes me feel weird about Mass Effect is that unlike most Bioware games(and a significant number of Western RPGs in general), the optional stuff is vastly inferior to the actual Main Quest. I found myself struggling to find the willpower to planet-fall and drooling during actual plot planets.

[spoiler]Renegade Ending sucks. It's "Kick Puppies" bad.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 13, 2010, 01:30:21 PM
I disagree. The only reason I could stomach playing ME was to see the shit Garrus and Wrex said to each other in various situations. Other than the final stretch of the game--[spoiler]the Death Star trench run[/spoiler]--I didn't enjoy a single story mission.

On the other hand, every Bioware game I play bores the shit out of me forever, and it's kind of a fluke I liked any part of Mass Effect at all. I played it through before I realized I hated all Bioware games (assuming I hated ME alone), hoping that ME2 would be a lot better (I'd already tried to start it once before). I still have some glimmer of hope for ME2, but really I should just face facts and recognize that I find everything by Bioware horribly dull.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 13, 2010, 03:12:21 PM
The tragic part is that your teammates are practically mute. I found my enjoyment of Mass Effect strained constantly, only to be saved at the last second by what felt like a great story mission to me. I was about ready to just bury the game for another year before I actually got to the meat of [spoiler]Salarian Commando planet.[/spoiler]

But yeah that finale is pretty tits.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 13, 2010, 05:20:08 PM
It's really terrible how silent your team mates are, except on story missions. If they spoke up more on sidequests the game would be so baller.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 13, 2010, 05:28:41 PM
Would it?  They're all pretty one-dimensional, and for most of them that dimension just sucks.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 13, 2010, 05:30:18 PM
Perhaps they'd have more dimensions if they ever said anything?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 13, 2010, 05:30:48 PM
I just really want Wrex to say more stuff. And Garrus, but not as much as Wrex.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 14, 2010, 04:19:13 PM
So I plowed into this game head on yesterday playing at least 6 hours straight and I'm really digging it.  Garrus and Wrex are my bros.

[spoiler]Rest in peace, Kaiden, you useless sack of shit.  Really, though I only chose you to die because I never killed Carth and you remind me of him.[/spoiler]

Kinda glad I'm playing now because it made it easier to ignore the info on ME2 so I'll be more surprised when I do play it.  All I know about ME2 is that there's some chick that looks like Michael Jackson, and there's no way I'm letting Michael Jackson within twenty feet of my dick.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 15, 2010, 10:18:26 PM
Ugh, I got Krogan Ally but I didn't get Turian Ally because I had the "gall" to use Liara for [spoiler]her Momma's planet[/spoiler]. Bogus.

This happened to me and I felt totally justified in using a cheat to activate it.

I think what makes me feel weird about Mass Effect is that unlike most Bioware games(and a significant number of Western RPGs in general), the optional stuff is vastly inferior to the actual Main Quest. I found myself struggling to find the willpower to planet-fall and drooling during actual plot planets.

I hear the Mako's not in this one because everyone complained.

Also, there is a valid plot reason.

...see, I'm finding a lot of the sidequests in Dragon Age to be pretty dull.  But not Mako dull.

(Tangentially, at this point in the post I accidentally fat-fingered Ctrl-Q when I was hitting Ctrl-A to copy-paste Yyler's quote in.  It turns out that Firefox saves your text boxes even if it gets an order to quit, not just if it crashes.  Good to know!  And now you are reading this instead of a long stream of rage.)

It's really terrible how silent your team mates are, except on story missions. If they spoke up more on sidequests the game would be so baller.

Dragon Age is quite good at this, I've found.  The sniping between Lulu and the French chick is hilarious.

Of course, Dragon Age saves voice-acting budget over ME by not recording every single line of PC dialogue.  Twice.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 16, 2010, 10:46:36 AM
Now that I've finished ME (more like lasered through it, play clock put me at under 14 hours), I can say it is very enjoyable.

Of course, Dragon Age saves voice-acting budget over ME by not recording every single line of PC dialogue.  Twice.

This is something I really appreciated about ME.  It took a lot of care to write out Shepard's dialogue, then have it recorded without having the player hate himself.  I went Paragon and was dreading sounding like some hippie pussy because of it, but I didn't.  There's something satisfyingly immersive about your character having a real voice when you choose the dialogue.  That's something I liked about Deus Ex, too.

Haven't played Dragon Age yet.  I hear that certain party members will constantly bitch at you for your choices, and I'm not looking forward to that.  I liked that for the most part, your party in ME didn't question your actions except for a few plot-related moments that made sense.  I wouldn't like Wrex as much if he complained every time I made a paragon decision.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 16, 2010, 11:55:38 AM
Dragon Age is interesting in that some characters complain about actions while some characters are picky enough to complain about your phrasing.  It makes you actually think about their characters a little... or just keep everyone at 100 loveforyou by showering them with cheap gifts.

I started a Mass Effect yesterday because it seemed like the thing to do and also I lost my saves because I didn't think to back them up when I switched to Win7.  I don't remember being quite so irritated about it the first time through, but I'm having trouble putting up with early levels as a Vanguard, because I'm stuck with just Throw as a decent active for way too long before Lift can be unlocked.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 19, 2010, 09:15:50 AM
Mass Effect 2 will have Day One DLC.

BOOOOOOOOOO

Mass Effect 2 Day One DLC will be free (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/18/mass-effect-2-day-one-dlc-will-be-free/).

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 19, 2010, 09:28:22 AM
... so, if you buy it on launch day, you can get the DLC for free?  Or is this another Stone Prisoner sort of fuck-you to the secondary market?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on January 19, 2010, 10:51:45 AM
Yes, and yes. Not sure how they worked it in Dragon Age, but new copies of ME2 will come with the code for the dlc, and if you get a used copy, you can purchase a code in-game.

In other Mass Effect dlc news, the two dlc packs, Bringing Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station, are both 40% off on XBLA this week. Haven't played through pinnacle station yet, but Bringing Down the Sky is a decent, though short romp, with new enemies, a neat indoor garden environment, and an actual nuanced ethical choice for Shephard. Of course, as dlc it has absolutely no bearing on the main story, but it's still pretty neat. Not a bad deal for 240 MS Space Bucks.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 19, 2010, 11:03:26 AM
Mass Effect 2 has an ingame store connected to the internet/Live/PSN, so I'm guessing you'll download it off of that. And that it'll be free for the first day.

EDIT: And I was right (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/19/mass-effect-2s-cerberus-network-an-in-game-pipeline-for-dlc/). I think.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 21, 2010, 09:37:30 PM
This is something I really appreciated about ME.  It took a lot of care to write out Shepard's dialogue, then have it recorded without having the player hate himself.  I went Paragon and was dreading sounding like some hippie pussy because of it, but I didn't.  There's something satisfyingly immersive about your character having a real voice when you choose the dialogue.  That's something I liked about Deus Ex, too.

Jennifer Hale does fantastic work and totally overshadows her male counterpart.  (Who sounds hilariously inappropriate if you play a Samuel L Jackson lookalike.)

Haven't played Dragon Age yet.  I hear that certain party members will constantly bitch at you for your choices, and I'm not looking forward to that.

Yeah.  It's probably not as bad as Freya in KotOR bitching every time you did anything positive OR negative, but on the other hand, Freya was one character and in this game anything you do is likely to piss SOMEBODY off.  (Except your dog.  And I haven't noticed Shale getting too pissed about much of anything, but I haven't had him for very long.)

It gets some points for not having an overt dark/light/paragon/renegade/good/evil/lawful/chaotic alignment system, but loses most of them for most of your choices being so black-and-white anyway.  (There are exceptions!  There's at least one major quest where an innocent person has to die, and you have to choose which one.)  And your party members aren't strictly good/evil; it's more like one's religious, one's self-centered, one hates mages, and so on.  Their motivations, while still comparatively simple, are more complex than you usually get in a game like this.

You know what was pretty good at the whole what-path-will-you-choose thing?  The Witcher.  Sure, some of the choices were hilariously black-and-white (don't help the fanatics burn the witch, don't kill the werewolf because he's actually a good guy, ...), but the major ones are pretty gray.  To take the biggest example, you can choose to help out the soldiers or the nonhuman terrorists, but both factions are pretty fucked-up -- and you've got a choice to tell them all to go to hell, but in the end you have to suffer the consequences of refusing to take a side, too.

I smell a similar kind of moral quandary coming in Dragon Age, but haven't gotten to the obligatory BioWare Big Twist Moment yet.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 21, 2010, 10:11:12 PM
Jennifer Hale does fantastic work and totally overshadows her male counterpart.
Truer words.  Strongly encourage male Shepards to reroll for ME2.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on January 21, 2010, 10:43:44 PM
I'm going to be starting a Mass Effect 1 play through here shortly. I want to roll a lady Shep since, by all accounts, the voice acting is the clutchiest, but then pursuing any romance will make me feel uncomfortable with my sexuality. What to do?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 21, 2010, 10:45:45 PM
Don't pursue romances because all the options are terrible?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on January 21, 2010, 10:50:50 PM
yyler perhaps you've not heard there is a lady alien
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 21, 2010, 11:57:11 PM
Oh wow I thought I was the only one who thought Fem-Shep was actually more convincing.

Also his name is TYRONE.

Dragon Age Spoilers:

[spoiler]Shale is Morrigan-lite. That is, Shale's always happy to see you opt to be a bastard, but won't whine nearly as much when you're nice. If you want to see Shale's morals explode, bring Shale along for the Orzammar finale. This is probably an unfair characterization as Shale is pretty cool. I guess what I mean is that if you want to be a prick, Shale/Morrigan will get you approvals all over.

The only morality in DA that pissed me off was Alistair, who will actually disapprove of you recruiting sketchy party members. Fuckin' -10 hits for Shale AND Zev. Man!

also also big spoiler: you mean the sacrifice for the Arl Eamon thing to save his kid, right? You can actually ignore time and sod off to do the Circle of Magi quest in full, saving both Eamon's wife and child. No time limit. I guess it's a good thing it is a video game because what a video game solution![/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on January 22, 2010, 12:02:24 AM
I'm going to be starting a Mass Effect 1 play through here shortly. I want to roll a lady Shep since, by all accounts, the voice acting is the clutchiest, but then pursuing any romance will make me feel uncomfortable with my sexuality. What to do?

Bang Liara, get over it.

ME1 has pretty terrible romance options, it's true.

[spoiler]Kaiden is boring, Ashley is a racist space-hick Jesus gal, and Liara is boring.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 22, 2010, 10:08:13 AM
It'd be cool if Legion can become a party member.

It'll be an incredible dick move if they make you choose between these two.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on January 22, 2010, 09:26:34 PM
 Damnit, quoting is screwing up.

 Re: Shale. At the bottom of the Elf ruins, if you suddenly want to be talky after commiting mass murder, Shale goes off about hitting the brakes after racking up such a bodycount.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 23, 2010, 11:27:48 AM
Jennifer Hale does fantastic work and totally overshadows her male counterpart.
Truer words.  Strongly encourage male Shepards to reroll for ME2.

Wait.  You can't actually import a male Shepard and CHANGE him to female, can you?  Because that would be weird.

(Anyway.  I finished the first game once each with a female Paragon Soldier and male Renegade Whatever the One Is Called Where It's Part Combat and Part Biotics.  If I find the time, I'll play through once with each again.)

It'd be cool if Legion can become a party member.

It'll be an incredible dick move if they make you choose between these two.

Argh.  Yeah, especially since my Renegade -- the one who might actually be expected to kill a party member -- used Tali through the whole game on my playthrough.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on January 23, 2010, 07:32:41 PM
Starting to become mildly curious about ME2. I'm sure as hell not buying it until a pricedrop - especially since I seem to have lost my first completed save.

I gotta say, reading about cross-compatability between ME 1, 2, and 3, I'm curious about Bioware's long-term romance mechanics. I hope to see sig-banners with "<So-and-so> is mai waifu".
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 25, 2010, 04:09:02 PM
(Although it occurs to me that there is actually untapped webcomic potential here: it would be fairly trivial for BioWare to rig up an online version of the comic that loads a save and very slightly alters dialogue based on it.  That would actually be pretty fucking cool IMO!)

Seriously think this would be a great idea.

Anybody know where I can find a trainer that not only lets you set Shepard's gender but also ending details (ie fate of the Council)?

And does anybody know if there's a common comics software that the iPhone version of Redemption uses?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 25, 2010, 05:42:34 PM
Wait.  You can't actually import a male Shepard and CHANGE him to female, can you?  Because that would be weird.

Nope. Just appearance. And, presumably, class, because it'd be dumb if you couldn't.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 25, 2010, 06:08:02 PM
(Although it occurs to me that there is actually untapped webcomic potential here: it would be fairly trivial for BioWare to rig up an online version of the comic that loads a save and very slightly alters dialogue based on it.  That would actually be pretty fucking cool IMO!)

Seriously think this would be a great idea.

Anybody know where I can find a trainer that not only lets you set Shepard's gender but also ending details (ie fate of the Council)?

And does anybody know if there's a common comics software that the iPhone version of Redemption uses?

I am given to understand that there's just a big Q&A section at the beginning of ME2 where you decide how everything in the first game went.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 25, 2010, 06:47:53 PM
Not everything, there are some fixed decisions re: ending as I understand it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 25, 2010, 06:58:52 PM
Well I meant when starting a brand new game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 25, 2010, 08:36:24 PM
So did I.  Questionnaire does not cover everything.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 25, 2010, 08:53:34 PM
I am given to understand that there's just a big Q&A section at the beginning of ME2 where you decide how everything in the first game went.

Yeah, I read today's PA.  That's not what I'm really looking for, though.  A comic that rewrites itself only after you fill out a questionnaire doesn't really fit what I'm going for here.

Course, if you mean that the opening Q&A would negate the need for such a trainer, then yeah, you have a point.  OTOH, if Rico's right, I expect the suckers will start to proliferate over the next couple weeks.

(My thinking is that it would be much simpler to start with a trainer -- ie, a program where somebody has ALREADY reverse-engineered the format of the save file -- than to reverse-engineer it myself.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 26, 2010, 02:02:30 AM
So I've been watching a lot of Inspector Gadget Sells A Fish and it actually looks like Bioware has managed to improve upon a lot of things and also ruin a lot of other gameplay elements! It's like they said, "Hey, the first game was alright, and people didn't like the Mako, yeah. But what if for Inspector Gadget Goes To The Grocer's, we make them.... buy fuel? That balances, right?"

No, it doesn't. Why do you have to buy fuel. Or probes. Then again, Inspector Gadget & Michael Jackson in Killer Bees From Outer Space!! is a much better game in more ways than it is a worse one. I think I could enjoy playing this, if only slightly. The first game was utter hell, and even so, I played it three and a half times.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on January 26, 2010, 02:07:22 AM
For the record, Tycho was misinformed when he posted that.
Quote from: Bioware
Hello Penny Arcade readers. My name is Chris Priestly and I am BioWare’s Community Coordinator.

This morning Tycho posted a quote I gave him from a discussion we were having about Mass Effect 2. Unfortunately, the information I gave him was not correct. I had told him that when creating a new character, you could go down a list of key decisions and set them manually. Unfortunately I was working from a test build used by our internal testing department. While there are choice made by the player, new games of ME2 will have a certain pre-disposed assumption of what happened to your new character in ME1.

I apologize to Tycho for not fact checking the information I gave him, and I apologize to all of you who read what he, in good faith, posted today and have been misinformed.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 26, 2010, 11:35:06 PM
The biggest surprise of this game so far is how much better it runs on PC than ME1.

Also porting your save is a must.  There are so many easter eggs based on your past choices besides the obvious ones.

 :goodnews: this was my face when [spoiler]I realized Archangel was Garrus[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Mordin is the only good new character... so far[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 12:36:03 AM
Dear Bioware:

I'm glad you improved combat. Really, I am. But do you have to drag me through wave after wave of the same exact enemies I killed just a few seconds ago? Seriously, there's something to be said for scaling it back a little.

Also: fuck you fuck you fuck you I thought we were done with this tiny text bullshit. I can't even imagine those chicken scratches would be readable on a fucking IMAX.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on January 27, 2010, 03:07:53 AM
Jennifer Hale does fantastic work and totally overshadows her male counterpart.
Truer words.  Strongly encourage male Shepards to reroll for ME2.

i can't do this because tali romance is confirmed for brawl by people who pirated the game on /tg/ and she does not have a big space lesbo option

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 27, 2010, 05:50:27 AM
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 27, 2010, 06:46:53 AM
For the record, Tycho was misinformed when he posted that.

Whoops.

He posted a link to a bunch of endgame savefiles today, which should help anyone who lost their save.  Again, that's not me; I have my savefiles intact and just want a trainer to fuck with so I can see how the format works.  (Though again, if there's not a trainer for endgame decisions now, I expect to them crop up soon.)

(Chris Priestly is a good guy.  He banned eloH from Gamespot.  Or whatever game site overlaps with BioWare's community upload site.)

...haven't grabbed ME2 yet, because I'm still indulging in some serious dragonage, and because my bank account is below my comfort zone right now.  (Nothing serious -- I'll be a couple paychecks down the road by the time I finish DA and should be back up to my usual levels of discretionary spending.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 08:18:36 AM
Honestly... I miss the elevators. Personally, I never really had a problem with any of them because A) they could entertaining, and B) I would position the camera and examine Tali's butt at great lengths. Sure, they could go on for a little while, but then so do these load screens in ME2. The only elevators that was actually mind-destroying bad was that elevator back on the Normandy.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on January 27, 2010, 09:04:12 AM
Question for anyone who might be playing the Xbox version.  Does installing it to the HD reduce load time at all?  As I understand it all the Xbox does is essentially copy an ISO image and it's not optimized at all for HD usage.

The dvd drive on mine occasionally has read issues, and I want to use my save data from ME1. >:(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 27, 2010, 12:06:01 PM
Honestly... I miss the elevators. Personally, I never really had a problem with any of them because A) they could entertaining, and B) I would position the camera and examine Tali's butt at great lengths. Sure, they could go on for a little while, but then so do these load screens in ME2. The only elevators that was actually mind-destroying bad was that elevator back on the Normandy.

Yeah, this really seems like a forest-for-the-trees case.  While I'll admit it was a little immersion-breaking to have minute-long-one-floor elevator trips in the 24th century, the problem was entirely with the load times and not the relatively clever mechanism they used to try and cover for them.  I dislike having to tag a Galactic News Terminal.

First impressions ~6 hours in:
It's kind of nice to have the skill trees be just the special dots from ME1, and I appreciate being able to hit a large barn with a weapon without leveling a few times first.

Boy, some of the Renegade options are really Renegade.  Some conversation options could use a little more of a hint as to what you're actually going to do.

Quick-time conversations are okay, but some of the windows are awfully short and I've had to reload a few times from stretching or taking a drink or something while the spoken dialogue goes on and OH WAIT MOUSE BUTTON.  I did really enjoy one sidequest where a Krogan was getting preachy and intimidating while standing near a flammable tank, with the QTE to shoot the tank, have him mock you for missing him, and then him burning to a crisp with your second shot.

Party-member quests are nice, but it's a little ham-fisted to have your secretary tell you to start them in lieu of having to build up character relationships.

Game is much harder than the first.  Ammo feels just a mite too sparse, especially for pistol users.  Some awkward interaction between Storming and taking cover, including a few deaths from trying valiantly to hammer the cover hotspot, followed by instantly vaulting over it.  Bad console-PC transition.

LOADING SCREEN TIPS AND EVEN WORSE ON-SCREEN POP-UPS REFER TO HARD-CODED KEYS INSTEAD OF THE KEYBIND VARIABLE THIS IS FUCKING 2010 PEOPLE

Made especially bad by some arbitrary-feeling changes to ME1 controls.  I like Q and E for squad directions but spacebar for Storm/cover is awful.  Use/Storm need to be separated like this were an actual fucking PC game and we had a giant keyboard to use so I can use Left Shift like it were every other FPS in the world.

And am I missing something or is there no dedicated crouch button?  It was pretty late when I was playing last night.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 12:25:42 PM
I don't think there is a dedicated crouch button. At least on the 360, it's context sensitive, which is a little aggravating sometimes. I'm thinking that I just might have to switch to Casual difficulty. It's just not as much fun.

So far, I haven't had to make any big decisions, and I haven't felt particularly Renegade-y.

On the plus side: [spoiler]Female Shepherd can romance Garrus, apparently.[/spoiler] I am okay with this.

Also: you can buy a Space Hamster to go into your private room on the ship. It says "Squeak".
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 27, 2010, 12:48:25 PM
[15:38] <Ribbon> wait i can get busy with garrus? oh fuck yes
[15:38] <Ribbon> yeah i bet he's got like some kinda creepy lizard dick
[15:38] <Shinefrodo> it's probably razor sharp
[15:38] <Ribbon> that's okay. we can only get orgasms by ending lives so we'll just dryhump while he shoots at geth over my shoulder
[15:38] <Shinefrodo> apparently his species aren't amino acid based or something
[15:38] <Ribbon> tali just standing off to the side wondering if that's how you have sex
[15:39] <Shinefrodo> if they eat people food it just goes right through them without any nutrient absorption. or kills them.
[15:39] <Ribbon> one or the other i guess
[15:42] <Ribbon> yeah and also like i bet tali and garrus have a huge pH difference
[15:43] <Ribbon> like if you made tali go down on you it'd probably be like squirting lye into her mouth
[15:43] <Ribbon> yeah i hope there's a bloopers reel
[15:43] <Ribbon> like maybe my shepard and garrus making out and he starts inching down then he starts screaming and stands up clutching his face
[15:44] <Ribbon> and then running around and then he shoots his reproductive spines and they hit me in the cheeks and i start screaming
[15:44] <Ribbon> then we both stumble out of the room and right into the middle of a council report
[15:44] <Ribbon> just buckass naked, udena all just glaring while his human cronies point at my tits and laugh
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 27, 2010, 12:58:01 PM
I really don't understand how a Tali romance is going to work.  Big bullet wounds like the one she gets treated for in the first game that you use to find her in the first place aside, her species is supposed to like get ebola from every tiny tear in their suits.  The part of me that likes good writing wants to see her have an allergic reaction to your sperm and die, but the part of me that remembers the first game knows that will never happen.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 27, 2010, 01:39:40 PM
I really don't understand how a Tali romance is going to work etc.

it's not quite that bad

[15:38] <Ribbon> marvelous things

indep be my space girlfriend ok

I'm thinking that I just might have to switch to Casual difficulty. It's just not as much fun.

you're bad at videogames
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on January 27, 2010, 01:43:20 PM
I'm thinking that I just might have to switch to Casual difficulty. It's just not as much fun.

you have badwrongfun
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 27, 2010, 01:54:36 PM
On normal, i die maybe once or twice per mission, and i am playing as Shotgun Guy With No Regard For His Own Safety and i hate cover. I don't think i have ever needed to replay a fight multiple times for any reason whatsoever. It's just more like an FPS now.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 02:00:09 PM
I'm not dying that often either. But, as I said before, combat is fucking exhausting. There's never a fucking end to it. And I'm just going to do what I always do with Bioware's terrible gameplay: I'm putting it on the easiest difficulty.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on January 27, 2010, 02:17:39 PM
Yeah, now that I'm replaying ME1 to get a proper save back, I'm reminded of how I didn't like everything scaling with level then, either.

I'm taking a slightly different route - giving myself great equipment and pumping up the difficulty so I don't have to deal with their terrible inventory system.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 27, 2010, 02:23:58 PM
I am pretty sure absolutely nothing in ME2 scales with level. It really comes across as a shooter more than an RPG. Which is a good move! ME was a really shitty hybridization, and this is actually enjoyable to play. Like, not just as an rpg, for the characters and dialog and shit, but actually just to teleport-charge into robots and shotgun their arms and legs off in slow motion.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 02:49:29 PM
Clearly I'm playing the game wrong, because all I've been doing is playing peek-a-boo with enemies that blow my health to shit if I'm out of cover for even a fraction of a second.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 27, 2010, 03:09:52 PM
I do die really really fast. I kind of got used to it in Gears of War, et al.

It actually helps a lot later on when you get access to upgrades for your Unity power, except that i go through medi-gel really quickly if i'm being too reckless.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 27, 2010, 04:05:04 PM
DN you might be playing the game wrong
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on January 27, 2010, 04:11:43 PM
Seeing as Dragon Age is borderline unplayable for me*, I'll probably hold off on ME2 for a while. That said, all this discussion makes me want to replay the original. I finished a single playthrough, a mostly-paragon vanguard, then restarted immediately with a renegade soldier, but it wasn't long before I was all "aw man I just did that, screw this" and uninstalled the game.

Maybe I'll just do a quick main-plot run with no or minimal sidequesting and see what that feels like.

*: by which I mean that I need to put the settings so low to get a decent framerate that I eventually decided that it wasn't worth playing until I got a better machine
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 27, 2010, 04:28:17 PM
I have a love/hate relationship with the telecharge.  It looks amazing, absolutely wrecks packs of anything if you spec it for AoE, and, perhaps most importantly, lets me knock Krogan 10 feet back against a wall and PUNCH THEM TO DEATH.

But I'm pretty sure every single one of my deaths is: *Charge* "Oh, hey, these five enemies are flanked by ten dudes on either side and they all have assault rifles, flamethrowers, or rocket launchers, and the fucking cover system takes a year to vault and recover."

A forgotten wish: That vaulting over cover would result in you automatically taking cover on the other side.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 27, 2010, 07:37:34 PM
Oh jesus fuck, I get to make absolutely NO choices about how Mass Effect 1 went.  I guess the only way to have not killed the Council at the end of 1 is to play through Mass Effect 1 again and save them.  Fuck.

Thad, you're absolutely right, there need to be trainers if there aren't already.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 07:58:03 PM
Okay, so it turns out that Grunt, the Krogan, is actually pretty okay. I thought he was going to be a pale imitation of Wrex, but he's really more like a violent and murderous version of Data, only instead of trying to be more human he's tapping into his kroganity. In the few conversations we've had, he's learned the joy of hatred.

Also: Zaeed, the DLC character, is pretty cool, too. He doesn't have any conversations beyond his introduction and his character-specific mission, but he's a good old British gangster/hooligan with walleye.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on January 27, 2010, 07:59:51 PM
If my computer ran ME1 fairly well, will it manage to run 2 alright?  The site (http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/intro.aspx) I normally use to see if I can run things is telling me differently.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 27, 2010, 08:10:50 PM
Apparently the solution to difficulty woes is to roll a soldier.  I'm 11 hours in and have died exactly once.  Maybe I'm getting bonus health because even when my shields go down I can still take some punishment. Incendiary rounds rip through most things.

I have encountered a bug several times where I hit the terrain wrong and float up into the air, making it impossible to proceed unless I quickload.  Very irritating.

There are so many things I'd like to see with a different save, just to see what happens.  Like how meeting Garrus would go if you never got him in ME1 (I hear you have to get him or Wrex in ME1, but not necessarily both).

Am I the only one who whenever Jacob says "Have a nice trip!" immediately responds with "See you next FALL!"?

I find it interesting that Shepard will offer Jack better living quarters, but not a shirt.  Must be cold at the bottom of the ship there.

If my computer ran ME1 fairly well, will it manage to run 2 alright?  The site (http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/intro.aspx) I normally use to see if I can run things is telling me differently.

In my case, it ran ME2 better, so you should be good.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 27, 2010, 08:15:40 PM
I have heard that ME2 runs better than the first and DAO, so give it a shot.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 27, 2010, 09:32:32 PM
I have encountered a bug several times where I hit the terrain wrong and float up into the air, making it impossible to proceed unless I quickload.  Very irritating.

Tangentially: this may have been brought up in the dragonage thread (I haven't actually looked at it at all yet), but that game has some damned amusing bugs.  When I first got to the keep at the beginning of the game, I managed to fall off the edge and wind up outside.  Since I was only a little ways into the game, I did not immediately realize this was not supposed to be possible and there wasn't actually any way back up from where I was; I spent probably 10 minutes circling the perimiter looking for an entrance.

Also, shit frequently doesn't trigger when it's supposed to (eg drops).  This seemed especially pronounced in the Fade sequence; I once managed to hit one of the permanent stat boost things about 5 times before it quit working.  The best bit, though, was the scene with Lulu and the Flemeth doppelganger.  Killing the monster didn't trigger the next cutscene properly, so when I went to talk to Lulu it repeated the previous conversation between her and the monster, except now the monster was decapitated.  Standing and talking, but without a head.

(Also, it's probably been mentioned in the thread already, but it's possible to continue fucking both Lulu and Leliana even after they force you to choose one or the other.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 27, 2010, 10:16:01 PM
I find it interesting that Shepard will offer Jack better living quarters, but not a shirt.  Must be cold at the bottom of the ship there.

The personal quest gives you a shirt, but SOME OF US aren't stodgy old fat-cats who can't appreciate the artistry of tattoos, Detonator.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 27, 2010, 10:19:07 PM
Ho-lee shit, consider my mind BLOWN. I just did a sidequest in that galaxy you do Jacob's personal mission. And (Potentially major spoiler) [spoiler]it looks like the Collectors are actually the Protheans, or what's left of them[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on January 27, 2010, 10:28:16 PM
zaeed doesn't have "conversations" but if you go back and talk to him he'll tell you different stories every time
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 27, 2010, 10:56:40 PM
I find it interesting that Shepard will offer Jack better living quarters, but not a shirt.  Must be cold at the bottom of the ship there.

The personal quest gives you a shirt, but SOME OF US aren't stodgy old fat-cats who can't appreciate the artistry of tattoos, Detonator.

she has tattoos?


I find it interesting how they have broken the main game into many bite-sized planets instead of having just a few really long ones.  I'm not sure if I like it better, but it sure as hell is addicting.

I like how I actually use the different guns instead of 100% assault rifles, but I'm extremely disappointed that I've played 12 hours and have found just 2 new guns for Shepard that are not heavy weapons.  I miss the random drops, even if they were 99% vendor trash (Diablo-style loot has proved that that 1% makes it all worth it).

I read parish's review, and agree that 9 characters is a bit unnecessary when you can only take 2 with you. 

Anyone else notice that they got kinda lazy with the new character backgrounds? (minor spoilers)

Miranda: The PERFECT human
Grunt: The PERFECT krogan
Jack: The PERFECT biotic

I guess they were forced to ramp up Garrus' badassery just to compete.  I'm expecting a plot twist that reveals that he was bred to be the perfect Turian.

I'm really looking forward to replaying this with my renegade femshep (if I can force myself to finish that save)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 27, 2010, 11:55:20 PM
those husks with the big tumors on their backs are fucking BULLSHIT.
also LOL HARBINGER TIME when you've got a collector at 1hp (that knockback missile is butts)

currently working on getting everyone loyal (which appears to determine if someone gets ded or not) and upgrading shit before the IFF mission, which seems to be the OH FUCK TIME FOR ENDGAME point.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 28, 2010, 01:12:22 AM
those husks with the big tumors on their backs are fucking BULLSHIT.

Yeah, even on Casual they're party destroyers. How come Shockwave isn't that powerful or reliable when I use it?

currently working on getting everyone loyal (which appears to determine if someone gets ded or not) and upgrading shit before the IFF mission, which seems to be the OH FUCK TIME FOR ENDGAME point.

I'm doing the loyalty missions primarily because... well, they're fun. They're really fun. They actually have you making worthwhile decisions. Not all on the same scale as what you got back in ME1, but still pretty heavy stuff.

As for the IFF mission, I sincerely doubt that's the endgame. It might be, but considering that even if you go into it with all of your crew Enlisted and Loyal to you, [spoiler]you're still missing Legion the Geth[/spoiler]. Plus it comes off as kind of... short. I would imagine with all the hype and whatnot that ME2 would last at least fifty-eighty hours.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 28, 2010, 02:05:01 AM
Okay, so it turns out that Grunt, the Krogan, is actually pretty okay. I thought he was going to be a pale imitation of Wrex, but he's really more like a violent and murderous version of Data, only instead of trying to be more human he's tapping into his kroganity. In the few conversations we've had, he's learned the joy of hatred.

So... he's Lore?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 28, 2010, 04:21:58 PM
FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T BOUGHT IT YET: $46.99 at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VJ4DHK?ie=UTF8&tag=froogame-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B001VJ4DHK), with $10 off your next video game purchase.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 28, 2010, 11:42:32 PM
Bioware is very hamfisted with the loyalty system, which I guess is better than being infuriatingly cryptic.  Still, it's one step away from being idiot text.

Hey SHEPARD, I thought you might want to HELP ME with my [PROBLEM], so I will become [LOYAL].  Otherwise, I may become [DISTRACTED] and GET YOU ALL KILLED.  Thanks!

I really need to finish this game soon so I can sleep again.  Weekends were made for this.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 29, 2010, 01:02:26 AM
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/shepard2.png)
Garrus.... wake up, Garrus. ...no, shhh. Shhh.... be still. Who loves you?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on January 29, 2010, 01:42:32 AM
Are the red eyes mandatory, or just popular?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 01:46:42 AM
They happen based on paragade and renegon scores.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 06:43:42 AM
So what, being a renegade turns Shepard into a T-800?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 29, 2010, 09:04:26 AM
In-game explanation is that being a rage-a-holic jerk stresses you out or gives you too high blood pressure or something for the surgeries around the cybernetics to heal properly.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 11:35:25 AM
That's... interesting.

In a Saturday-morning cartoon "being evil turns your eyes red and black" kind of way.  ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 29, 2010, 12:02:32 PM
Okay, so [spoiler]hitting on Garrus[/spoiler] is the funniest thing imaginable. Somehow Mordin finds out, and you and he have a very... special talk. [spoiler]He advises against any swallowing[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 29, 2010, 12:14:42 PM
Okay, so [spoiler]hitting on Garrus[/spoiler] is the funniest thing imaginable. Somehow Mordin finds out, and you and he have a very... special talk. [spoiler]He advises against any swallowing[/spoiler].
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/ladytron3.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 01:57:36 PM
Okay, so [spoiler]hitting on Garrus[/spoiler] is the funniest thing imaginable. Somehow Mordin finds out, and you and he have a very... special talk. [spoiler]He advises against any swallowing[/spoiler].




























[spoiler]chafing[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 29, 2010, 02:03:50 PM
[spoiler]chafing[/spoiler]
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/ladytron4.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 03:01:30 PM
I would pretty much strongly anti-recommend Adept to anyone about to play. It's more or less the same thing as it was in ME1, a weak class that has crowd control powers, only now Warp interacts with your abilities in a cool way and you don't get Barrier anymore. Since every single other class has new cool toys, this makes it pretty much dull!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 29, 2010, 03:47:27 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-HgVM6JSIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH-8fzQechY


Both of these had me laughing for a good 10 minutes


Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 29, 2010, 04:26:41 PM
The more I think about it, the more I disagree with their shared cooldowns on powers.  I understand the theory behind it, but I just can't see what is practically gained by preventing me from Shockwaving for 3 seconds after I charge other than negative fun.  I end up hardly using my powers anymore now that I have significant research pumped into weapons.

Of course, the alternative is Soldier, and having my only abilities be Max "2001" Payne bullet time and ammunition I guess, so, uh, pass.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I like it and think it is probably better than ME1 but at least ME1 had viable classes.  Aside from maybe Infiltrator for stealth sniper rifling, everything looks pretty disinteresting.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 29, 2010, 05:53:02 PM
infiltrator ALSO has a small bullet time power that kicks in every time you zoom in with the sniper rifle

plus you can get a shotgun or assault rifle later on (or get the goddamn DEATH CANNON sniper rifle)

i grabbed the shotgun because i could drop things really fast with the semi-auto sniper rifle, the assault rifle didn't really do anything my smg didnt already and the fact that using cloak to get within optimal shotgun range is hilarious (while cloaked you also do more damage)

i just wish the handcannon had more ammo
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 06:05:32 PM
What do you mean, "ammo"?  Don't tell me they fudged their "guns have virtually infinite ammunition due to mass accelerators" technobabble from the first game to shoehorn in limited ammo.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 06:08:35 PM
infiltrator ALSO has a small bullet time power that kicks in every time you zoom in with the sniper rifle

Both Soldier multiclasses have limited bullet time.

What do you mean, "ammo"?  Don't tell me they fudged their "guns have virtually infinite ammunition due to mass accelerators" technobabble from the first game to shoehorn in limited ammo.

It's not ammo! They're disposable heatsink clips! Totally different!!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 06:11:15 PM
...

Where's the damn facepalm emoti--oh.  There it is.

 :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 06:22:13 PM
THE GAME IS A MORE-OR-LESS STRAIGHTFORWARD FPS NOW, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 06:26:49 PM
You know, the more I hear about the changes they made for ME2, the more worried I become.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 29, 2010, 06:33:38 PM
ME2 is a much better game in every way. You will never run out of ammo.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 06:38:32 PM
It is so, so, so, so, so, so much better than the half-assed fps/rpg hybrid that ME1 was. I do not miss deleting multiple useless guns from my inventory every 10 feet. I do not miss waiting 45 seconds to shoot again when someone Overloads me. I do not miss THE FUCKING GODDAMN MAKO, NOT ONE IOTA.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on January 29, 2010, 06:53:38 PM
Well, when you put it like THAT.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 29, 2010, 07:49:38 PM
Even though I'm playing on Easy, I'm finding my Vanguard's Biotics pretty useful. Pull cools down fast enough that it's basically a second gun with bullets that curve toward targets. End result: I got that achievement for making enemies scream as they fall to their deaths before I even knew it was there. Charge is useful for taking out enemies that get too close, and Shockwave slaughters groups. Plus I Trained in Miranda's Slam for extra fun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on January 29, 2010, 08:51:40 PM
I think you mean Charge is useful for demonstrating the might of Human-Man, the best hero ever, to enemies who cower behind cover like weaklings.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 29, 2010, 09:04:12 PM
No, I use it against fucking Krogans.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 29, 2010, 10:23:29 PM
I do not miss THE FUCKING GODDAMN MAKO, NOT ONE IOTA.

GUESS WHAT, THE HAMMERHEAD IS FREE DLC (but it is a hovertank so it wont get HURP DERP STUCK IN TINY CREVICE constantly)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 29, 2010, 10:32:44 PM
Since I am apparently in-game explanation man, the ammo is:
Shields and armor have gotten more effective in the multiple years since ME1 and to compensate guns have gotten so powerful that to deal with the heat generated from their mass effect fields that we've adapted some Geth disposable heatsink technology.  Every x amount of shots you fire uses up the chemicals in one universal heatsink clip.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on January 29, 2010, 10:45:18 PM
I do not miss THE FUCKING GODDAMN MAKO, NOT ONE IOTA.

Just started my ME1 Lady Shepherd. I was totally on board.


Until I met the Mako.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 29, 2010, 11:34:20 PM
Since I am apparently in-game explanation man, the ammo is:
Shields and armor have gotten more effective in the multiple years since ME1 and to compensate guns have gotten so powerful that to deal with the heat generated from their mass effect fields that we've adapted some Geth disposable heatsink technology.  Every x amount of shots you fire uses up the chemicals in one universal heatsink clip.

This explanation would be more credible if sitting there without reloading a partially-used magazine would regenerate the ammo in that magazine, even if slowly.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 29, 2010, 11:40:51 PM
I think you mean Charge is useful for demonstrating the might of Human-Man, the best hero ever, to enemies who cower behind cover like weaklings.
Pfff, pussy. Shep-800 is an Infiltrator and pistolwhips krogans and alpha geth to death regularly.

Also, I wouldn't have a problem with the whole 'lol ammo' thing if I could just... like, ok, fuck my machine pistol, I'll just carry a fucking backpack full of sniper ammo kthx. I have to say I kind of miss ME's overload system since it meant I could just chill behind cover and pop heads off for as long as I want; in any real fight now, I run out of sniper ammo halfway through and end up having to spray people to death with the 6000 rounds of machinegun ammo I upgraded to. Doesn't matter how strong it is, when there's like 30 fucking enemies, or even better, a thousand fucking Husks, screw whatever you want to do, you're either using a spray and pray weapon/beating them with your fists, or reloading the game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 30, 2010, 03:31:17 AM
Ok I take it back Biotics are amazing for the last area I love you Mass Effect.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on January 30, 2010, 07:29:35 AM
So, I sorta liked when I got the message about the scars, and then checked out the "surgery" option and it cost like 8 billion resources. Gee, thanks for that option.

I'm liking the game so far. I didn't know how I felt about a lot of the rpg elements stripped out at first but then I remembered that I was flooded with crap items all of the time and I had no use for money halfway through ME1 and I got over it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 30, 2010, 09:30:44 AM
The shotgun is even more useless than the Sniper Rifle now. And when the phrase "Useless Shotgun" appears somewhere in your Shooter, you have fucked up beyond all reason. I still get uses out of it, mostly against Veran, Krogans and Husks, but it has so little ammo that I mostly just rely on my Pistol -- and that's WITH the extra ammo armor.

Plus I think its range has been gimped since ME1. I was able to take out enemies from a distance pretty reliably with my shotgun. I don't think it does that much damage unless you're right up in the enemies face

-- And of course, since the game has such a boner for its cover system, doing that is basically a good way to die. And have to deal with the loading screen.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 30, 2010, 10:30:48 AM
The shotgun is even more useless than the Sniper Rifle now. And when the phrase "Useless Shotgun" appears somewhere in your Shooter, you have fucked up beyond all reason. I still get uses out of it, mostly against Veran, Krogans and Husks, but it has so little ammo that I mostly just rely on my Pistol -- and that's WITH the extra ammo armor.

Plus I think its range has been gimped since ME1. I was able to take out enemies from a distance pretty reliably with my shotgun. I don't think it does that much damage unless you're right up in the enemies face

-- And of course, since the game has such a boner for its cover system, doing that is basically a good way to die. And have to deal with the loading screen.
Sniper rifle isn't useless D: ... well, if you're Infiltrator at least. High tier cloak with the rifle you can get off the [spoiler]Collector ship[/spoiler] can usually pop a biotic commando in one shot... but the second rifle you get is kind of useless. Always got the impression that shotguns are useful if something beastly is getting too close... look at it this way - try combining it with melee to offset the small ammo capacity. You've just got to beat the hell out of them before you can blow your load.

Er...

...

(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/soundedbad.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 11:26:44 AM
So, I sorta liked when I got the message about the scars, and then checked out the "surgery" option and it cost like 8 billion resources. Gee, thanks for that option.

Quit being a pussy and MINE MOAR, 50000 platinum comes pretty quick.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on January 30, 2010, 11:31:21 AM
Man what do I look like some sort of guy who has played this game for more than 4 hours? It was more "Hey do I get an option to not have mood scars? Oh, I can't yet." I'm sure I can scan planets for hours once I get more than ten minutes to play this at a time.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 30, 2010, 12:29:02 PM
Your scars also heal if you are a paragon.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 30, 2010, 12:40:44 PM
I used the Shotgun pretty heavily to deal with Scions and Harbringers.  And the Sniper Rifle I used more than once (as a Vanguard, even!) which makes it roughly infinity times more useful than it ever was to me in ME1.

Also as a nice little bonus starting a new game after completion sets you off with 50k of each mineral and some other goodies.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 30, 2010, 12:48:32 PM
I just realized that Jacob gets Barrier after his Loyalty Mission, meaning you can give it to Shepherd regardless of Class.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 30, 2010, 01:18:01 PM
The more I think about it, the more I disagree with their shared cooldowns on powers.  I understand the theory behind it, but I just can't see what is practically gained by preventing me from Shockwaving for 3 seconds after I charge other than negative fun.  I end up hardly using my powers anymore now that I have significant research pumped into weapons.

So play as Soldier on my first run.  Got it.

Of course, the alternative is Soldier, and having my only abilities be Max "2001" Payne bullet time and ammunition I guess, so, uh, pass.

...

...Well, I'm still doing it.  I generally play good guy/pure-fighter on my first BioWare playthrough.

THE GAME IS A MORE-OR-LESS STRAIGHTFORWARD FPS NOW, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT

..."F" is for "first".

I do not miss waiting 45 seconds to shoot again when someone Overloads me.

If you're lucky.

It may have been the no-disc crack I was playing, but I occasionally had my guns overheat and not cool back down.  (Another reason Soldier was useful: I could switch to a different gun and still be able to hit things.)

Even though I'm playing on Easy, I'm finding my Vanguard's Biotics pretty useful. Pull cools down fast enough that it's basically a second gun with bullets that curve toward targets. End result: I got that achievement for making enemies scream as they fall to their deaths before I even knew it was there. Charge is useful for taking out enemies that get too close, and Shockwave slaughters groups. Plus I Trained in Miranda's Slam for extra fun.

Yeah, I was planning on Vanguard for playthrough #2.

The shotgun is even more useless than the Sniper Rifle now. And when the phrase "Useless Shotgun" appears somewhere in your Shooter, you have fucked up beyond all reason.

Pity.  I didn't use the shotgun much in the first game, but it was good for zombies (as a shotgun always should be).

I still get uses out of it, mostly against Veran, Krogans and Husks,

Well, that's good at least.

Anyhow.  Going to have to order it next few days I think, while that Amazon $10 giftcard whatever thing is still good.  Expect I'll finish Dragon Age before I get to it.  (I'm sure I'm not the first to comment that, while ME2 shakes up the formula significantly, DA is pure classic BioWare in both gameplay and story -- it's basically medieval KotOR.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 30, 2010, 03:26:54 PM
Looking back on a full playthrough, while there are long sections where one weapon/power combo is a far-and-away winner, you do end up using all your shit pretty evenly, though a little heavy on the SMG use.

The only thing I didn't really use was Pull, because at any given point Shockwave was more useful to me.  I do kind of wish the 4th level AoEs of powers were enhanced a little more; after a 10 sp investment it still felt like dudes needed to be really clustered together, while Shockwave at least had the line burst going for it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 30, 2010, 03:56:17 PM
See, I pretty much use nothing but Pull. Shockwave is nice, but enemies dodge it so easily, so the only time it's good is when you've got them coming towards you in a corridor. Pull, on the other hand, curves and can hit enemies behind cover, not to mention that it locks on, so you don't have to be particularly accurate. Also: at least true on Easy, it autokills Husks.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on January 30, 2010, 04:37:45 PM
Shockwave goes directly through cover also.  And, uh, enemies coming at you in a corridor is not exactly uncommon.

Perhaps it is that Pull actually hurts anything on Easy?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 06:24:10 PM
The mission was completed successfully!

Clear time: 27:55

Your rate for surviving squadmates is: 100%

See you next mission!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 06:39:17 PM
and now I'll do a little dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CRPScZ-FOI
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 30, 2010, 06:44:13 PM
Your rate for surviving squadmates is: 100%

Haha fuck you.

During the final mission there's a (somewhat random) chance any and every character in your squad will die. Multiple chances, in fact. I lost Mordin during the final stretch.

THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY GRR.

That said: holy shit on a shit sandwhich you guys the final mission was so fucking tense. And did you guys see the plot hook for the next game ohmygodohmygodohmygooooooood.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 06:51:13 PM
Well, I had 100% of the team survive... [spoiler]The rest of the crew, except Joker and Dr. Chakwas, were not so lucky.  I think you have to take the Omega 4 Relay as soon as you can in order to save the whole crew.[/spoiler]

Also, it seems like common sense to make a hard save before the suicide mission, just in case.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 30, 2010, 06:59:11 PM
I'm guessing you didn't get all of the Ship Upgrades.

Anyway, I'm going to have to play through the last mission again anyway because I wanted to start a new game plus, but did the continue game thing instead. Der-whoops.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 08:37:14 PM
I'm guessing you didn't get all of the Ship Upgrades.

No, I got every upgrade.  It's just what I thought it was. [spoiler]Don't fuck around once the crew gets kidnapped.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 30, 2010, 08:37:46 PM
BEST EASTER EGG EVER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-CDNLYZ0zA
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 30, 2010, 08:58:02 PM
[spoiler]Don't fuck around once the crew gets kidnapped.[/spoiler]
I was actually quite astounded at this, since I typically take the whole 'right before ending' period to clean up subquests and whatnot... getting there and watching [spoiler]my personal secretary get melted alive[/spoiler] was definitely something I wasn't expecting. Got to give the game props for having [spoiler]some kind of Contra boss[/spoiler] as a last enemy. I lost a man though, and it was the same circumstances as Ninja.

Don't know if I want to go through it again, I tried the insanity mode in my Game++ and like, every enemy was just pretty freaking obscene in comparison... but I guess that's to be expected. Still, far superior to the first game in pretty much every way. Except for not showing the interspecies sex.

(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/datass.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Spikey on January 30, 2010, 10:30:43 PM
If your Sheppard gets into any relationships, make sure you talk to Mordin about them.  He'll have some good advice for you.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 31, 2010, 09:13:32 AM
No, I got every upgrade.

Okay. So then how did you [spoiler]end up losing Joker? He doesn't get collected.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 31, 2010, 09:42:05 AM
No, I got every upgrade.

Okay. So then how did you [spoiler]end up losing Joker? He doesn't get collected.[/spoiler]

He said that [spoiler]the crew except Joker and Chakwas were lost.  I think even if everybody dies including Shepard, Joker lives.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 31, 2010, 12:23:44 PM
Ah, my bad. Guess I have brain problems.

ANYWAY FINAL THOUGHTS YOU GUYS

I can't help but feel a little disappointed. All the previews and hype before the game came, I was expecting a fairly lengthy game to sink my teeth into, but I clocked in at around a somewhat underwhelming forty hours. Sounds contradictory, I know, but it's true, the game felt somewhat bare bones.

I think it was the relative lack of decision making. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of big choices, but the game was really uneven about it. There are two types of missions that make up a majority of the game, missions in which you enlist crew members, and then missions to gain their loyalty. For some reason, though, there really isn't a whole lot of interactivity in the enlistment missions, mostly just running and gunning playing peek-a-boo with guns. For the most part, you don't get to decide who lives and who dies, and you don't get to convince enemies to save themselves from death. You just go from A to B while leaving a trail of corpses behind you.

The Loyalty Missions, on the other hand, are pretty great, as you do get to make some important choices in them. Hell, Thane and Samara's Loyalty Missions don't even involve a single gun fight. Most of them are fairly self-contained and probably won't have any major impact on the overall trilogy. Most.

And I guess the sidequests are improved compared to the first game, in that there is no MAKO, but again, they forgot to include those "Decisions". A lot of the sidequests in ME1 had you diffusing volatile situations, but not ME2. It's just more gunplay, for the most part. I did like that one mission on the downed ship teetering on the edge of a cliff, though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 31, 2010, 12:48:52 PM
Talking with joker between missions results in some pretty funny shit.

EDI is a fucking troll.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 31, 2010, 03:11:31 PM
I don't know about this "short" thing.  My completed ME1 save was 13 hours, my completed ME2 save is 28.  Sure, I did a LOT more sidequests for 2, but the core game still felt beefier (yes, the loyalty missions are techically optional, but why the hell wouldn't you?).

The true sidequests were very short, which is a shame since the environments were so beautiful.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on January 31, 2010, 03:30:54 PM
Yeah that's the thing.  If you fuck around on the side planets for ME1 then it's more like 60 hours.  60 hours of hate.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on January 31, 2010, 03:31:58 PM
I will gladly give up ~10 hours of shitty gameplay if it means the rest of the game is good
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on January 31, 2010, 03:57:07 PM
I will gladly give up ~10 hours of shitty gameplay if it means the rest of the game is good
which really makes me hope that some third-party comes out with a save-game maker or something, so that you can kind of customize your actions up a little without having to play through ME1 in all of its mako glory.

also is it bad if i want to see the last game have a npc volus played by danny devito?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on January 31, 2010, 07:49:44 PM
I wanna see an elcor teammate in the third game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 31, 2010, 07:56:50 PM
I wanna see a hanar teammate in the third game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQFF5crvydg
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on January 31, 2010, 09:16:45 PM
A whole bunch of ME1 save files for importing into ME2. (http://www.annakie.com/me/)  Categorized by alignment, gender, and romances.  Other decisions are listed on each save.  Until a trainer comes out, this seems to be the next best thing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 31, 2010, 11:20:03 PM
I'm playing New Game+. It starts you out with a shitload of resources (just enough Platinum to afford the Med-bay upgrade). Thoughts so far:

-Zaeed is so cool. You don't have a whole lot of conversations with him, but he has a lot of stuff to say during missions anyway. Bring him along with you during the Archangel mission, since he gets some lines with the head of the Blue Suns.

-Mordin's enlistment mission is better than I originally thought, since I took the time to look around. There's a handful of rooms to get into that have some dialog. Good stuff.

-Jack and Grunt's enlistment missions still suck balls.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Saturn on January 31, 2010, 11:22:21 PM
I will be annoyed if the Hammerhead comes out the day after i beat the game.

just finished up Garrus and Thane's loyalty missions.

I enjoyed punching the shit out of that guy in the interrogation

only got some sidequests to knock off before i do the IFF and endgame.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on February 01, 2010, 08:25:52 AM
-Zaeed is so cool. You don't have a whole lot of conversations with him, but he has a lot of stuff to say during missions anyway. Bring him along with you during the Archangel mission, since he gets some lines with the head of the Blue Suns.
excellent fakepost
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 01, 2010, 10:46:50 PM
You're a fakepost.

I'm trying to decide who to romance this playthrough. I've already done Garrus, so now I have to figure out who to go after next. Jacob can wait for my racist Infiltrator lady, so that just leaves Thane and Kelly the assistant girl. On the one hand, Thane is deep and brooding individual.

On the other, Kelly is a girl and so is my Shepherd, and she puts on a stripper outfit and dry humps Shepherd's arm.

It's a tough decision.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on February 02, 2010, 02:29:17 AM
just finished a playthrough, and I'm pretty pissed off that [spoiler]there appears to be no reasonable way to know who to pick for the missions in order to have no one die. It is seriously bullshit. Why would zaeed randomly die and not someone else I pick? Also the final boss fight was a little meh but overall i enjoyed the game.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 02, 2010, 08:04:05 AM
just finished a playthrough, and I'm pretty pissed off that [spoiler]there appears to be no reasonable way to know who to pick for the missions in order to have no one die. It is seriously bullshit. Why would zaeed randomly die and not someone else I pick? Also the final boss fight was a little meh but overall i enjoyed the game.[/spoiler]

You have to pick people for their strengths.  [spoiler]Use pure tech people like Legion or Tali, and pure biotics like Jack or Samara, and not dabblers like Jacob or Miranda.  When it calls for someone to lead a team, use someone with good leadership experience like Miranda, or Jacob, or Garrus.  Zaeed is terrible so don't trust him with anything ever.  I went Legion to hack, Garrus to lead team two, Jack to do the biotic shield, Jacob to lead the second team two, and Thane to escort people, and lost nobody.[/spoiler]

Also getting all the ship upgrades and having everybody Loyal helps.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 02, 2010, 08:05:23 AM
[spoiler]I heard that the ship upgrades are the most serious flat checks. Like if you don't have X, bam fatality.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 02, 2010, 08:14:24 AM
[spoiler]I think there are some of those, during the cutscene.  Like, if you don't have good enough shields, Jack gets splattered, and stuff.  But there's also loyalty and choices in the mission itself.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 02, 2010, 01:12:52 PM
Bad at game
"Hey guys it's asking me for a biotic genius I'll send TALI!  WTF GAME WHY MY TEAM DIE???"
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on February 02, 2010, 01:20:35 PM
is this game worth playing if you haven't beaten the first mass effect? I mean, can I just download a save with the options I want, read a summary of ME1 and get the same level of enjoyment? Because I was gung-ho about Mass Effect until the thirtieth time I had to land the fucking Mako on a planet and I've really had enough of that game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 02, 2010, 01:25:38 PM
The game is pretty well-paced and compelling, and the actual gameplay is better than ME1.  You may miss a few of the cameos, but most of them are done through the e-mail system anyway.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on February 02, 2010, 01:26:18 PM
[spoiler]LOL I IS DUMB. My first time through, I sent Legion to infiltrate and used samara to lead the fire team because miranda said you should send someone with experience and she is like 1000 years old. Turns out the wrong choice was Samara, but if I'm trying to learn that through playing the game I would have NO IDEA because legion is the one who died. Then it turns out Garrus is immune to bullets but Zaeed is not. In the exact same cutscene they both get hit by a bullet as the door closes, but Zaeed dies and Garrus lives. Somehow I'm supposed to know that an alien with maybe a couple years of experience is better at leading a squad than a mercenary with fucking decades of experience in wars. It's not like I put tali in charge of a squad and grunt into the ventilation tube or something. I made reasonable choices and was punished for not being able to read the developer's mind.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 02, 2010, 01:27:07 PM
[spoiler]You didn't think Garrus was a total bad-ass? I've no pity for you, son.[/spoiler]

The game is pretty well-paced and compelling, and the actual gameplay is better than ME1.  You may miss a few of the cameos, but most of them are done through the e-mail system anyway.

[spoiler]Apparently you get to punch the same reporter in ME2, and if you didn't in ME1 but do in ME2, Shephard remarks "I should've done that in the first place!" :D

I'd like to think that in ME3, she shows up again with like, a Krogan bodyguard. So you can shoot him and then punch her anyway.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on February 02, 2010, 01:28:03 PM
[spoiler]You didn't think Garrus was a total bad-ass? I've no pity for you, son.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]A total badass who got his ENTIRE SQUAD KILLED[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 02, 2010, 01:28:44 PM
[spoiler]That sucks for them. Guess they should have tried harder to be as awesome as Garrus.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 02, 2010, 01:33:13 PM
It's probably worth the ten or so hours it takes to blow through the Mass Effect main storyline, to know what's going on in Mass Effect 2, which is quite good.  Those won't be a pleasant ten hours, but they'll be worth it in the end.  Maybe find and do the Cerberus side quests, too.  Don't land on planets you don't need to, the exploration is not worth it.

[spoiler]You didn't think Garrus was a total bad-ass? I've no pity for you, son.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]A total badass who got his ENTIRE SQUAD KILLED[/spoiler]

[spoiler]That wasn't his fault!  He got betrayed by one of his own!

The scant amount of story that Zaeed offers is that he's a loner because he's a worthless piece of shit, and his loyalty quest has him fucking everything up for no reason.  Of course he's not gonna be able to lead your team to lay out sufficient covering fire.  Samara even tells you when she joins that she's not used to working with anyone.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 02, 2010, 02:42:12 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQFF5crvydg

This one doesn't have time for your solid waste excretions. He's here to masticate small pieces of artificially-flavored polyisobutylene and engage in gratuitous violence... and he has expended his supply of artificially-flavored polyisobutylene.

ENKINDLE THIS
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on February 02, 2010, 02:51:55 PM
[spoiler]I'd like to think that in ME3, she shows up again with like, a Krogan bodyguard. So you can shoot him and then punch her anyway.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Nah, you headbutt him and punch her.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 02, 2010, 03:38:25 PM
The absolute best joke cameo is Conrad Verner.  [spoiler]Your renegade action is shooting him in the foot, which drives him on a quest to prove himself, resulting in an Illium news broadcast about him trying to do some vigilante shit on top of a hoverbus and falling to his death.[/spoiler].

Absolute best no questions non-funny cameo is [spoiler]Rachni Queen, which was so good I had to seriously consider redoing my ME1 Vanguard[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 05, 2010, 12:03:39 AM
Absolute best no questions non-funny cameo is [spoiler]Rachni Queen, which was so good I had to seriously consider redoing my ME1 Vanguard[/spoiler]

Yes yes yes yes yes yes

I would have said it was [spoiler]The mother fucking Wrex[/spoiler] but no, you're right, i totally lost it when she showed up.

Also the only really unforgivable problem with the game is that -- endgame spoilers, but you might want it spoiled -- [spoiler] if you pick "we'd better hurry" at the very end, you will probably lose teammates, and if you don't, nobody dies! awesome, thanks a lot for that, CANADA.[/spoiler]

Also fuck whosoever dissed shotguns. They're awesome... on the best class, Vanguard. Combining a really deadly short-ranged weapon with a teleportation power is a pretty obvious choice in retrospect. Hell, i'm really pleased with all the classes, except Adept, which i kind of feel is the "bad @ game" class for people who want to cast magic missile.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on February 05, 2010, 10:40:57 AM
I would just like to give Norondor BIG UPS for that spoiler. :approve:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on February 05, 2010, 01:25:30 PM
Also the only really unforgivable problem with the game is that -- endgame spoilers, but you might want it spoiled -- [spoiler] if you pick "we'd better hurry" at the very end, you will probably lose teammates, and if you don't, nobody dies! awesome, thanks a lot for that, CANADA.[/spoiler]

I'm pretty sure I've heard the opposite, or maybe that's just because [spoiler]I picked "we'd better hurry" and no one died.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on February 05, 2010, 01:36:42 PM
Also the only really unforgivable problem with the game is that -- endgame spoilers, but you might want it spoiled -- [spoiler] if you pick "we'd better hurry" at the very end, you will probably lose teammates, and if you don't, nobody dies! awesome, thanks a lot for that, CANADA.[/spoiler]

I'm pretty sure I've heard the opposite, or maybe that's just because [spoiler]I picked "we'd better hurry" and no one died.[/spoiler]

from what I've heard if you pick "we'd better hurry" the number of people who die depends on how fast you beat the final boss. Since I beat him in like 8 shots of the sniper rifle it wasn't a problem
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 05, 2010, 03:05:13 PM
Yep, that's the case. The other option, AFAIK, doesn't have any particular downside.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 10, 2010, 06:14:28 PM
Holy Fuck You Sideways, Mass Effect 2. [spoiler]I have a full-fuck you sideways Renegade bar (no Class bonus either, straight-up Shepard asshole-ishry), but for some reason I wasn't able to diffuse the Tali and Legion quarrel.[/spoiler] Seriously, what the fuck!?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on February 10, 2010, 08:13:47 PM
do you have max negotiation
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 11, 2010, 07:25:08 AM
do you have max negotiation


...


I am going to eat your fucking face.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bleck on February 11, 2010, 07:27:02 AM
(http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/VintagePS/1265838227300.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 11, 2010, 09:10:12 AM
Beat the game, [spoiler]had fun fighting the SNATCHER at the end. I'm glad that Kojima finally made a sequel.[/spoiler]

Oh wait.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 11, 2010, 10:35:00 AM
The fuck you talking about? [spoiler]That's the dude from all the Contra games![/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 11, 2010, 12:55:41 PM
I've tried a few of the different powers as a bonus power for my Soldier on my second/hardcore playthrough. So far warp ammo is too incredible to let go of.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 11, 2010, 12:56:57 PM
yes.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 11, 2010, 01:28:06 PM
I just realized something that's great about Zaeed. I mean, aside from the fact that he's a gangster from Snatch turned into an intergalactic bounty hunter.

Everything about him involves setting things on fire. [spoiler]His loyalty skill? Incendiary Grenades. There's a heavy weapon you can get on his loyalty mission -- a flame thrower. Hell, his loyalty mission period? He sets it of fucking fire.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 11, 2010, 01:51:50 PM
I'm personally digging AP Ammo on an Infiltrator with squad Warp.  As much as I hate using Jack because "whoops playable party member powers reduced to 0," last night at least she Shockwaved someone into their own already-fired missle.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 11, 2010, 01:59:39 PM
Do the Squad ammo powers stack with other ammo powers?  I thought things overwrote each other.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 11, 2010, 02:04:25 PM
They do. I assume he means Heavy AP on himself and Squad Warp for Jack and ????.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 11, 2010, 02:25:55 PM
They stack?

Oh shit.

I assumed they didn't, due to the talk about how they overwrite and no message to the contrary in regards to group ammo. Guess I'll make everyone take team ammo instead of singular from here on out.

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 11, 2010, 02:26:48 PM
Er. I meant they overwrite each other. I guess that was unclear.

Unless i'm wrong, in which case all bets are off
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 11, 2010, 02:30:58 PM
:MENDOZAAAAA:

I'll test it later. A both a mix of Individual+Squad and Squad+Squad to see what happens.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 11, 2010, 02:32:47 PM
As far as I know, they do not stack.  I prefer AP for the sniper because I'm getting to some retarded +a million% damage that can shred most of a shield+armor opponent, but it still gains in effectiveness if I have Miranda plugging away with a Warp SMG.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 11, 2010, 02:36:12 PM
t Someone who has completed a second playthrough or[spoiler] at least did the collector ship for a second time[/spoiler]

Do you get to keep multiple special weapons? I picked the Revenant machine gun the first time through. Can I pick the sniper rifle the second time around and have both? Or does it replace my machine gun choice as my special weapon?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 11, 2010, 02:46:44 PM
Do you get to keep multiple special weapons? I picked the Revenant machine gun the first time through. Can I pick the sniper rifle the second time around and have both? Or does it replace my machine gun choice as my special weapon?

Nope. And you don't even get to make an overriding choice. You're stuck with whatever you chose the first time.

And Ammo abilities do not stack.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 11, 2010, 02:52:27 PM
 :humpf:

Well there goes my idea to collect all the special weapons through multiple playthroughs. My goal for this one remains the same however:

[spoiler]drag legion with me through every last loyalty mission and side mission possible. Crew be damned. At least this time.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 11, 2010, 04:20:42 PM
There is a savegame editor that has a flag for what item you picked. (http://mod.gib.me/masseffect2/saveedit_rev25.zip)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on February 11, 2010, 04:37:27 PM
Is the anti-material rifle appreciably better than the assault rifle? The assault rifle sucks unless you get all the upgrades for it, but jesus it's fucking overpowered once you have said upgrades.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 11, 2010, 09:37:55 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQz7u0BWD9c
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 11, 2010, 09:40:32 PM
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on February 11, 2010, 09:41:51 PM
oh jesus god



unrelated:
(http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/ribbonstrand/1265129540405.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 11, 2010, 09:46:07 PM
http://angryhosting-east.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/a1/a1a92316eedb37604eedb3ac44b5394f2549693d.jpg
http://angryhosting-east.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/a1/a1a92316eedb37604eedb3ac44b5394f2549693d.jpg
http://phuzion.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/21/217ad3838ba3b0f22f60d9632c1652e6f976eccf.jpg
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: inyandep on February 11, 2010, 09:54:33 PM
more horrible things
well that's one step closer to a jacob x grunt romance at least
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on February 12, 2010, 01:00:32 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQz7u0BWD9c

RRRAAAAALLPH'S CLUB CARD
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: yyler on February 12, 2010, 01:16:22 AM
(http://tyler.suckramento.org/imgs/renegade.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 12, 2010, 11:41:44 AM
Doom, this is for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CmluFy2iM
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 12, 2010, 12:20:45 PM
Holy Fuck I love you Smiler.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 12, 2010, 03:08:44 PM
(http://logan-1.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/ff/ff2da6159cf87dc31aa031c6e5303c408fbe31c3.jpg)
(http://angryhosting.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/fd/fd45053a15ede991af67ff0bd01f46bbb2f2cbd5.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 12, 2010, 03:10:05 PM
To be fair, the Mordin one almost works.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Pacobird on February 12, 2010, 05:41:38 PM
ok i actually want to play me2 now
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Alex on February 12, 2010, 07:22:27 PM
I'm Commander Shepard and this is da illest track on tindeck, son. (http://tindeck.com/listen/lqip)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Walker on February 12, 2010, 07:33:10 PM
Why does it open with a bit from Spaceballs
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 12, 2010, 11:31:02 PM
Fuck that reporter.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on February 14, 2010, 10:49:43 PM
I suppose this is just the ME image dump, so.

(http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5272/spidersj.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Spikey on February 15, 2010, 04:19:00 AM
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6374/quarianband.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 15, 2010, 06:06:41 PM
I'm replaying Mass Effect 1. Might as well try and get that Paragon ending, right?

Jesus, this game's a mess. I mean, I still love it, but fuck. The autosave is completely useless. I forgot about that. I got killed towards the end of the Liara mission, and now I have to do it all over. That's just... terrible.

Oh, and the MAKO. It turns out that the MAKO is indeed terrible. I mean, specifically, the MAKO itself is terrible, not just the hundreds of generic planets with rocky terrain. There have been people complaining about how they miss the MAKO and that there were good vehicle sections in ME1 and that it wasn't properly implemented and those people are all stupid.


For some reason I'm still in Brutal Legend vehicle mode. The Deuce is everything the MAKO wishes it could be while it cries itself to sleep at night. The MAKO just isn't any fun to drive at all. There is nothing fun about it. Mass Effect is gold, but whenever you get into the MAKO, it turns into shit, and whenever you get out of it, like magic, it turns back into gold.

So I guess I'm just... not going to do any non-central story involving the MAKO. I might do the Moon Mission, and Bringing Down the Sky is incredibly fun despite the MAKO. But I'm not going to bother with the planetside sidequests. Just... just fuck that shit.

I do have hope for the Hammerhead, though. For one thing, it doesn't have any fucking wheels. That it hovers is all I need to know that it's ten billion times better than the fuck-you Bioware MAKO.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on February 15, 2010, 08:00:16 PM
Bringing Down the Sky is incredibly fun

no. you are wrong. there is a minefield of +2 to faggotry. it is not fun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 22, 2010, 08:20:22 PM
...not reading through whole thread, because I found out on the Dragon Age thread that some people literally don't know how to use spoiler tags.  So I am probably covering already-tread ground here.

But:

The first cameo or two is cute, but after that they start to get cute.  Yeah, I can buy running into [spoiler]the nervous lady with the dead husband[/spoiler] on the Citadel (it only has a population of 13 million, after all), but apparently you can't touch down on a new planet without tripping over half-a-dozen minor characters from the first game.

I live in the city where I was born, and I unexpectedly run into a high school classmate maybe once a year.  Apparently Tempe is bigger than the entire fucking galaxy.

(I imagine this is mainly a Paragon problem, as I killed 2/3 of these minor characters when I played as Renegade.)



Also: I've been trying to place why Miranda looks familiar for days and I think I've got it.  Anybody else get "brunette Billie Piper"?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on February 22, 2010, 08:25:02 PM
Voiced and modeled on Yvonne Strahovski, so no.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 22, 2010, 08:26:38 PM
Her face is modeled after her voice actress who is this actress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Strahovski), so if you watch Chuck maybe you recognize from that.  Also she's Michael Jackson.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on February 22, 2010, 08:40:48 PM
Apparently EDI is the devil in the red dress from Battlestar Galactica.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 23, 2010, 04:12:12 AM
Thad, I take it you played Paragon. I rolled straight Renegade.

I ain't seen anyone from the last game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 23, 2010, 08:02:36 PM
Besides the big quests that I won't name, the sole function of the Citadel is to let you bask in the in-jokes and punch reporters in-between snagging a few upgrades. I for one do not miss the elevators and pointless busywork that I must do before I can go kick ass.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 26, 2010, 04:32:58 PM
Firewalker (http://kotaku.com/5480715/firewalker-with-me2-if-youre-on-the-cerberus-network), that is, the DLC involving the Hammerhead will be coming out next month with a few new missions. Based on the screenshot, I have a feeling we're still going to be fighting Geth Armatures and Thresher Maws from our vehicle. So probably no new enemies on that front.
 ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on February 27, 2010, 06:02:46 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWs5xdAIRQ
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 23, 2010, 04:24:25 PM
$2 to give Snakeman Spiff some sunglasses?  Bleh.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 23, 2010, 09:28:57 PM
$2 to give that poor woman a shirt.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 23, 2010, 09:52:04 PM
She gets a shirt later anyway!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 25, 2010, 06:34:03 PM
...so has anybody else been having trouble with crashes since installing the latest patch?  Or is it just the nodisc crack I'm using?

Because the game just fucking crashed on me while I was fighting the last boss.  Pretty not amused here.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on March 26, 2010, 05:42:06 PM
I'm reminded of this, Thad.
http://gaygamer.net/2009/09/batman_fights_piracy_like_a_tr.html
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 26, 2010, 05:43:41 PM
Could be, which is why I asked.

But it's been crashing like a motherfucker for awhile now.

...it bears repeating that I BOUGHT THE FUCKING GAME.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 26, 2010, 06:09:43 PM
And you're using a crack.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 26, 2010, 06:43:54 PM
Yeah.  So I don't have to put a disc in the drive to play something that's on my hard drive.

Do you put your Office disc in every time you want to use Word?

Moving on.

I beat it.  Took the Paragon route, Garrus for romance.  My end party was Garrus and whassername the Justicar.  Who I didn't care much for but I love Throw.

Zaeed died, which I'm not too upset about, and I think Mordin did too, which I kind of am.  (Not sure how it happened.  Just looked like he was dead in the ending cutscene.)

Observations:

Yeah, the gameplay is much better in this one than its predecessor; kudos all around.

I didn't think the story was as good.  The Cerberus affiliation felt forced.

Which moves into the "why": the biggest ambition put forward in this game was that the decisions in the first game would have some kind of huge and lasting impact.  They didn't.  The Council appears in the game for about a minute.  Maybe their presence is felt more strongly if you go the all-human route (which would make narrative sense); I'll have to play my Renegade character to see.

My guess is that writing the whole game around multiple possible outcomes from the first was just too prohibitive, so the Council's role was given over to the Illusive Man.  I find that a bit disappointing and forced, but it's a minor quibble about an excellent game, and there's still one more game to really make the impact of your decisions in the first one felt.

On the new cast: some were boring, some were interesting.  Mordin is my favorite -- not just in this cast, but he's one of the most nuanced characters I've ever seen in a game.  From his Shatner-does-Goldblum-doing-Rorschach delivery to his Oppenheimer core, he is the very model of a scientist Salarian.

I liked Legion but the whole thing just seemed horribly out of place.  Really?  Nobody reacts?  There's a sidequest on the Citadel where an Asari is detained on the absurd suspicion of being a Geth, [spoiler]yet you can walk right in there WITH a fucking Geth and nobody bats an eye[/spoiler].  I know Spectres are supposed to be able to do whatever they want, but seriously, it's just silly.  And it would be so TRIVIAL to get around it.  [spoiler]Slap a helmet on and he's a Turian or a Quarian.  Or give some babble about holograms and let the player make a new face for him using the character editor.[/spoiler]

Gripes aside, it's a fun-as-hell game to play that improves on the original in most ways.  I think the story lacks the "HOLY SHIT!" originality of the original, but the cutscenes work in a "HOLY SHIT!" cinematic approach that makes up for it.  The opening sequence is fucking beautiful, and the ending's pretty damn great too.

I want to play again.  Is the new DLC worth the price of admission?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 26, 2010, 06:59:39 PM
Probably ought to wait a couple of weeks for Kasumi to come out.

I agree with you about Mordin (who, by the way, you should [spoiler]send back with the crew[/spoiler]). He wasn't necessarily my favorite character, but he was easily the best written.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on March 28, 2010, 08:22:53 PM
I started up ME1 a second time to do a full-Renegade, racist-bastard playthrough, and was dismayed to find that the game won't accept the name "James T. Shepard" without chopping off the " T."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 28, 2010, 09:20:45 PM
Yeah, same problem with Samuel L Shepard.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 29, 2010, 05:36:35 PM
Other thoughts:

Lack of interaction between prior party members is a bit disappointing.  The above-quoted Tali/Garrus exchange is neat, but they don't actually acknowledge each other when you first encounter her.  (Hell, she doesn't have anything to say when [spoiler]Legion joins up,[/spoiler] either, she saves it for later.)

[spoiler]Ash  [/spoiler] has a one-liner to the effect of "Garrus?  You too?" if he's in your party, which is good.  But [spoiler]Wrex   [/spoiler] doesn't acknowledge him.

Also: "Have you met EDI, our AI?" is probably the best line of dialogue in the game.  That's some fucking Hemingway-level terseness -- a seemingly-innocuous line of dialogue that, in context, was enough to elicit an "Oooh" from me.

Also also: it has occurred to me that the mooted ME movie could potentially not be terrible IF they focused on expanding the universe instead of retelling Shepard's story.  It's a great setting they've built and it's got the potential for a whole lot of stories; it's just that focusing the action on something that is so distinctly a game will hurt them.  (This was the problem with the comic mini -- or at least the first issue; I didn't bother picking up the rest.  The Dragon Age series, by contrast, will be expanding the story rather than focusing on events surrounding the game.  Also, it's plotted by Orson Scott Card.  Which I would love to think was a good thing, except everything he's written post-Speaker for the Dead would tend to indicate otherwise.)

In practice, though, I bet they just try to adapt the game.  Which is a bad idea.


Also also, thoughts on shit to come:

Would love to see what happens with the Hanar.  [spoiler]They worship the Protheans...so where are they going to come down in the war?[/spoiler]

And a pure-Paragon playthrough of both games means you've got Rachni Queen, and a pure-Renegade means you've got [spoiler]Collector ship[/spoiler].  I expect these two things will serve similar functions.  Of course, there's nothing to stop you from getting both, though it would be hilarious if they wiped each other out somehow.




Also also also: you have FTL travel but can't fucking set up a machine to feed your fish at regular intervals?

Even though the whole SHIP is run by a fucking sentient machine?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 29, 2010, 05:47:07 PM
I really have to wonder about Mass Effect 3's plot.  There are so very many possible variables to import.  I mean, yeah, in ME1 you could lose either of your most annoying teammates, and so whichever one lived [spoiler]has a very minor, interchangeable role in ME2[/spoiler].  And you could choose whether to save or kill the Council, which is also almost meaningless in ME2 since hey they're elected officials they'll get replaced anyway.

But in ME2, depending on your Big Endgame Choice, you either [spoiler]completely alienate Cerberus and take this awesome ship and about a third of the organization's manpower, or you are incredibly super-tight with Cerberus and give them the Collector base.[/spoiler]  Also [spoiler]any and all of your teammates could be dead[/spoiler].  Unless they do another "multiple year absence, entire team disperses", just how open could ME3 be to the many permutations of the ending?  And if they do do that a second time, that's kinda weak.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 29, 2010, 06:00:16 PM
Worst-case is they punk out and give another Shepard death-cheat.

Next-worse is they won't let you import your data if Shepard's dead.

Allowing an alternate protagonist would be fucking awesome but expensive as hell to actually implement.  Unless they just changed "Shepard" to "Fucko" in all the replacement dialogue and swapped out a few specific references, which would largely defeat the purpose.

...and like I said, yeah, the second game largely copped out of making the first game's Big Endgame Choice felt.  More's the pity.

Third game should have crazy budget, though.  I don't have sales figures in front of me, but personal anecdote and common sense say ME2 kept the initial audience and added in people who'd rather be playing Halo or CoD.

...also, given the ending, it would be next to impossible to pull another "multiple year absence" trick.  Though I suppose you could pick up right where the game left off and then leave a month or so gap in it.

And of course the second game repeatedly emphasizes that your crew is uneasy with the mission and only committed to stay with you until it's over.  Even in the face of an immediate threat, they might not want to stay on Team Shepard.  Zaeed and Jack don't seem like the type to stick around, Mordin and Tali have obligations to their respective species, [spoiler]Thane is dying[/spoiler], Miranda is at the Illusive Man's beck and call, and so on.

Further thoughts: dual Renegade playthroughs means [spoiler]all-human Council with Cerberus running things.  Which would be a powerful alliance indeed but scare the fuck out of all nonhuman races.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 29, 2010, 06:10:47 PM
Quote
Next-worse is they won't let you import your data if Shepard's dead.

Quote from: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1067323p1.html
"You can play Mass Effect 3 if you died in Mass Effect 2 of course, but you'll have to create a new Shepard. Harsh? Yes. But we wouldn't be serious about the concept of a suicide mission if you couldn't die and your death didn't have serious consequences."

I have a feeling ME3 will largely be "Rally the troops" based on all the situations in ME2

Evidence:
[spoiler]-If you saved the Rachni Queen (ME1)
-If you convinced Mordin to cure the Genophage (Mordin Loyalty)
-If you convinced the Quarians not to go to war with the Geth (Tali Loyalty)
-If you converted rather than the destroyed the heretic Geth (Legion Loyalty)
-If you saved the collector base.
-ME1 ending (Sacrificing human ships vs Sacrificing the Destiny Acension)
[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on March 29, 2010, 06:11:35 PM
Next-worse is they won't let you import your data if Shepard's dead.

One of the loading screen tips says that you can import to ME3 "...if you survive", so that implies any alternate hero scenario is out the window.

I don't really blame them, because as cool as it would be to have a non-Shepard protagonist, losing Shepard seemed more of a "bad-end" than a legitimate choice, and I'm not surprised that they won't let you continue from there.

I mean, Ceberus spent sixty gajillion credits to bring you back to life, what's the point if it turns out some other schmoe can beat the Reapers just as well?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 29, 2010, 06:11:57 PM
They have specifically said that you can't import your data if Shepard dies.  You need an endgame save where s/he lived.

I still maintain the best thing in the world would be if you could import a save where Shepard died.  [spoiler]Since the ending conversation with Martin Sheen is done by Joker instead of Shepard if Shepard died, they should do a whole second opening for ME3 where it shows Joker as our hero instead of Shepard.  And then as soon as you get control, the first thing you have to do is drop five feet to a lower platform, which kills Joker, and you get a message saying to import a game with a living Shepard.[/spoiler].  They'll never do that though.

As for the NPCs, [spoiler]depending how her quest goes, Tali at least has no obligation to her species, and I think no matter how it goes she's vas Normandy now.  Also I can't imagine Garrus leaving, and if you're still tight with Cerberus then Miranda and Jacob are probably going to stay around.  Jack probably wouldn't go anywhere if you do a Paragon romance with her.  Legion seemed like enough of a giddy fanboy to probably tag along wherever Shepard goes.  It's not everybody, maybe, but it's a lot of people.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 29, 2010, 06:19:43 PM
Depending on the timeframe (A few months+?) I think you may lose [spoiler]Mordin due to old age? and Thane due to his disease.[/spoiler] Everyone else will probably be good for another go.

My personal worry is [spoiler]giving the collector base to Cerberus. I mean fuck, they are a very bad organization. They will use the technology to conquer the galaxy after the reapers are mopped up.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 29, 2010, 06:48:16 PM
Lack of interaction between prior party members is a bit disappointing.  The above-quoted Tali/Garrus exchange is neat, but they don't actually acknowledge each other when you first encounter her.  (Hell, she doesn't have anything to say when [spoiler]Legion joins up,[/spoiler] either, she saves it for later.)

Lack of party interaction in general is what's most disappointing. I would have liked hearing Thane and Legion discuss their unique philosophies, Garrus and Tali reminisce about the good times, Zaeed mentor Grunt, Mordin giving the romantic interest advice, and Tali and Legion... well, can you say... Battle Drones?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on March 29, 2010, 07:00:39 PM
Lack of interaction between prior party members is a bit disappointing.  The above-quoted Tali/Garrus exchange is neat, but they don't actually acknowledge each other when you first encounter her.  (Hell, she doesn't have anything to say when [spoiler]Legion joins up,[/spoiler] either, she saves it for later.)

Lack of party interaction in general is what's most disappointing. I would have liked hearing Thane and Legion discuss their unique philosophies, Garrus and Tali reminisce about the good times, Zaeed mentor Grunt, Mordin giving the romantic interest advice, and Tali and Legion... well, can you say... Battle Drones?

This is one thing I fucking loved about Dragon Age. Hanging out with Alistair and Wynne and like the dog, was awesome
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 29, 2010, 08:48:29 PM
Mordin giving the romantic interest advice

He has some information to share if you go for Garrus.

It is HILARIOUS.

This is one thing I fucking loved about Dragon Age. Hanging out with Alistair and Wynne and like the dog, was awesome

Yeah, shitloads of party banter in that one.

(There is banter with the dog?)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on March 29, 2010, 09:34:42 PM
Quote
Garrus and Tali reminisce about the good times

Uh. Spoiler?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a54Vm1ww8w
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 30, 2010, 03:14:32 AM
Mordin giving the romantic interest advice

He has some information to share if you go for Garrus.

It is HILARIOUS.

I am well aware of this. He actually has information to share for each love interest. What I meant was, you would walk in on Mordin giving the same or similar dialog to Garrus or Miranda or whoever.

Quote
Garrus and Tali reminisce about the good times

Uh. Spoiler?

Yeah, and as Thad said, that was neat, but it would've been nice to get something more substantial.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on March 30, 2010, 05:33:35 AM
Man, I even read that post, too. 7±2 things strikes again, I guess.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 30, 2010, 09:07:42 PM
 Someone posted on rpg.net that having the Rachini on your side is actually the BAD choice. Considering that they are vulnerable to Reaper signals and having them get hacked would be an awesome display of grimdark, where you scramble to defend against the loss.
 Also, unless Bioware is going to allow us to play a 25+ lvl Shep in ME3, there has to be a depowering so that people who jump in with a brand new Shep don't get pissed at starting at level 1. So..
  At the start of ME3, the Normandy 2 gets boarded by Alliance troopers who arrest everyone for being allied with a known terrorist organization and harboring known criminals (Jack,Thane,Miranda,Jacob). Samara gets off due to her fantastic Justicar status, the others scater or get arrested as well. Shep gets his/her cybernetics disabled and thrown into prison.
 Sometime after this, Reapers wipe out a few colonies, Whoopsie!

 So..Shep gets hauled out of prison and there is much apologising and chances to insult Air-quotes taurian. Shep gets offered accelerated training and brand new cyber(Class choosing time.) plus a fully staffed Normandy 3 piloted by Joker.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on March 30, 2010, 10:20:42 PM
Someone posted on fanfiction.net that
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on April 01, 2010, 04:31:25 PM
Shep gets his/her cybernetics disabled and thrown into prison.

Spectre.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on April 01, 2010, 04:34:40 PM
Shep gets his/her cybernetics disabled and thrown into prison.

Spectre.

Not unless you saved the Council in ME1 and specifically asked for reinstatement in ME2, and even then it was only "Well okay sure TECHNICALLY but you have no authority outside the Terminus systems."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on April 10, 2010, 03:09:19 PM
Probably ought to wait a couple of weeks for Kasumi to come out.

Worth the $7?  I heard no.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 11, 2010, 06:00:17 PM
 Bought and played Kasumi. She has a lot more personality than Zaeed and the first part of the mission is rather good. Bonuses are a new SMG, new research, new casual outfit and potentially new loyalty power for yourself.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: MadMAxJr on April 15, 2010, 06:42:28 AM
Does she actually have a chat tree unlike Zaeed's "Man, back in the war..." stories?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 15, 2010, 07:10:02 PM
 No, she does the whole 'click and I'll tell you a story,'thing. She does have abunch of lines about various party members and even talks about your current love interest. Plus....bar where you can get drunk.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on April 16, 2010, 01:34:17 PM
She seems to have quite a lot more to say than Zaeed, actually. Her lines of dialog seem longer on average, and she seems to have more of them. Most of what she talks about is little more than gossip about the Normandy's whole crew, not just the other party members, which goes a long way in giving the impression that she has a life outside the little room you hole her up into.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on April 16, 2010, 04:00:30 PM
What room does she stay in, anyway?  Is it the one door that doesn't even register as locked?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on April 16, 2010, 06:35:14 PM
The room opposite Samara's.

So the Hammerhead is actually pretty great. It's much better suited for combat than the MAKO ever was (for one thing it can strafe), and it's even a straight-up better cruising vehicle. You can pretty much make it hover in whatever direction you want, but then when you press the left trigger it automatically drives forward at a high speed.

I should note, I think driving video game vehicles with the Shoulder Buttons is the best way to drive video game vehicles. Brutal Legend did it, and it was awesome, and Mass Effect 2 does it, and it's pretty great as well. I hope Bioware gets around to releasing more Hammerhead missions soon.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on April 19, 2010, 07:12:03 PM
Okay, so I just completed the game with all of its new DLC thingies. Was Kasumi worth the price of a KFC Double Down and a medium Pepsi? I think it was. Her Loyalty Mission was entertaining enough, and it's easily the prettiest location in the whole game. She's not my favorite character in the bunch, but I liked her well enough. And, hey, you can [spoiler]send her though the vents just fine[/spoiler].

And the Locust is my new favorite weapon, better than the Assault Rifles even (making me wish I gave my Sentinel Shotgun Training instead) -- it has no recoil, it's fully automatic and it can shoot a fly out from between its wings. There is no reason not to use it.

Of course, since Kasumi is seven dollars and you can only purchase MS points in increments of five dollars, I had a few points left over, so I went ahead and bought the alternate outfits. Good use of money or not, I like the new looks, and I made all three of those characters wear their outfits.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on July 07, 2010, 08:50:06 AM
Yeah, the outfits pack sounded stupid at first, but then I realized it's the only way to get Garrus to wear armor that isn't totally fucked up. He looks much more professional now.

I've been loving the hell out of this game, but I've run into something that's bugging me. I did Jacob's loyalty mission last night, and it was pretty good, but... if that ship disappeared eight years ago... and it's been, what, two, three since the end of Mass Effect 1? So that ship and all its equipment predate ME1 by like five years, right?

So why is it that, when you shoot the crazy security guys, they drop thermal clips?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on July 07, 2010, 09:40:57 AM
Down that path lies madness, Burrito.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on July 07, 2010, 05:42:31 PM
They don't even explain what thermal clips are to Shepard; she just knows what they are.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on July 07, 2010, 06:20:22 PM
One assumes the thermal clip technology was introduced in the months between ME1 ending and Shepard dying.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on July 07, 2010, 06:45:11 PM
Also: no one in ME2 uses a gun that's more than 2-years-old.

One could assume that Thermal Clips have always been around, it's just that your highly experimental and cutting-edge Cerberus weaponry by necessity makes them more disposable. Or something. It's been a while since I've read the corresponding codex entry.

And honestly I have never cared.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on July 07, 2010, 07:04:38 PM
Nope.  It's explicitly said that they were reverse-engineered from Geth technology after the Sovereign attack.  Thus that planet being absurd.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on July 07, 2010, 07:05:29 PM
Sometimes it's just a video game, guys.

/me spends the Omega Archangel Defense Mission doing laps around a room to pick up respawning heat-clips for his Sniper Rifle.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Burrito Al Pastor on July 09, 2010, 10:43:37 AM
Two days ago I got a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea; since then I've started remembering my dreams.

Last night I dreamed that Garrus was my BFF.

This would be slightly less alarming if I had played Mass Effect before bed. Or at all yesterday, in fact.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Detonator on July 09, 2010, 02:19:56 PM
Last night I dreamed that Garrus was my BFF.

Was it something like this?

2006 Bud Light (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dHaOwC_4No#)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 17, 2010, 03:07:36 PM
DLC ready, decided to replay as Infiltrator - Insanity to prep a ME1-ME2-ME3 Legacy Character. Just started the second wave of character recruitment missions.

God Damn. Insanity really separates the sacks of shit who can ONLY shoot gun from the useful party members with Defense Stripping Powers. I made the mistake of trying both Jack and Grunt for a mission at the same time and I nearly shit ten bricks trying to practically solo it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 24, 2010, 06:32:40 AM
So after substantially more Insanity experience, let me drop some thoughts.

-Got this from a friend: make your snipers avoid the full-auto sniping rifle. They always take single shots with it, making them 1/3 strength of the default. Then I guess Legion gets a Widow so Legion wins if you want snipers.

-Kasumi is the best combatant. Period. Here's why. (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Strike) I'd put Miranda in second place for Team Bonuses and Warp/Overload on one person. The really great loyalty mission(though obnoxiously hard, I wouldn't rush it on Insanity for the gun) seals the deal. She's also one of the best chatty party members, maybe the most chatty person overall.

-The Heat Clip system was a vast improvement to gameplay. I guess it's hard to appreciate on lower difficulties, but your gun choice matters immensely when everything has defenses and you can rely on clips... once you clear this room. As opposed to ME1, where I had "the guns I'm allowed to use" "I'm a Soldier" or "Pistol". It ties in well to the addicting qualities of Insanity difficulty: need for strategy and tactics and prioritized targets.

-Tali's loyalty mission is the hardest fucking thing I've ever seen. If you're not a class with AI Hacking, god-fucking-speed for that second to last room. I did it after 12 tries by perfectly stripping the shields from the Hunters and keeping them perfectly Hacked.

-I took the Cain to Grunt's loyalty. There aren't enough power cell drops to use it. I killed the Thresher Maw with the Viper and my fucking Carnifex Hand Cannon. Because I have two sets of quads.

I'm about to grab the Reaper IFF and do ten tons of side missions. And maybe start a Paragon Male Sentinel Insanity Run. Thanks for the MESaves.com link earlier in the thread. I can't believe I was actually going to replay Mass Effect 1.

Also, Lair of the Shadow Broker on Sept 7th with strong implications that you can continue Liara romance from ME1 and that she might squad member it up. Cool. Hastily canceling seduction of Garrus.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on August 24, 2010, 07:14:03 PM
 Side-missions first, then IFF.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 24, 2010, 07:16:42 PM
Renegade.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on August 24, 2010, 10:59:47 PM
I do not believe letting your crew die awards you renegade points.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 25, 2010, 06:58:07 AM
It fits my "Who Cares About Cerberus Mooks" personality, though.

Also tags any relevant flags for ME3. I'll save the fuckers in my Paragon Insanity Sent play. Sentinels are pretty cool for having all the defense stripping powers themselves. Means I can experiment with squad-mates this time.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on August 25, 2010, 07:38:17 AM
I gave my Paragon Sentinel Zaeed's Inferno Grenade power. Sure, it's not the most efficient ability, but it's one of the most satisfying. I fell in love with it at one point during Kasumi's loyalty mission, when I opened the power wheel and I was actually behind this guy, and I said out loud "Hey guess what?", and then while I tossed a Molotov Cocktail at him I said "Fire Grenade!".

And then he melted.

Paragon, bro.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 26, 2010, 06:14:11 PM
Reaper IFF Mission is fucking hilarious on Insanity. Especially the finale.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on August 26, 2010, 07:03:00 PM
I can imagine. Aren't the Husks armored on Insanity?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 27, 2010, 01:05:31 PM
Every enemy has at least one defense, yes. Husks and Abominations are Armored.

I basically did figure 8 laps around the room while letting them pile-up on my cohorts, who I had to revive three times(six gel, two at a time.) Miranda and Kasumi, so I had quick-cooldown-Slam for unarmored, Warp for armored, and Kasumi's flashbang grenade for both. It also has decent AoE at less than max rank and randomly causes CC(stunned/dazed), which auto-kills any Husk regardless of defenses left, life left or difficulty. I used Incinerate on cooldown and Sniper Rifle shots(the time slow helps immensely to reposition, refocus and this applies triply so to actually hitting the Reaper Core) in between.

I died seven times, always due to traffic backing up. You literally can't move when you're surrounded by physical bodies, whoddathunk.

I guess my Heavy Weapon Choice could have helped, but not this time. Collector Particle Beam compliments Infiltrator well for self-sufficient "Can Deal With Any Defense", Barriers and Shields extra-fast in this case. Didn't feel like reloading, especially since everything prior to the final room is easy-cheesy power-spam while backing up.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on August 28, 2010, 10:34:48 AM
It fits my "Who Cares About Cerberus Mooks" personality, though.

Are you going to try and get Miranda and Jacob killed?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 28, 2010, 01:07:31 PM
No, this is my perfect ME3 file, but "I Check Your Mail For You Because That Console Is An Entire 3 Feet Away" Girl is a goner.

As I mentioned, Miranda is kinda cool because she's just blatantly one of the best combat characters. Her unique power set-up is just miles ahead of most squad-mates.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on August 28, 2010, 02:27:55 PM
Yeah, I understand that it's basically impossible to clear ME3 on Insanity and not use Miranda because she's just so fucking broken.

I really don't like her so much as a character, but all of that CC and all of that damage on such short cooldowns is all kinds of unreasonable.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on August 28, 2010, 03:56:48 PM
The % damage increase to the entire squad really seals the deal.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on August 29, 2010, 09:12:20 PM
No, this is my perfect ME3 file, but "I Check Your Mail For You Because That Console Is An Entire 3 Feet Away" Girl is a goner.

...I HAVE done the requisite mocking of "superintelligent ship can't just fucking feed your fish on a timer", right?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on August 29, 2010, 09:20:57 PM
Fucking with Joker is using up all of the available resources that EDI could be using to feed your fish.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on August 29, 2010, 09:33:42 PM
Also, I know this is pretty far out there, but...what if somebody designed some sort of feature where your computer could MAKE some kind of sound to let you know you have new E-Mail?

Or did I just automate another poor employee right out of a job?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on August 29, 2010, 09:44:31 PM
Don't forget, her real job is to psychoevaluate each member of the crew

and in the future, this is accomplished by way of dance

Mass Effect 2: Kelly Chambers Romance Scene [Female Shepard] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yudSwhH4P0E#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on August 30, 2010, 06:53:04 AM
Quote
Don't forget, her real job is to psychoevaluate each member of the crew

DANGEROUS, VIOLENT AND UNPREDICTABLE

This would be useful if every Shepard didn't talk to them anyways to mine Paragon/Renegade points, romances, and surprisingly good writing(sup Grunt.)

speaking of great writing why can't I fuck Mordin, the most charming, cultured, confident and mature man in the entire series

(http://doom.pyoko.org/WhyMordinWhy.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on September 03, 2010, 04:52:28 PM
(http://doom.pyoko.org/Insanity.png)

Somebody's ready for Mass Effect 3.

This is how the Suicide Mission feels on Insanity as Infiltrator, by the way:

(http://doom.pyoko.org/garrusowns.png)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Spikey on September 13, 2010, 07:48:44 AM
This is just a heads up that Lair of the Shadow Broker is totally awesome and you should all go play it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on October 20, 2010, 09:45:13 PM
I watched my friend play through Operation Overlord and Kasumi.

Kasumi: That's passable, I guess. Sort of cheated on lack of real conversation with Kasumi (Like Zaeed)
Operation Overlord: Oh, Cerberus. (Amazing DLC overall.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on October 21, 2010, 06:41:45 PM
I got all the DLC packs that contain actual missions. Lair of the Shadow Broker was fun. Overlord was one of the major motivating factors for my going with the "Fuck Cerberus" ending. Mordin is the only person in the entire galaxy who knows how to do science responsibly.

Somehow I ended up with not enough money to buy all the upgrades and still have a rich character for exporting to ME3. I might play it again for extra paragons and renegades, but the money is the important thing. Is there a place, anywhere, to farm for that?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on October 21, 2010, 06:51:02 PM
Somehow I ended up with not enough money to buy all the upgrades and still have a rich character for exporting to ME3. I might play it again for extra paragons and renegades, but the money is the important thing. Is there a place, anywhere, to farm for that?

Dogfighting on Tuchanka.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on October 21, 2010, 07:11:28 PM
Making 170,000 credits through that (70,000 for the last two upgrades, 100,000 to be rich) is going to be hellish, but here goes nothing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on October 21, 2010, 07:51:05 PM
It'd be faster to start a new game and re-do everything except this time fiddle with the .ini to start with lots of money.  Also less insane.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on October 21, 2010, 07:52:00 PM
Maybe I'll just cheat.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on October 22, 2010, 09:22:27 AM
On my most recent playthrough I had absolutely no trouble unlocking all the upgrades. Admittedly, this was before Overlord and Shadow Broker, so what the fuck do I know.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on October 22, 2010, 02:45:32 PM
I've started playing through ME2 on the PC, and I'm going for a complete experience.

-Hacked Legion in from the start, to hear all the missing dialogue.
-I have all the mission-based DLC.
-I modded my game so my Shepard has Red Illusive man eyes. There's a lot more modding options for appearance, but that's all I wanted to change.
-I cheated the hell out of it for resources and credits.
-I have my Paragon and Renegade maxed from the start, to make the choices I want.

This isn't my ME3 Prep playthrough. That will have to wait until later - I need to do a PC ME1 playthrough, then import that to ME2. I'm debating between that, or just tweaking my ME2 save using the save editor to make all relevant choices through the raw data. I don't know if I want to take that kind of time again. (I did exactly that for Xbox. And it was so time consuming.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on November 22, 2010, 01:49:56 PM
I've yet to give Mass Effect 2 a shot, but the more I hear about the Geth, the more they strike me as one of the most damned interesting alien races I've seen for a while. It's clear that what they want isn't what organic species want, because they don't feel pain or pleasure, neither have they empathy or any concept of it, really.

Yet their end goal as a species is something genuinely glorious and apparently attainable.

The only thing I can think of that sort of sounds similar are the Tines from A Fire Upon the Deep, which I'd wished that book had spent more time on.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on November 22, 2010, 02:14:52 PM
Yet they can't be what Shepard has become: Robocop.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on November 22, 2010, 05:07:08 PM
And truly such is their tragedy!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on November 22, 2010, 06:41:29 PM
You don't get the Geth perspective on things [spoiler]by which I mean Legion[/spoiler] until kinda close to the end of the game, though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 22, 2010, 06:46:01 PM
That's why it's usually a good idea to keep a few missions on the back-burner, so that once you've beaten the game you can keep talking to them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on November 22, 2010, 07:29:59 PM
I don't really get if Legion is an actual individual or if he's just thousands of programs formulating the most efficient response to what is asked of him. Does a Geth actually care about anything or are they just... you know... actual machines?

I mean the way they work, it doesn't seem like they have free will so much as just this imperative to do what they need to do to get to their end goal, this culmination of a purely efficient peak.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on November 22, 2010, 07:38:01 PM
If Legion is manipulating Shepard in that way, that means that a modest assembly of Geth can already think circles around any fleshbag. This would, of course, be inconsistent with what we observe of Geth intelligence during Legion's loyalty mission. Occam's razor suggests that it's either sincerity or just garden-variety lying.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 22, 2010, 08:16:03 PM
I don't really get if Legion is an actual individual or if he's just thousands of programs formulating the most efficient response to what is asked of him.

I've been interpreting him as thousands of interconnected AI's slowly developing, if not straight-up evolving into an individual entity.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on December 11, 2010, 07:53:44 PM
VGA 10: Exclusive Debut Trailer HD - Mass Effect 3 (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363)

"Our numbers will darken cloud the sky of every one world."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 11, 2010, 09:15:56 PM
Looks like there's still another year to go. I wonder if there'll be a big DLC pack prepping for the upcoming Reaper invasion?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on December 11, 2010, 09:17:11 PM
Although I am dismayed, I nevertheless understand why their promo does not contain any of the game's most interesting elements except for guns.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on December 11, 2010, 11:16:15 PM
Okay good, I have a year to buy my 360 back from a friend.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on December 11, 2010, 11:18:13 PM
Hmm. Rewatching it, it looks like the nameless pointless space marine ejects a thermal clip from his gun. Didn't everybody hate the entire idea of thermal clips?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on December 11, 2010, 11:42:45 PM
Thermal clips make it so you can eject something out of your gun to look badass IN THE FUTURE.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on December 11, 2010, 11:52:46 PM
Thermal clips make it so you never have enough ammo for your sniper rifle and every battle ends with running around and grabbing a bunch of orange things.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 12, 2010, 12:33:57 AM
Hmm. Rewatching it, it looks like the nameless pointless space marine ejects a thermal clip from his gun. Didn't everybody hate the entire idea of thermal clips?

Nnnno?

I far prefer ejecting a thermal clip to chilling out for ten seconds so my sniper rifle can cool down.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 12, 2010, 12:44:41 AM
Thermal Clips were a dumb cover-up for a smart game mechanic: forcing you to use your guns intelligently to match the enemy type and situation priority!

I guess it's a downer if you just wanted to use one gun for the entire game but there's a reason every class gets Pistol + SMG base.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 12, 2010, 12:56:25 AM
Eh, my Soldier used his assault rifle for the entire game.  It was good in every situation.

If reloading lost you the entire clip instead of just the shots you'd shot, and shots within a partially-spent clip slowly regenerated over time as the clip cools down, that'd have been more immersive I guess?  But whatever, it's still less annoying than the heat system in 1.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on December 12, 2010, 01:09:52 AM
I guess it's a downer if you just wanted to use one gun for the entire game but there's a reason every class gets Pistol + SMG base.
But Doom, it's objectively more fun to use the sniper rifle for everything!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 12, 2010, 01:14:57 AM
I guess, considering I beat the game twice(Insanity run!) as an Infiltrator myself, but it became second-nature to use the Heavy Pistol for specific targets and the SMG for lightly armored chumps/husk rushes. The Anti-Matter rifle is king but you learn to use it when it counts.

Or that ammo clips regenerate when the camera isn't facing them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Envy on December 12, 2010, 02:01:31 AM
Thermal clips make it so you never have enough ammo for your sniper rifle and every battle ends with running around and grabbing a bunch of orange things.
So this is like Lost Planet?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on December 12, 2010, 03:29:24 AM
Or that ammo clips regenerate when the camera isn't facing them.

This. I have never had insufficient ammo in Mass Effect 2, except for heavy weapons.

As for
running around and grabbing a bunch of orange things
, it just felt like good pacing. The intensity of combat leads right into cooldown, where we regenerate health and pick up ammo, and check the room for interesting objects. That's how I responded to the experience, anyway.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 12, 2010, 03:53:01 AM
i played MANGUARD and had no ammo troubles because like 45% of the time things would die just from me teleporting into them

geth heretics don't know how to deal with zwee-fighting
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 13, 2010, 08:50:42 AM
...oh snap, that was Earth (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/12/mass-effect-3-coming-for-360-ps3-pc-in-holiday-2011.ars)?

Makes sense.  Put Earth in the final act.

So will we see Generic Future City, or will they try for someplace in particular?  New York would be an obvious (if utterly cliche) "international" choice, though of course BioWare's a Canadian company.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: McDohl on December 13, 2010, 09:08:40 AM
Well, aliens better not invade Toronto.  That town is crawling with people like Scott Pilgrim.  Scott would singlehandedly turn back an alien invasion faster than Master Chief.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 13, 2010, 10:41:59 AM
nah, a lot of people have incredibly crappy superpowers that would not help at all (e.g. Comeau)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 13, 2010, 10:44:43 AM
I wonder how many completed Human Reapers we will fight once they liquidize even a single Human Capital City.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on December 13, 2010, 06:25:41 PM
London was in the trailer, of course, so it would make sense for that to show up in the game as well.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Esperath on December 13, 2010, 06:26:17 PM
Mass Effect 3 trailer w/ ES:V Skyrim trailer audio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li5aDU9280c#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on December 17, 2010, 05:03:53 AM
Normally Nerfnow is kind of.. forgettable. But this was worth posting.

(http://nerfnow.com/comic/image/435)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 17, 2010, 07:39:19 AM
I don't get it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 17, 2010, 10:01:52 AM
Quote
If you did play it, you probably hated the Turian Concuil member and his annoying air quotes. I think he never accepted his pet Turian Spectre did not save the universe like a certain human Shepard.

Sadly, I will not have the pleasure to see his face when the Reapers pop on the know space since I let their ship be destroyed on Mass Effect 1. I did not made it by spite, I just wanted to focus all firepower on the Reaper ship and diverging ships (humans or not) to literally shield it so they could escape seemed wasteful.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on December 25, 2010, 10:32:37 AM
Context:

Turian Air Quotes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92m-yy4gGk#ws)

"Ah yes, Reapers. A race of sentient starships allegedly waiting in dark space. We have dismissed that claim."

bonus points:

Kasumi: Ah yes, Reapers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl8OZxgTiFE#ws)

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 26, 2010, 07:52:59 AM
Just got this game on Steam for Christmas, likely going to start up a femshep run. Any mods I should add in or things I should probably know before I get going on this thing?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 26, 2010, 07:58:48 AM
Get a list of which planets have real quests on them, to minimize the amount of wandering in the Mako you have to do.  The collection quests are beyond pointless.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 26, 2010, 08:55:44 AM
Just got this game on Steam for Christmas, likely going to start up a femshep run. Any mods I should add in or things I should probably know before I get going on this thing?

Get a list of which planets have real quests on them, to minimize the amount of wandering in the Mako you have to do.  The collection quests are beyond pointless.

I should specify Mass Effect 2. I played ME1 up until I got stuck in some god-forsaken bunker in some god-forsaken crevice of some god-forsaken backwoods planet.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 26, 2010, 09:03:44 AM
Oh.  Good.  ME2's actually fun.

The big thing I'd say really is that you don't actually need as many upgrades as it makes available, so don't feel the need to mine for resources if you don't want to.  And unless you're an Infiltrator with their snipe-specific boosts, the two best guns in the game are the Vindicator and the Mattock, both of which are assault rifles, so be aware of that.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 26, 2010, 09:15:34 AM
get a save

playing without loading a save from ME1 sucks
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 26, 2010, 09:20:30 AM
Nor c-can

can I have your save perhaps
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 26, 2010, 09:28:36 AM
there's a website fulla saves
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 26, 2010, 09:31:50 AM
:(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 26, 2010, 11:04:38 AM
Quote
The big thing I'd say really is that you don't actually need as many upgrades as it makes available

You need almost every upgrade on any difficulty above normal ┐('~`;)┌
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 27, 2010, 07:24:07 AM
Man

This game is pretty awesome huh?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on December 27, 2010, 07:33:47 AM
Yes.

Why did it take you so long to play it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 27, 2010, 07:46:03 AM
Oh.  Good.  ME2's actually fun.

The big thing I'd say really is that you don't actually need as many upgrades as it makes available, so don't feel the need to mine for resources if you don't want to.  And unless you're an Infiltrator with their snipe-specific boosts, the two best guns in the game are the Vindicator and the Mattock, both of which are assault rifles, so be aware of that.

You forgot the Locust, the SMG that comes with Kasumi's Loyalty Mission. That's the best weapon in the game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on December 27, 2010, 11:19:58 PM
  masseffectsaves.com gives you saves for ME1 and ME2. Paragon or Renegde and the various important choices. You will want to snag a save if you plan on playing more than twice. Don't worry about the class, you are free to change it during set-up.

 Avoid the melee upgrades unless you are playing Vanguard. If you find yourself in HtH with any other class, you did it wrong.

 Figure out if you want to be Paragon or Renegade and stick with it. You can finish the game by waffling, but the red/blue specific ones will get harder to unlock the longer the game goes on.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on December 27, 2010, 11:51:43 PM
Also a possibility: start a new game, picking the name you like, then fire up the ME2 savegame editor.  Set your ME1 flags to be whatever you want them to be, then flip the "has beaten ME2" flag.  Then use it to start a New Game +.  You have to do it that way, because the editor can't flip what flags are being interpreted as true for your current play, but on a replay it reloads them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 28, 2010, 02:08:42 PM
In other, console-based news: the three big mission DLC are discounted today (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/28/choice-mass-effect-2-dlc-discounted-on-xbox-live-today/).

And look, you don't even have to get off of the computer to buy them (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Mass-Effect-2/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802454108ce?DownloadType=GameAddon#LiveZone). Yay!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 28, 2010, 02:20:10 PM
...as always, becoming unemployed leads to a conflict between "I finally have time for this shit!" and "I no longer have money for this shit."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on December 28, 2010, 07:23:43 PM
 I'm guessing that the second 'bridge' DLC will be first quarter or summer and the final one will be near ME3's release date in order to whip up replays.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 30, 2010, 06:15:44 AM
I accidentally 16 hours of Mass Effect 2 in a row.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 30, 2010, 09:27:07 AM
ffff when do you get Legion in this game? I just got Jack and MAN I am itching to get some gethtalk up-ins.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 30, 2010, 09:56:09 AM
Pretty late into the game, actually. After you grab Mordin, Archangel, Jack and Grunt, there's a story mission, then you can get Thane, Samara and Tali and start doing Loyalty missions. After four or five of those missions, there's another story mission, and that opens up the story mission the lets you recruit Legion.

However you may want to hold off on doing the Legion mission until you've done everything you want to. After you get him, there's only enough time to complete a single mission or so before... stuff happens. (And that single mission is his Loyalty mission) Said stuff segues into the endgame, and if you wait too long to start the endgame, bad things happen.

Also unloyal characters tend to die permanently during the endgame.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 30, 2010, 10:28:33 AM
[spoiler]If you don't give a flying fuck about the Cerberus crew on your ship, get Legion and then do whatever you want. They're the only thing at stake.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 30, 2010, 12:05:52 PM
Does this crew include the main characters and Joker? So long as I get down to b'ness with my bisexual xenophile secretary I am A-OK with the redshirts going down in flames.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 30, 2010, 12:08:50 PM
Haha. Yeah. Kelly.

If you wait too long you [spoiler]watch her melt[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on December 30, 2010, 12:10:35 PM
How melted are we talking here
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 30, 2010, 12:15:05 PM
A puddle of warm goo.

I suppose you can get some use out of her like that, though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 30, 2010, 02:30:06 PM
Joker is always fine though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 30, 2010, 02:47:29 PM
I lost Mordin in the ending, seemingly at random.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 30, 2010, 02:49:50 PM
Mordin is literally the worst Suicide Mission character. You have to keep him in your party the for the final fights or have him escort the crew.

He is seriously so hard-coded to die in The Last Stand it's ridiculous.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on December 30, 2010, 02:50:20 PM
Mordin is practically 150 in Salarian years. It was just his time.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on December 30, 2010, 03:23:51 PM
Mordin is literally the worst Suicide Mission character. You have to keep him in your party the for the final fights or have him escort the crew.

He is seriously so hard-coded to die in The Last Stand it's ridiculous.

Thankfully i keep him in the party 100 percent of the time because he is my favorite character
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 30, 2010, 04:50:18 PM
So, is is the period of time before you find the MacGuffin that gets you through the relay free time to get all your loyalty missions and DLC shit done?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on December 30, 2010, 04:54:34 PM
Yeah. Again, if [spoiler]you care about Cerberus crew. Seriously, even the worst outcome spares Chakwas because wah wah wah.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 30, 2010, 05:03:00 PM
Well, I just fucking love this game and would hate to be cut off while I'm exploring all the nooks and crannies.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 30, 2010, 05:10:29 PM
Well, don't do every mission before getting the Omega 4 Relay key. I mean, do all the Loyalty missions, but keep a few of the side missions to do during the post-game (Did I mention that you can keep playing after you beat the game? Yeah, you can keep playing after you beat them game). You'll only be able to have new conversations with Legion after missions, and if you don't have any missions left, you won't be able to make any progress with him.

Also: I've heard that Kasumi is actually even worse than Mordin at The Last Stand. Though I can't say for certain myself, as my only playthrough with her I took her with me to the final boss.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on December 30, 2010, 05:20:07 PM
So, is is the period of time before you find the MacGuffin that gets you through the relay free time to get all your loyalty missions and DLC shit done?

You can do all the DLC stuff after you beat the game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on December 31, 2010, 10:14:11 AM
Interesting; did not know that.

And yeah, planning on keeping Mordin in my regular party on my renegade playthrough.  (Which, amusingly, will be the one where I save all the Cerberus crew.)  He really is one of my favorite characters, not just in this game but in any game ever.

On the subject of DLC: can't justify buying any right now, but once I've got a steady income again, which is worth getting?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 31, 2010, 01:16:42 PM
Well, I can only vouch for Kasumi's Stolen Memory -- I like the new character, the Weapon you get from her Loyalty Mission is honestly the best in the game, and the location of said mission is one of the prettiest things in the game.

That said, I think Lair of the Shadow Broker is the one to get. It's by far the largest DLC (1.5 Gigabytes), so I imagine it's got the most content. Plus it's actually important to the overall Mass Effect story, acting as one of the 'bridges' between ME2 and ME3, and letting you continue your sordid lesbian love affair with a sexy blue alien chick. And it unlocks the Research that lets you respec your party members, which I am glad for.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Norondor on December 31, 2010, 01:37:11 PM
those two and Overlord are the only ones with real content that matters
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 31, 2010, 01:50:38 PM
I like the Alternate Appearance Pack, though.

But that's just me.

Literally, just me. No one else liked it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on December 31, 2010, 01:56:10 PM
At least Jack gets a shirt.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on December 31, 2010, 04:21:08 PM
It's too bad you didn't mention this like two days ago, thad, they had all the DLC marked down to 200 points, so I was able to pick up Kasumi, Shadow Broker, and Overlord for less than Shadow Broker costs alone.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on December 31, 2010, 06:17:41 PM
Yes, I believe I mentioned that a page ago. And Thad was the first person to reply.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on January 01, 2011, 04:14:35 AM
Sooo, I picked up ME2 in the Steam sale and just finished it. Damn but the Krogan-grade shotgun is awesome. I AoE Charged into everything, one-shotted anything that was still standing, and in the rare cases where something survived that, FISTO. Who cares if it fires once before reloading? One shot is all you need. Once I got [spoiler]Garrus[/spoiler]' AP ammo I only had to pull out the heavy pistol to deal with Scions.

I liked how the plot is structured like a caper movie: you put together a team, then you commit the elaborate heist. It's kind of a shame there wasn't really any story progression though, no uncovered mysteries to speak of, apart from finding the enemy's location. I did have that ohhhhh shiiiiit moment when I saw the [spoiler]final boss[/spoiler] though, that was a cool moment.

Overall, yeah, it's a much better game than the original. Less running errands, more actual action in unique environments, and a chunkier, more focused leveling system. If ME3 is as improved over ME2 as the latter was improved over ME1, we're in for a treat.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on January 01, 2011, 11:48:22 AM
Also: this here is how the game determines who dies during the suicide mission (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/2933016).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on January 04, 2011, 02:42:44 PM
Yes, I believe I mentioned that a page ago. And Thad was the first person to reply.

And wasn't it just the 360 version anyway?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on January 04, 2011, 05:23:27 PM
Haha, it totally was. I keep forgetting most people are playing it on PC, which I would be doing myself but I day one'd the original on my 360 and importing my savefile was non-optional so far as I'm concerned.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on January 06, 2011, 05:54:41 PM
Shit yes, No One Left Behind first try. I also told the Illusive Man where he could stick it. I'm sure with his enhanced vision, he could see what I meant.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 21, 2011, 03:55:10 AM
The next DLC has a very ominous name: "Arrival". (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/21/mass-effect-2-arrival-dlc-detailed-by-latest-patch/)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on March 09, 2011, 12:08:28 AM
Just got Legion, with only Tali's loyalty mission to go before making a run at the Reapers. Figured it wouldn't feel right without bringing a Geth onto the flotilla. Weird that it took this long into the game for them to give you a sweet new helmet!

Morrin's mission was as excellent as I'd been led to believe. Talking with Wrex has been an unexpected highlight too! Korgan cultural politics are actually kind of fascinating.

Started hitting on Thane pretty relentlessly after getting him to start talking about his past. I really like the character... wish his loyalty mission had been a bit more exciting (it really is impossible to have fun on the Citadel), but I liked the father/son bit, and it's good hearing his thoughts on pretty much anything.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 09, 2011, 12:48:40 AM
Morrin's mission was as excellent as I'd been led to believe. Talking with Recks has been an unexpected highlight too! Korgan cultural politics are actually kind of fascinating.

Fixed it for you.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on March 09, 2011, 03:58:23 AM
because i forgot the d
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 09, 2011, 04:16:45 AM
Also Korgon, which I can only imagine are a race of adorable, puppy-like barbarian monsters.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on March 11, 2011, 12:13:02 AM
Beat this last night! Every good character save for Legion and Garrus went down like Kayin's blimp in a horrible, fiery whirlwind. Mordin, Thane, Tali, oh those poor sons of bitches...

I did fuck Thane RAW before the final mission, however, and picked up Garrus on the rebound after we came back, so it worked out. Turns out keeping the Collector base intact to use against the impossibly large armada of invincible ancient demigods caught me flak from every member of the crew, who just stone cold laid into me about the decision rather than talk about how cool it was that we just saved the entire damn universe.

Weird how they never got around to explain who or what the Harbinger was, though. Or why he seemed to know me personally.

All in all this was a v. good game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 11, 2011, 01:23:23 AM
Harbinger is [spoiler]a reaper who was controlling the collectors[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 11, 2011, 02:30:42 AM
Harbinger is [spoiler]a reaper who was controlling the collectors[/spoiler]

Yeah I thought that was made pretty explicit with the [spoiler]"Releasing Control"[/spoiler] scene.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on March 11, 2011, 04:20:27 AM
Yeah, I suppose... that bit at the very end [spoiler]where he pulls up the image of the reaper[/spoiler]. Still not quite sure how he knows of you though.

I liked the Collectors as enemies - we need more bizarre and otherworldly enemies in the place of the Blue Sun troopers they throw at you quite a bit.

Any DLC particularly worth picking up?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 11, 2011, 04:51:36 AM
Lair of the Shadow Broker is tops.  Kasumi is also very good.  Zaeed is godawful but free so whatevs.  Firewalker isn't that great but it's required for Overlord which is quite good, so.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 11, 2011, 05:13:13 AM
I continue to be flabbergasted that people dislike Zaeed.

WHATEVER. Honestly, I think the best Pay DLC is Overlord. You get a huge, wide-open and very pretty hub world to play around in with the Hammerhead. And no, you don't need the Firewalker pack for Overlord, but that doesn't matter because it's free just like Zaeed.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 29, 2011, 08:56:30 PM
Just finished The Arrival. If you thought it was "Get ready, here come the god damned Reapers in Mass Effect 3!", it is, but it's good at what it does. It's not as good as Shadow Broker as a stand alone pack, but it's pretty great anyway, and it makes the Reapers more present again. Also, Admiral Hackett confirmed for total bro.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on May 04, 2011, 11:13:59 AM
Mass Effect 3 delayed until early 2012, no one surprised. (http://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect-3-delayed-until-q1-2012-200420.phtml)

Does anyone else feel that ME3 is coming out pretty quickly after ME2? It just seems like there was more of a gap between the first and second games.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on May 04, 2011, 11:29:55 AM
If we're looking at the earlier 360 launch date instead of the PC release, Mass Effect came out in November 2007.  Mass Effect 2 came out in January 2010.  26 months between them.

Q1 2012 means what, January-March 2012?  So 24-26 months between them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on May 04, 2011, 11:36:12 AM
Yeah, I guess by the time it's out it won't seem so close together.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on July 11, 2011, 09:16:09 AM
Ten hours of config files and Bioware / EA website scouring and I'm convinced it would've been a better idea to just buy a new 360 and new copies of ME 1 and 2.

Mouse and keyboard are horrible beyond belief for the game and every thread that used to exist to help you edit .inis to fix the problem has been deleted by Bioware.

On top of that they give you no way to register ME1; something that you're told you have to do to claim your free copy of bringing down the sky.

This is basically the most frustrating thing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on July 11, 2011, 09:19:45 AM
What problem are you having with the controls?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on July 11, 2011, 09:36:39 AM
It may just be me, but after all the time I put into the 360 versions trying to use WASD controls feels like someone kneecapped Shepard.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on July 11, 2011, 02:15:08 PM
Probably you. I know a couple people who started out Xbox and swapped PC though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on July 11, 2011, 09:53:04 PM
So, asshole level raised by EA making the super deluxe version of ME3 Origin ony? The art and soundtracks I can do without, but there seems to be the potential for missions, (exclusive in-game content) plus the N& weapons and costumes.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on November 21, 2011, 12:13:35 PM
Haven't bought ME2 yet?  Well, it's effectively free right now if you intend to download anything else from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00452VH0Q) -- the download version is $5 and comes with a $5 credit.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on November 21, 2011, 12:26:08 PM
So, asshole level raised by EA making the super deluxe version of ME3 Origin ony? The art and soundtracks I can do without, but there seems to be the potential for missions, (exclusive in-game content) plus the N& weapons and costumes.

Bleh. I couldn't give two shits about the weapons, I would hope the costumes would be available later, and I seriously doubt that they'd make the extra character and missions permanently exclusive.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on November 21, 2011, 12:30:32 PM
Ten hours of config files and Bioware / EA website scouring and I'm convinced it would've been a better idea to just buy a new 360 and new copies of ME 1 and 2.

Mouse and keyboard are horrible beyond belief for the game and every thread that used to exist to help you edit .inis to fix the problem has been deleted by Bioware.

On top of that they give you no way to register ME1; something that you're told you have to do to claim your free copy of bringing down the sky.

This is basically the most frustrating thing.
I have the PC games to play at a later date, and this is of interest to me. What's the issue? Is it mouse acceleration?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Esperath on December 17, 2011, 10:49:42 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/4dxIL.jpg)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS (http://imgur.com/4Yrkp.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Pacobird on December 17, 2011, 12:08:18 PM
b-but i dont want a present james franco :(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on December 17, 2011, 12:26:11 PM
I JUST WANT TO SEE YOU NAKED OPEN THIS PRESENT
Title: Re: Game News Dump
Post by: Ziiro on January 27, 2012, 10:28:59 AM
Mass Effect 3: Special Forces Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h254YRtQoJU#ws)

Looks great! A lot more options than I thought they would actually include.

All Class/Race combinations screenshots (http://minus.com/mHsGhI71H)

Adept: HumanM/HumanF/Asari/Drell
Soldier: HumanM/HumanF/Krogan/Turien
Engineer: HumanM/HumanF/Quarian/Salarian
Sentinel: HumanM/HumanF/Turien/Krogan
Infiltrator: HumanM/HumanF/Salarian/Quarian
Vanguard: HumanM/HumanF/Drell/Asari

All alien races are their mono-genders that you run into in ME2.

[spoiler]No playable Geth characters :( There had better be DLC for that shit.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Re: Game News Dump
Post by: Bongo Bill on January 27, 2012, 10:38:41 AM
Nor Batarians, it seems.
Title: Re: Re: Game News Dump
Post by: Ziiro on January 27, 2012, 10:42:51 AM
Here's to hoping they add a lot of cosmetic and class DLC with their action figure bullshit. (http://thekoalition.com/2012/01/mass-effect-action-figures-include-dlc/)

Quote
These products contain codes that can be redeemed for a downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 3 multi-player. They are slightly randomized during the registration and could include powerful new weapons and new characters. The pack could also include character boosters, weapon modifications, and weapon upgrades to make your multi-player squad stronger. (Only supported on XBox360 and PC.)

That said, this is probably what will I'll do anyway. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWoYmTAfDbk#ws)
Title: Re: Re: Game News Dump
Post by: Bongo Bill on January 27, 2012, 10:55:28 AM
As long as they don't make any missions hard to come by.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 09, 2012, 07:25:51 PM
Feeling kinda angry/disgusted/suitable negative emotion that the DLC/Apps for ME3 are getting retarded. Now there will be a phone app that lets you pump your galactic readiness level while drinking your $5 latte.



http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/08/mass-effect-3-phone-app-will-send-you-texts-from-game-characters-from-dust-dlc-spotted/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/08/mass-effect-3-phone-app-will-send-you-texts-from-game-characters-from-dust-dlc-spotted/)

 At this point, why not just youtube the ending?  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on February 09, 2012, 07:50:56 PM
The obvious answer would be that they don't believe a youTube posting will let them monetize the content sufficiently.

I'm unwilling to click that link, but the idea of a game where characters are interested in interacting with you, the player, is kind of neat. That said, I haven't played an Animal Crossing-alike in ages, so I've forgotten exactly how poorly that concept always gets executed.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 09, 2012, 08:34:15 PM
 Or how about a dvd of all the cutscenes with a 'Choose your own adventure' style interface? Do you want to romance that hot new reporter without having to do missions for 2 hours? Or see both the good and bad choices of a mission?  Bioware could also have special 'linking' scenes that smoothly bring together the cutscenes, exclusive just for this dvd! if you complete all scenes, you get a special file that can be used for a purple Korgan shotgun in the upcoming ME MMO. :sarcasm:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: François on February 09, 2012, 08:38:12 PM
The Baten Kaitos games literally make the player a part of the game's narrative, not as an existing or generated in-world character, but as an actual independent otherworldly entity that's being channeled by a protagonist. The implementation wasn't nearly as deep as I'd have liked in terms of mechanics, but if you let yourself play along with what the fiction is trying to do there are some pretty amazing curveballs in there. I've never played another game where it felt like one of the characters personally [spoiler]betrayed[/spoiler] me.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 09, 2012, 09:03:44 PM
Feeling kinda angry/disgusted/suitable negative emotion that the DLC/Apps for ME3 are getting retarded. Now there will be a phone app that lets you pump your galactic readiness level while drinking your $5 latte.



http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/08/mass-effect-3-phone-app-will-send-you-texts-from-game-characters-from-dust-dlc-spotted/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/08/mass-effect-3-phone-app-will-send-you-texts-from-game-characters-from-dust-dlc-spotted/)

 At this point, why not just youtube the ending?  :facepalm:

Well, since you have to grind the multiplayer, facebook tie-in, and/or iOS tie-in to get your Galactic Readiness above 50%, and it degrades over time so you have the keep grinding them consistently through your playthrough, and Galactic Readiness is a major factor in what ending you get ... yeah.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on February 09, 2012, 09:13:58 PM
Well, since you have to grind the multiplayer, facebook tie-in, and/or iOS tie-in to get your Galactic Readiness above 50%, and it degrades over time so you have the keep grinding them consistently through your playthrough, and Galactic Readiness is a major factor in what ending you get ... yeah.

 :richiam:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 09, 2012, 10:10:41 PM
Well, since you have to grind the multiplayer, facebook tie-in, and/or iOS tie-in to get your Galactic Readiness above 50%, and it degrades over time so you have the keep grinding them consistently through your playthrough, and Galactic Readiness is a major factor in what ending you get ... yeah.
Is even a word of that confirmed? Because it contradicts everything I have heard them say.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 10, 2012, 12:52:27 AM
I guess I was getting overly pissed there. It almost seems like Progress Quest where you can just tap out a script or leave things running by themselves and cut out half the game. Although It would proably be useful for those completionists who have already beaten things to death and just want that last scene.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 10, 2012, 10:32:44 AM
(http://i52.tinypic.com/2aetk42.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 10, 2012, 10:35:52 AM
Pretty sure that's a fake.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on February 10, 2012, 10:54:46 AM
I think Helper isn't working on Mass Effect (Thank God), so yeah that's a fake.

Still sounds like something she'd do.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 15, 2012, 11:29:53 AM
Tycho talking about ME3's mutliplayer:

Quote
Ths multiplayer, though.  Holy shit.  “Horde Mode” is an insulting characterization.  The characters you create in this mode accrue experience and invest in skills just like a single player character would, except here you’re earning money that you use to buy what are essentially CCG style Booster Packs of varying quality.  These packs contain single use items to help you through tough rounds, weapons and weapon upgrades, along with alien races to play as.  It has many, many barbed compulsion mechanisms affixed to tentacles which dance and sway.

Traps for the reptile mind can only get you so far, though, and what surprised me the most about it is how well it comports itself as a shooter.  It’s not just a weathered sidearm resting on an ornate doily.  It’s very “heavy” in my own estimation, methodical, a more nimble version of Resident Evil that retains that series’ omnipresent gravity.  It had dodges, and cover, but when you traverse an area the sense that you are committed to it is impressed upon you.  I didn’t entirely know what to think when they announced this portion; the rumors I’d heard were that it was intended as a stand-alone product at some point.  I tried to imagine what universe such a thing would be desirable in.  This universe, actually; it is desirable in this universe, as soon as is humanly possible.

Response (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAVp0oslFFI#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on February 15, 2012, 12:46:50 PM
That sounds cool and all, but if Battle fucking field 3 didn't get me to install Origin, Mass Effect multiplayer sure as hell won't.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 15, 2012, 06:58:40 PM
It's not that bad, really.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on February 15, 2012, 08:05:28 PM
No, I don't doubt it's not bad. It sounds really goddamn interesting! But it's not going to be nearly as good as Battlefield 3, and I sure as hell want that a lot more and even that didn't get me to use wannabe Steam.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 15, 2012, 08:41:38 PM
Mass Effect 3 - FemShep Run Animation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0Rl16elKo#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on February 15, 2012, 08:52:29 PM
Humans don't look good when they sprint at top speed.
1960 Rome Olympics - Women's 100m Dash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWECaWXmcDU#)
1988 Olympic Women's 100m final - Florence Griffith-Joyner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWzAaydIJcA#)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on February 15, 2012, 09:44:51 PM
She looks like she's blackout drunk
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 16, 2012, 02:01:44 AM
 Man, that kid had KILL ME all over him. Why not add in a puppy?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on February 16, 2012, 04:13:09 AM
Helper

I see 4chan has ruined us both.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 16, 2012, 04:37:47 AM
Helper

I see 4chan has ruined us both.


How about Hepler the Hutt?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 16, 2012, 05:17:50 PM
No, I don't doubt it's not bad. It sounds really goddamn interesting! But it's not going to be nearly as good as Battlefield 3, and I sure as hell want that a lot more and even that didn't get me to use wannabe Steam.
No, I mean Origin isn't that bad.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on February 16, 2012, 05:43:02 PM
Yes it is.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on February 16, 2012, 08:22:34 PM
No, I don't doubt it's not bad. It sounds really goddamn interesting! But it's not going to be nearly as good as Battlefield 3, and I sure as hell want that a lot more and even that didn't get me to use wannabe Steam.
No, I mean Origin isn't that bad.

As compared to what?
What is it competing with?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 21, 2012, 08:13:24 AM
The Mass Effect 3 simultaneously pushes the COD XP Reward button and the RNG loot button from WoW:

See, every time you win a mission you get credits. You can spend credits on buying random upgrades/weapons/characters. You also get EXP from matches to level each character up. So it's basically calculated to keep you playing.

Shame it still feels sort of stiff because it's Mass Effect Shooting.

Also, Awkward zombie is great as always:

(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f278/katietiedrich/comic237a3.gif)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 21, 2012, 08:15:37 AM
Miranda has plot immunity until the final battle itself. The most reliable way to kill her off is for her to be nonloyal and in your active party during the final boss fight. You can still do her loyalty mission if you do it before she and Jack have their fight, then side with Jack, causing her to lose loyal status.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 21, 2012, 07:00:08 PM
...can't get ME2 to work reliably anymore; bluescreens most times I run it.  I blame running a non-Apple graphics card in a Mac Pro (though Witcher 2 didn't do it nearly as often and presumably was working the card harder).

Same problem when I run it under WINE.  Except also the music doesn't work.

(EDIT: Music works if I bypass the launcher and just run masseffect2.exe.  But it still crashes.  I guess on the plus side it seems to mostly wait to crash after I load my save, while Windows often crashes as soon as I Press Any Key at the start screen.  So maybe if I go back far enough on my saves I'll find something that doesn't crash.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 23, 2012, 10:05:13 AM
Phoenix New Times: Five Squadmates We'd Like to Have on Mass Effect 3 (http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/02/our_mass_effect_3_squadmate_wi.php)

I don't expect I will be playing ME3 right away, inasmuch as I can't get 2 to run reliably and am concerned 3 would be the same.  (Plus my Windows drive is running low on space.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 23, 2012, 10:42:40 AM
Going to be talking about the From the Ashes DLC. It adds a squad member which has interesting implications.

SPOILER LINK (http://youtu.be/ixk9ORP-U28)
[spoiler]Well, I have to say that the Prothean Squad member is incredibly cool. How is he around? Obviously some sort of stasis, but even the top scientists with top tech of the entire Prothean Empire had to waste a ton of resources to live long enough to survive the reapers to create the small mass relay on the citadel? He says he was born after their homeworld was already a wasteland. They find him in stasis on a ship floating in space is my best guess? I'm glad I'm getting the collector's edition which gets it for free![/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 23, 2012, 11:46:03 AM
I'm not all that surprised by this turn of events, actually. It was bound to happen, really.

What does surprise me is the next video in the queue, though. Her... design is a little too 80's transformer, though.

EDIT: I think a better way of designing [spoiler]E.D.I. as a playable character would to be to give her a generic mech body and have it project a female-like hologram around it.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 23, 2012, 12:19:15 PM
[spoiler]It'll probably come up in the game "Joker, why does EDI look like a model? Surely she could have been made more combat effective with a bulkier design" and Joker will make the quip that he had a hand in her design and making her so incredibly sleek and aerodynamic. "You know, like the Normandy."[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 23, 2012, 02:26:51 PM
EDIT: I think a better way of designing [spoiler]E.D.I. as a playable character would to be to give her a generic mech body and have it project a female-like hologram around it.[/spoiler]

But then [spoiler]how would she bang Joker?[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 23, 2012, 06:52:12 PM
[spoiler]HOW WILL I BANG JOKER, GOD DAMNIT[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 23, 2012, 07:06:36 PM
[spoiler]Joker fucks machines.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on February 23, 2012, 07:14:58 PM
[spoiler]I'm already renegade and have machine-eyes, looking forward to obligatory Big Choice to become part reaper. Then he'll be mine.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 24, 2012, 06:04:11 PM
New squad mate sounds Jamaican. Wonder if he plays steel drums.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Da_Beerman on February 24, 2012, 06:57:16 PM
New squad mate sounds Jamaican. Wonder if he plays steel drums.

I eagerly await his personal quest where Shepard must decide if he/she should let the dogs out
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 26, 2012, 01:36:13 PM
...can't get ME2 to work reliably anymore; bluescreens most times I run it.  I blame running a non-Apple graphics card in a Mac Pro (though Witcher 2 didn't do it nearly as often and presumably was working the card harder).

Same problem when I run it under WINE.  Except also the music doesn't work.

(EDIT: Music works if I bypass the launcher and just run masseffect2.exe.  But it still crashes.  I guess on the plus side it seems to mostly wait to crash after I load my save, while Windows often crashes as soon as I Press Any Key at the start screen.  So maybe if I go back far enough on my saves I'll find something that doesn't crash.)

Still fightin'.  Crashes like crazy in Windows at this point.  Linux I actually had it sort of working in WINE but not quite.

The WINE version in the standard Ubu repos: runs, but mouselook isn't 360-degree; something to do with how X reads mouse movement.  I think it must stop at the edge of the window.  Additionally, I can't mouselook while running, which as you might expect is a problem.

From the WINE repos:

1.2 runs, but the picture disappears once I load my save.  Audio works, so it doesn't seem to have locked up; it just doesn't display.

1.3 runs but the keyboard and mouse don't work on the main menu screen.  Mouse pointer moves but doesn't highlight menu items; neither clicking nor keypresses work (though they work on the Press Any Key screen, and Alt-F4 still quits out even at the menu screen).

Looking into these various problems.  May end up having to roll my own.

(Also tried again to get my non-Apple graphics card working under OSX.  Still haven't had any luck but haven't given up just yet.  If I continue to have issues, I may install the Chameleon bootloader -- among hypothetical support for my graphics card, it'll let me use the 64-bit kernel and run Mountain Lion should I decide I actually want to do that.)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on February 27, 2012, 05:53:23 AM
Quote
Japan's Dengeki Online is serializing the manga, which is titled "Teach me! Professor Mordin!". Drawn by manga artist Michi Michiru, the manga is set in a school and is designed to introduce the characters, their races, and provide background. Here, schoolgirl Liara swoons over the gym teacher, Shepherd, while Mordin claims out of a manhole, offering ignorant schoolgirls "supplementary lessons".

(http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17erlwpp1hkhhjpg/original.jpg)

What the fuck.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on February 27, 2012, 06:03:08 AM
Quote
Japan's Dengeki Online is serializing the manga, which is titled "Teach me! Professor Mordin!". Drawn by manga artist Michi Michiru, the manga is set in a school and is designed to introduce the characters, their races, and provide background. Here, schoolgirl Liara swoons over the gym teacher, Shepherd, while Mordin claims out of a manhole, offering ignorant schoolgirls "supplementary lessons".

(http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17erlwpp1hkhhjpg/original.jpg)

What the fuck.y the fuck is this not being published in America?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on February 27, 2012, 06:37:06 AM
It's always nice to include a link. (http://fronttowardsgamer.com/2012/02/27/mass-effect-manga/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mass-effect-manga)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on February 27, 2012, 08:28:23 AM
English translation (http://imgur.com/a/3Fuuv#0).

Mostly an ad, I think, but they have somehow made Tali even more adorable.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 27, 2012, 08:44:39 AM
...so who wants "Calm down you two, he's not a molester.  He's just a violent krogan." as an avatar?

...anyway, I like it better than the Dark Horse ME comics.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Brentai on February 27, 2012, 08:49:30 AM
...so who wants "Calm down you two, he's not a molester.  He's just a violent krogan." as an avatar?

That would be pretty disingenuous of me.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 27, 2012, 09:14:15 AM
It'll work for now.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 27, 2012, 09:28:44 AM
Oh right, I had an actual reason for posting here.

Played a lot more of the multiplayer with a group of friends. I could see me dumping quite a few hours into this because of the depth poured into it honestly. There's a ton of enemy types and options of teams to roll with, as well as weapons. However one MAJOR complaint I have is that melee is as terrible as it is in single player, yet the emphasis is there for the Krogan Soldier/Sentinel (as well as a few other classes). He's got an entire skill tree for Berserk that great numerically, but lag/"aim" of melee attacks is godawful.

And hopefully some day I'll get my Geth character as DLC.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on February 27, 2012, 09:41:33 AM
(Also tried again to get my non-Apple graphics card working under OSX.  Still haven't had any luck but haven't given up just yet.  If I continue to have issues, I may install the Chameleon bootloader -- among hypothetical support for my graphics card, it'll let me use the 64-bit kernel and run Mountain Lion should I decide I actually want to do that.)

This thought seems a bit half-baked as presented; the point of this, in case it's not obvious, is that there's an OSX version of WINE (http://wineskin.doh123.com/) (which even has presets available for specific programs), and I'm thinking it's possible that my card would be less likely to panic OSX than Windows.  (Though I can't say for certain.)

Anyhow, found a page called How To Fix Mass Effect 2 Crashes, Import Savegames, Avoid Freezes & More (http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-fix-mass-effect-2-crashes-import.html) and I am going to leave that link here for later.  I've tried most of the things on there, but not getting rid of the intro movies, and I wasn't aware of 3DP Chip.  Dunno how well it'll work on a Mac, but it couldn't hurt to try.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on February 27, 2012, 09:24:31 PM
7-11 laughs in the face of street dates again, details are slowly leaking out. All of this is "heard on the internet", all of this is related directly to endings, and all of this may be dust in the wind but HEY.

Each line is a seperate spoiler

[spoiler]Multiple possible endings, more than just one "total paragon", "Total Renegade", "Lesser versions of each"[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The more Galactic Readyness you have, the more options for endings you have.[/spoiler]

Possible direct spoilers for endings:

[spoiler]One renegade ending has you control the reapers[/spoiler]

[spoiler]One renegade ending has you become part reaper[/spoiler]

[spoiler]One ending has you become ruler of all mankind. Presumably Renegade[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 28, 2012, 06:50:25 PM
So playing through Mass Effect 2: Why does no one like Jacob? I guess he doesn't stand out in some way like everyone else, but he doesn't seem as bad as people make him out to be? Pretty standard soldier who just wants to get shit done rather than deal with politics.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Malikial on February 28, 2012, 07:04:53 PM
I loved Jacob!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on February 28, 2012, 07:08:02 PM
 That is the reason I guess.

Miranda has her butt
Tali is cute geek waifu
Garrus is the calibrationbro
Thane is the illguy
Samara is the MILF
Jack is baldtatsyandere
Mordin is the model of a modern major Salarian

Jacob is..well..er...A good soldier?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 28, 2012, 07:11:54 PM
He's black? Does push ups? His dad made a sex paradise until everyone ate too much of the crazy planet plants?

He is Kaiden without the whining.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on February 28, 2012, 07:17:40 PM
I don't hate him, he's just extremely boring.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on February 28, 2012, 07:32:25 PM
My exposure to this was through Shamus Young's petulant bitching. I guess he didn't like how FemShep flirted with him constantly? I don't see how that's relevant to a big slice of the player base though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on February 28, 2012, 07:39:36 PM
The people who dislike Jacob or think he's boring feel that way because he's not a hot chick or an alien.  Kaiden got the same reception in the first game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Malikial on February 28, 2012, 07:40:36 PM
I honestly hated Tali, Jack and Samara. My team was usually Shep, Jacob, Mordin. Sometimes I'd use Miranda or Thane but not much.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on February 28, 2012, 07:57:40 PM
In a game where you can have Garrus and Mordin as teammates, who needs any other character?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on February 28, 2012, 08:05:13 PM
The people who dislike Jacob or think he's boring feel that way because he's not a hot chick or an alien.  Kaiden got the same reception in the first game.

No, Kaiden got that reception because Carth was a useless whiny bitch the first time around and we didn't care to sit through another game of it.

Jacob's a cool dude, but I never got the love for Snakeman Spiff.  Got an interesting gimmick but overall is just kinda eh.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on February 28, 2012, 09:08:27 PM
I rather liked Jacob. But I have to admit he is kind of bland (which is different from boring). His unique character properties take some digging to get at, and once found, they don't increase the dramatic potential of anything he's involved with other than his own loyalty mission. One never felt like he'd have anything to say or do about any location or point point. He's the only party member who doesn't have a past.

He's different from Kaiden in that Kaiden has a past, just a tedious one.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on February 29, 2012, 03:45:43 PM
(Both videos contain ME2 Spoilers.)

Here's a bunch of alternate dialogue regarding the last boss of ME2. (http://youtu.be/2KkONU3Cb-A) Nothing really earth-shattering but it's interesting..

.. this, on the other hand.. Kind of is. (http://youtu.be/CqtAHNQT3-w)


In looking at mass effect videos, how did I not catch this?:
one (http://youtu.be/8lvOf9MDWSY) and two (http://youtu.be/njeRD80DhD4)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mothra on February 29, 2012, 04:37:13 PM
Whoa!

Awesome.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 02, 2012, 05:58:05 PM
Mass Effect 3: Official Launch Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2mdZ23eP8#ws)

Launch trailer
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 05, 2012, 02:44:25 PM
There's no way I can beat the game in a few hours tonight. I guess I'm going to hold off playing ME3 for a couple days while I get a perfect ME2 playthrough.

Frustrating but oh well.

Additionally: You can use bioware points to buy Packs of random stuff. (http://i.imgur.com/QfU8q.jpg). 80 Points = $1. I'm sure people will say RABBLE RABBLE SO BAD but I'm actually hugely in favor of this. It isn't strictly "PAY 2 WIN", because they're random boosters. The advantage for me is that I can buy a bunch of these and unlock a class I'm more interested in, rather than jumping around a bunch.

Plus I can keep up with all my unemployed friends who get n hours more to play the game than I do.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 05, 2012, 08:56:56 PM
Forget every other character Bioware allows to be Romancable. Why can't I have the Bartender from Illium? She is awesome.

Also Illium definitely feels so strange in comparison to the pace of the rest of the game. It feels like it might have been at the beginning of the design cycle, then somewhere along they way they realized they couldn't do what goes on here everywhere. It's so jam packed with shit to do.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 05, 2012, 09:06:33 PM
Forget every other character Bioware allows to be Romancable. Why can't I have the Bartender from Illium? She is awesome.

Also Illium definitely feels so strange in comparison to the pace of the rest of the game. It feels like it might have been at the beginning of the design cycle, then somewhere along they way they realized they couldn't do what goes on here everywhere. It's so jam packed with shit to do.

Because that's Liara's Mom and that would be gross.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 05, 2012, 09:20:22 PM
Forget every other character Bioware allows to be Romancable. Why can't I have the Bartender from Illium? She is awesome.

Also Illium definitely feels so strange in comparison to the pace of the rest of the game. It feels like it might have been at the beginning of the design cycle, then somewhere along they way they realized they couldn't do what goes on here everywhere. It's so jam packed with shit to do.

Because that's Liara's Mom and that would be an amazing threesome

(http://www.startrek.com/legacy_media/images/200307/kirk01/320x240.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Zaratustra on March 06, 2012, 07:15:33 AM
An interesting article on how "your actions have consequences" has been carefully tooled to mean "buy more things"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/06/mass-effect-3-war-assets-and-readiness-how-multiplayer-affects-your-ending/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/06/mass-effect-3-war-assets-and-readiness-how-multiplayer-affects-your-ending/)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 06, 2012, 07:58:37 AM
And in three years when they shut down the matchmaking system for ME3 you won't be able to get the good ending at all.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Zaratustra on March 06, 2012, 08:48:51 AM
Eh, in three months you'll get a patch that makes all endings available from a single choice at the end.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 06, 2012, 09:05:12 AM
And in three years when they shut down the matchmaking system for ME3 you won't be able to get the good ending at all.

Quote
it is possible to get the best ending in single player without playing multiplayer, but it’s twice as hard. All your War Assets only count for 50% of their potential value. The biggest gains in War Assets come from a culmination of your decisions in the previous games and your decisions in this one: if you’ve helped a race before, and you help them here, it’s often possible to get their full support and resolve their conflict to get someone else on your side too.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on March 06, 2012, 10:16:33 AM
So I just youtube the endings I didn't get. Better luck next time, Bioware!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 06, 2012, 02:24:17 PM
And in three years when they shut down the matchmaking system for ME3 you won't be able to get the good ending at all.

Quote
it is possible to get the best ending in single player without playing multiplayer, but it’s twice as hard. All your War Assets only count for 50% of their potential value. The biggest gains in War Assets come from a culmination of your decisions in the previous games and your decisions in this one: if you’ve helped a race before, and you help them here, it’s often possible to get their full support and resolve their conflict to get someone else on your side too.

So it's possible to get the best ending without grinding multiplayer if you're importing the exact right combination of decisions from both ME1 and ME2.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 06, 2012, 02:45:05 PM
Simultaneously annoying, and one of the most gratifying things for me personally, possessing one of those coveted saves.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 06, 2012, 02:59:41 PM
In agreement. I've been calculating since ME1 for this and making choices accordingly. Making allies wherever I can and basically playing the long game. Imagine if they didn't have the multiplayer to pad your fucking readiness? Curious how much of the population would see the good ending.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 06, 2012, 03:28:31 PM
Multiplayer? Bitch, I've got the Rachni and Wrex.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 06, 2012, 04:59:58 PM
Whoops I played his for 14 hours straight instead of sleeping.

Forget every other character Bioware allows to be Romancable. Why can't I have the Bartender from Illium? She is awesome.

Also Illium definitely feels so strange in comparison to the pace of the rest of the game. It feels like it might have been at the beginning of the design cycle, then somewhere along they way they realized they couldn't do what goes on here everywhere. It's so jam packed with shit to do.

Because that's Liara's Mom and that would be gross.

Pretty sure that's Liara's Dad.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 06, 2012, 06:10:20 PM
LIARA HAS TWO DADDIES!?
ALERT THE MSM!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 06, 2012, 10:02:09 PM
Manguard flowchart: Charge>Biotic ARM!>Shotgun>Repeat
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 06, 2012, 11:35:11 PM
Finding Dialogue tidbits in ME2 that still make me laugh.

"Borders? This is Tuchanka. Our borders are determined by the range of our guns."
"Vorcha are just like the Varren. Only they can use guns and don't crap on the floor as often."
Most of the dialogue on Tuchanka is actually fucking golden.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 07, 2012, 12:06:06 AM
Man, if you like side missions, I hope you like switching discs like it's 1997.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 07, 2012, 01:07:48 AM
 Imported a glowy-eyed, scar-faced Adept from ME2 and the glow-stuff vanished! I thought we would be able to keep the scars.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 07, 2012, 01:12:59 AM
Manguard flowchart: Charge>Biotic ARM!>Shotgun>Repeat

I saw a video of a Vanguard utterly slaughtering TiM's troops with a vanguard. The guy was a fucking cross-between comet and Hulk. A later posted detailed how to do it:

Take the talent at the end of the Charge tree that lets you recharge shields 100% whenever you charge. Take the Nova talent that reduces the Charge cooldown by 25% each time you Nova. Put some more points into making Nova awesome (this guy opted for the "Novas have a chance of not reducing your shield" talent, but it doesn't really matter which ones you pick). Run with a light weapon to keep your cooldowns as low as possible (this goes for any character as far as I'm concerned. The only reason I'd ever equip a second weapon is if I were playing a class without a damage power on Gold, where ammo starts to become an issue).
 
Once you do this, you stop playing a third person shooter and start playing Hulk in space. Your Charge and Nova talents will recharge as fast as you can trigger them, and your shields will reset constantly. It can be risky on Silver if you run into too large a group, and you have to be even more cautious on Gold. But it's still ridiculously fun.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 07, 2012, 03:20:26 AM
Imported a glowy-eyed, scar-faced Adept from ME2 and the glow-stuff vanished! I thought we would be able to keep the scars.

It's because your reputation reset. The stupid reason you get to look all messed up as a renegade is that the cybernetics that brought you back to life react negatively if you don't remain mostly calm, and particularly poorly if you're going off all the time. It's dumb, but whatever. At any rate, be a dick and the scars come back.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 07, 2012, 07:33:02 AM
...oh hey, new WINE package.  Wonder if it'll work.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on March 07, 2012, 08:46:27 AM
I am looking forward to my new computer being here so I can play Mass Effect.

1.

Hopefully I can get past the crippling apathy that I felt as soon as I opened a shop interface from 1992!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Da_Beerman on March 07, 2012, 01:19:46 PM
Man, if you like side missions, I hope you like switching discs like it's 1997.

is it the same for the retail PC version? or is there three discs with one containing an Origin installer?

swapping discs did make me notice that the regular edition of the game has an alternative cover on the flipside.

I found subquest with Kaylee Sanders from the first mass effect book, I knew some good would come out of reading that thing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 07, 2012, 01:36:16 PM
Wait, I thought the mass effect novels were awful? I thought most BioWare IP books were awful?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Da_Beerman on March 07, 2012, 01:45:32 PM
Wait, I thought the mass effect novels were awful? I thought most BioWare IP books were awful?

I guess I didn't get the memo.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 07, 2012, 01:52:30 PM
If you tell me they're good, I'll take your word for it.

But these chuckle heads felt it was so bad it deserved commentary.
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/02/03 (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/02/03)

EDIT:
O Shit! I'm level 3! Maybe I want to multiclass? Do you guys think I should multiclass?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 07, 2012, 02:05:33 PM
Who likes endgame spoilers?  When they're this fucking terrible, I sure do! (http://i.imgur.com/WxLlH.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Da_Beerman on March 07, 2012, 02:09:53 PM
If you tell me they're good, I'll take your word for it.

But these chuckle heads felt it was so bad it deserved commentary.
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/02/03 (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/02/03)

EDIT:
O Shit! I'm level 3! Maybe I want to multiclass? Do you guys think I should multiclass?

The first two books where written by Drew Karpyshyn who was the lead writer of KOTOR and Mass Effect 1 and a co-writer on Mass Effect 2, the third book was not written by him but rather by an outsider and you can tell because of the much criticized inconsistencies (Drew left Bioware sometime a few months ago).

The book isn't exceptional or anything but it's more compelling than reading codex entries for exposition. Edit: heh I wouldn't say it was "a volley of Satanic aggression toward the reader" but I did only read it in preparation for the third game after losing interest the first time I tried to read it. in short it's a medicore book that serves it's purpose for extra world building I'm not rushing out to read more.

Anyone get attacked by reapers while planet scanning yet?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Zaratustra on March 07, 2012, 02:13:56 PM
Who likes endgame spoilers?  When they're this fucking terrible, I sure do! (http://i.imgur.com/WxLlH.jpg)

[spoiler]Man is THAT what Tali looks like? That's... underwhelming.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 07, 2012, 02:14:57 PM
Who likes endgame spoilers?  When they're this fucking terrible, I sure do! (http://i.imgur.com/WxLlH.jpg)

[spoiler]Man is THAT what Tali looks like? That's... underwhelming.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Well, yeah, it's underwhelming.  Because it's just a bad photoshop of a stock photo.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 07, 2012, 02:17:31 PM
The book isn't exceptional or anything but it's more compelling than reading codex entries for exposition.

Gotta be better than the (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=2356.msg125577#msg125577) comics (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=90.msg181976#msg181976), right?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 07, 2012, 02:42:39 PM
Having read most of the codex entries in 1 and 2 I'm pretty good with reading them for my exposition anymore. I wish I had them in book form though, that'd be kind of cool. Mass Effect reference manual. Contains sections on 1, 2, and 3. (You know, because they had to change things)


Hm. Might be worth printing and doing.

Additional note: If you have the time, the Cerberus daily news archives (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cerberus_Daily_News) is an insane amount of info and flavor

(http://i.imgur.com/l1lHa.gif)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 07, 2012, 04:43:31 PM
Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]The Reapers are basically Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann[/spoiler]

... Eh, it's not like they could have been much else. I mean, the similarities were pretty much established in the first game, really.

Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]Some of the endings are sort of like the endings in Deus Ex[/spoiler]

That all seems so generalized and so taken out of context that you could compare them to My Little Pony.

Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]This is what Tali actually looks like[/spoiler]

What the fuck?

Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]Tali kills herself[/spoiler]

WHAT THE FUCK
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 07, 2012, 09:00:56 PM
Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]The Reapers are basically Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann[/spoiler]

... Eh, it's not like they could have been much else. I mean, the similarities were pretty much established in the first game, really.

Actually, [spoiler]as recently as when ME2 was written and developed, that was not their motivation.  Their motivation was in fact entirely different.  Specifically, and quoting, when ME2 was written, it was with the expectation that the plot twist of ME3 would be "that dark energy is destroying the universe (the "premature aging" of Haestrom in ME2 is because the compressive force of gravity is no longer balancing the explosive force of fusion), and the Reapers are trying to stop it. They absorb some races because - despite millions of years of computer-speed thinking on the outskirts of the galaxy - they still haven't figured out how, so they need fresh perspectives.  So the Reapers were secretly good guys trying to end the threat of dark energy by scattering dark energy based artifacts all over the galaxy for young races to find, reverse engineer, and use. In hopes that they find a species who can fix the problem they've spend 37+ million years thinking about."  So, yeah, could very much have been quite a bit else.[/spoiler]

Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]Tali kills herself[/spoiler]

WHAT THE FUCK

[spoiler]She joins the Flotilla for a suicide attack on the Reapers and/or Geth.  But only if she is your waifu.  Otherwise, she hooks up with Garrus and lives happily ever after.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 07, 2012, 09:12:03 PM
Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]The Reapers are basically Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann[/spoiler]

... Eh, it's not like they could have been much else. I mean, the similarities were pretty much established in the first game, really.

Actually, [spoiler]as recently as when ME2 was written and developed, that was not their motivation.  Their motivation was in fact entirely different.  Specifically, and quoting, when ME2 was written, it was with the expectation that the plot twist of ME3 would be "that dark energy is destroying the universe (the "premature aging" of Haestrom in ME2 is because the compressive force of gravity is no longer balancing the explosive force of fusion), and the Reapers are trying to stop it. They absorb some races because - despite millions of years of computer-speed thinking on the outskirts of the galaxy - they still haven't figured out how, so they need fresh perspectives.  So the Reapers were secretly good guys trying to end the threat of dark energy by scattering dark energy based artifacts all over the galaxy for young races to find, reverse engineer, and use. In hopes that they find a species who can fix the problem they've spend 37+ million years thinking about."  So, yeah, could very much have been quite a bit else.[/spoiler]

Yeah but that's kind of stupid, honestly, and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And the theme isn't that different: [spoiler]the Reapers are still acting out of interest in the overall well-being of existence.[/spoiler]

Quote from: ME3 End Spoilers
[spoiler]Tali kills herself[/spoiler]

WHAT THE FUCK

[spoiler]She joins the Flotilla for a suicide attack on the Reapers and/or Geth.  But only if she is your waifu.  Otherwise, she hooks up with Garrus and lives happily ever after.[/spoiler]

... I have no words. I mean... Fuck. There goes the one reason I would ever want to play a male Shepard, I guess. [spoiler]Also what happens to Tali if you romance Garrus with your FemShep?[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 07, 2012, 09:26:18 PM
Yeah but that's kind of stupid, honestly, and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And the theme isn't that different: [spoiler]the Reapers are still acting out of interest in the overall well-being of existence.[/spoiler]

Yeah, but with it as it is, that's not the case.  In actual ME3, it's this (http://i.imgur.com/hzGyv.jpg).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 07, 2012, 10:18:58 PM
True, there are... [spoiler]holes in the Reaper's plan, but at least it actually makes sense: presumably the Spiral Synthetics would wipe out all organic life both advanced and primitive. The Reapers' plan to only destroy the sufficiently advanced civilizations and preserve their genetic information within themselves at least has some sort of logic behind it, even if it is a bit self-defeating.

The original motivation seems way more stupid; "Let's slaughter this less-advanced galactic civilization that had developed technologically according to the guidelines we laid down hundreds of thousands of years ago so that we can absorb all the information they possessed that we already knew so that we can figure out how to stop the universe from collapsing.

"... Even though it would make infinitely more sense to work with the galactic civilizations."[/spoiler]

Anyway, none of that is enough to get me riled. What does get me irate, though, is that none of the squad members introduced in ME2 are recruitable in ME3, but five of the possible returning characters were all from ME1 and none of them are Wrex.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 08, 2012, 01:15:12 AM
I'm enjoying this game so far. I wonder if, once I'm done, I'll ever come back and read all those spoilers you guys posted.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 08, 2012, 10:58:42 AM
Little does everyone know, the entire game hinges on getting that one trinket from Sha'ira the consort in Mass Effect 1. You know, the one that gives you that vision on that planet that nobody ever visits and you have to actually stumble across it while having the trinket. (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Eletania#The_Vision)

I actually wish I knew if that was in the save of my current Shepard. Fuck.

There's so many variables and carry overs between all three games that it is actually going to drive me nuts to learn about them all. I figure I need to just beat ME3 then read the wiki religiously.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 08, 2012, 04:19:55 PM
This is exactly the reason why I bothered 1) playing ME 1 again since having have played 2 ever 2) went to more than three planets while replaying it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 08, 2012, 08:10:32 PM
Little does everyone know, the entire game hinges on getting that one trinket from Sha'ira the consort in Mass Effect 1. You know, the one that gives you that vision on that planet that nobody ever visits and you have to actually stumble across it while having the trinket. (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Eletania#The_Vision)

I actually wish I knew if that was in the save of my current Shepard. Fuck.

There's so many variables and carry overs between all three games that it is actually going to drive me nuts to learn about them all. I figure I need to just beat ME3 then read the wiki religiously.

Can you go into more detail about this, as to how exactly it's a huge deal?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 08, 2012, 10:13:29 PM
(http://www.wizzlefits.com/wp-content/gallery/mass-effect-2/edi_2.jpg)

That was a joke.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 08, 2012, 10:21:51 PM
Well, since the data is carried over into your ME2 save, but not used anywhere in ME2, and kept in the data imported to ME3, it probably matters somewhere.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 08, 2012, 10:31:11 PM
Most likely. However keep in mind that this may be something that was put up on the white board for future extrapolation during ME3 when they were developing ME2 and the import system, but it might not have made the cut. I have a feeling there's a lot of that.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 08, 2012, 10:55:02 PM
It is true that they replaced the entire writing staff and changed the majority of the planned plot after ME2 was finished and when ME3 started.  That game was written expecting an entirely different part 3.  So maybe that's just a relic of the original plan.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 09, 2012, 06:41:07 AM
I beat this. Quite enjoyed it! it was definitely Bioware doing well what Bioware does best.

Regarding the endings: [spoiler]Talking the Illusive Man into suicide was not as awesome as when I did it to Saren. But it was still better than the Human Reaper Embryo.

The final choice seemed kind of... arbitrary. Kill all robots, or take control of the Reapers, or forcibly combine all life into a new form and blow up the Mass Relays, apparently. How the hell do those choices make any sense, or have anything to do with what led up to the decision? The part where all synthetic life is exterminated struck me as particularly dumb because some of my best friends are synthetic life, and synthesis struck me as not particularly different from what the Reapers were already doing.

Perhaps they rung hollow because they never really sold me on the basic theme of the setting, namely, that there's any damn difference at all between organic and synthetic life. I could only roll my eyes when this almighty transcendent life form that's so powerful that the writers didn't even deign to tell us what it is insisted that the fundamental question about which the galaxy spins is whether the electrons of consciousness are surrounded by metal things or squishy things.

Anyway, I chose to control the Reapers because that seemed like the least objectionable. Maybe I'd be able to tell them to kill some synthetic life, namely themselves, and then the galaxy could go about rebuilding itself, y'know? But all that seemed to happen as a result was that the Normandy crash-landed on some planet and then the credits rolled.[/spoiler] But then the game crashed to desktop during the end credits, so if there was anything after that then I'll have to go through it again. I wonder when my last save was.

I easily maxed out the war assets bar even though the readiness rating never stopped being 50%; I assume multiplayer had something to do with this. Would having it lower or higher have made a difference?

Well, despite any misgivings one might have about the destination, it was a hell of a journey. Characters and scenarios are always the high point of a Bioware game, rather than overarching plot, and this was no exception; I might be able to be more lucid about some specifics after I've had a chance to track down some answers.

Regarding the matter of [spoiler]the stock photo[/spoiler], I didn't see it at all. I mean, I know what it looks like, but it didn't appear in my game. Do you have to [spoiler]bone Tali[/spoiler] or something, or is it just an elaborate prank, or what?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 09, 2012, 10:33:16 AM
Yes, you have to make Tali your waifu.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 09, 2012, 09:33:16 PM
Ah. Well, call it one more reason not to, alongside the way that [spoiler]she hooks up with Garrus if you bone neither of them[/spoiler] at the end, which I thought was just fantastic.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Malikial on March 10, 2012, 04:28:12 AM
I dunno, I was kinda pissed about the galactic readiness thing for a while there then I actually tried multi-player and I have to say. It's not a bad co-op game and you get galactic readiness VERY fast if you win. I did about 3 hours of it and I maxed my readiness by just doing random matches with 'any' selected in all the options because that gives you the most xp/readiness. Only lost two matches and as long as you progress past the half-way point you still get some readiness. In Bronze you get 3-4% per win, silver you get 4-5 and gold you get 5-7. Note: this is on PC, don't know what the differences are on PS3/360. I dunno if anyone said this already, I didn't really look back in the thread, but all I'm saying is galactic readiness, not hard to max out.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 10, 2012, 05:09:18 AM
If you do a bunch of sidequests, you can get a total war resources on the order of 6000-7000. If you do no multiplayer, your readiness rating will be 50%, or over 3000, which is enough to max out the bar. 3000 is more than sufficient to unlock all the endings, but there are minor variations on some of them that become possible with about 4000 and 5000.

However, this doesn't matter, because the endings are all pretty much bullshit. I mean, I loved the game, but all of the endings are bad and it doesn't matter which one you pick.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Malikial on March 10, 2012, 05:29:47 AM
I just did the first Priority Citadel mission and I already have WELL over 3K War Resources so yeah, I figured you could get a veritable fuck ton. Granted, I have done every single side mission and talked to every npc/companion as much as I possibly can between every mission. [spoiler]Also, I guess paragon male in this game means gay. I am playing on a NO PREVIOUS ROMANCES save and so far I've been propositioned by both Kaidan and Cortez but none of the ladies.(Note: The only ladies that I think I can romance on my ship are Liara, Diana Allers and Samantha Traynor and I think Traynor prefers the more feminine.) PROBABLY JUST GONNA GO WITH KAIDAN.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 10, 2012, 10:28:00 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/Pvz3w.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 10, 2012, 10:49:23 AM
Oh man, someone did something they knew was questionable in an EA game and got a stupid ban?

The Critic Home Alone 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jdeT4bfst8#)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 10, 2012, 11:34:20 AM
And in this case, the questionable thing was "Playing an EA game."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on March 10, 2012, 11:46:58 AM
Soooo is there an enable-DLC patch out already, allowing me to append my standard "Pirates, as always, are unaffected" response?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 10, 2012, 11:53:52 AM
Of course.  They've been out since at least Monday.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 10, 2012, 12:17:16 PM
Soooo is there an enable-DLC patch out already, allowing me to append my standard "Pirates, as always, are unaffected" response?
Though this incident in particular had cheaters rather than pirates as the scapegoat.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on March 10, 2012, 09:42:57 PM
What happened to the guy who hosted the multiplayer match with modified files?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 10, 2012, 09:50:09 PM
And what happens to people who get millions of credits dumped on them and don't spend any?

hint: it's EA, so you can probably just assume the worst in all situations.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 11, 2012, 04:05:29 AM
Just finished. [spoiler]I went for the Synthesis ending. It's been the theme of my entire time with the series to make alliances and bring people together as much as possible, and I succeeded on every front. I wasn't about to kill the Geth and EDI after all the trouble I went through to make them people, and controlling the Reapers is just stupid. My only regret is that the only "Shepard Lives" option involves going for the destroy the reapers option. Also, I had the requisite war material, but I wasn't able to save Anderson, at least not that I noticed. Kind of salty that I didn't get to live happily ever after with Liara, but at least Joker and EDI can have a real thing now that they're basically the same form of life.

I've looked into the other endings, and I think I'm actually most satisfied with this one. It's still kind of a down RE: Shepard, given how much time I've put into "my Shepard", with a save that goes back to the first game, and I'm kind of disappointed that the post credits thing basically outright says that, without the mass relays, all the homeworlds and colonies are isolated without viable interstellar FTL, but at least I've changed everyone into some kind of post-organic biosynths, and it seems like everyone I care about evacs to the Normandy during the ending sequence, so the people I care about are together.

Kind of makes you wonder about Earth though. It's the home of, well, fucking everyone now. All the survivors have nowhere to go.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 11, 2012, 06:07:57 AM
So, as I enter my ME2 stage of "The Perfect Save Part Six: Save Harderer-erer-ering" what do people here noticing missing from this list of stuff that matters in ME2 for ME3?

Quote
The outcome of the Suicide Mission.

Accepting or rejecting reinstatement as a Spectre during Citadel: The Council.

Saving or destroying the genophage data during Mordin: Old Blood.

Preventing or allowing Tali's exile during Tali: Treason.

Convincing Kasumi to destory or keep the memories during Kasumi: Stolen Memory.

Rewriting or destroying the heretic geth collective during Legion: A House Divided.

Destroying or preserving the Collector Base during the Suicide Mission.

Ending or continuing the Overlord project.

Completing Lair of the Shadow Broker or not.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 11, 2012, 10:11:22 AM
Hey guys I'm finally playing ME3

[spoiler]did you know that the reapers invade earth!?[/spoiler] :slow:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 11, 2012, 12:58:12 PM
So, as I enter my ME2 stage of "The Perfect Save Part Six: Save Harderer-erer-ering" what do people here noticing missing from this list of stuff that matters in ME2 for ME3?

Quote
The outcome of the Suicide Mission.

Accepting or rejecting reinstatement as a Spectre during Citadel: The Council.

Saving or destroying the genophage data during Mordin: Old Blood.

Preventing or allowing Tali's exile during Tali: Treason.

Convincing Kasumi to destory or keep the memories during Kasumi: Stolen Memory.

Rewriting or destroying the heretic geth collective during Legion: A House Divided.

Destroying or preserving the Collector Base during the Suicide Mission.

Ending or continuing the Overlord project.

Completing Lair of the Shadow Broker or not.

I'm pretty sure all of those are at least acknowledged, but if you're saying that one of them isn't and we have to guess, it'd be [spoiler]accepting or rejecting Spectre reinstatement[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 11, 2012, 02:57:58 PM
I mean what else have you noticed helped. Like "oh man glad I did that" or "wish I had".
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 11, 2012, 03:20:20 PM
Oh. Every loyalty mission for characters who survive has some effect, though the most important one can be made up for by other means (in particular, you'll want to make sure that either [spoiler]Kirrahe[/spoiler] makes it out of ME1 or [spoiler]Thane[/spoiler] makes it out of ME2. There were two decisions at the end of Overlord, and both of them turn out important. The events of Arrival are referenced if you performed that mission. Your behavior when you encounter Conrad Verner matters for the resolution of that quest. Having a conversation with Matriarch Aethyta causes a follow-up to appear. Whether or not you had dinner with Kelly Chambers has an influence as well.

Your post covered all the major ones, though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on March 11, 2012, 04:15:27 PM
I had dinner with Kelly Chambers for the sole benefit of having someone feed my fish when I was out and about mission-ing.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 12, 2012, 11:40:26 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/e3fOL.png)

GETH INFILTRATOR

Ignore the facebook text.

This may be future DLC or just some of the shit that comes with the action figures? I can't tell.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 12, 2012, 02:45:43 PM
More like Krogan Battlemaster
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 15, 2012, 11:40:56 PM
So, as I enter my ME2 stage of "The Perfect Save Part Six: Save Harderer-erer-ering" what do people here noticing missing from this list of stuff that matters in ME2 for ME3?

Quote
The outcome of the Suicide Mission.

Accepting or rejecting reinstatement as a Spectre during Citadel: The Council.

Saving or destroying the genophage data during Mordin: Old Blood.

Preventing or allowing Tali's exile during Tali: Treason.

Convincing Kasumi to destory or keep the memories during Kasumi: Stolen Memory.

Rewriting or destroying the heretic geth collective during Legion: A House Divided.

Destroying or preserving the Collector Base during the Suicide Mission.

Ending or continuing the Overlord project.

Completing Lair of the Shadow Broker or not.

[spoiler]Ultimately, nothing fucking mattered anyway.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Fan outrage right now is so thick and heavy you could cut it with a knife and spread it on fucking toast. People are petitioning Bioware to patch in a new ending that isn't such a load of horseshit. It seems obvious that the developers were deeply in love with Human Revolution, as they fucking copied the ending exactly. The difference here is that Human Revolution was basically an interactive movie with very few actual moral decisions along the way, and Mass Effect was built around hundreds of choices having an effect on the plot. So having the 'go left, right or forward for a barely varied ending of your choice' ending was bullshit, and the ending does not make any fucking sense anyway.

On top of all of this

Now there's speculation that Bioware made the ending deliberately shitty (possibly because they ran out of time) so they could go back and release a good ending DLC and fucking charge for it. It wouldn't be the first time this happened, if anyone remembers Fallout 3.

I think it's safe to say it: Bioware is no longer a company that makes products worth purchasing.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on March 15, 2012, 11:42:22 PM
Penny Arcade's strip today (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/16) outlines the plans Bioware has for ending-repairing DLC.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 15, 2012, 11:47:35 PM
You know, there's a pretty fucking huge difference between giving fans a saccharine sweet pandering ending [spoiler]and giving fans the variable, choice-laden decision-affected ending they were fucking promised for the last five god damn years

I want to point out that Chrono Trigger had more variable endings based on player choice and it came out nearly twenty god damn years ago.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 15, 2012, 11:52:43 PM
BTW, for the record: I've never felt more justified in pirating a game in my fucking life.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Friday on March 16, 2012, 12:14:48 AM
Quote
I want to point out that Chrono Trigger had more variable endings based on player choice and it came out nearly twenty god damn years ago.

I agree that ME3 would be greatly improved if there was an ending where you died during the final battle, and it showed the Reapers slowly exterminating all life in the galaxy, then it zoomed out to show the Milky Way with lots of tiny explosions, and then it sort of fades to monochrome greyscale, and then fades in

BUT THE FUTURE REFUSED TO CHANGE

Also after beating ME3 you can start over in ME1 on new game + and immediately take a portal to the illusive man, shoot him, and then the credits fly by while sped up music plays

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 16, 2012, 12:22:17 AM
also it unlocks a developer room, which is just ray muzyka and jennifer hepler fucking on a giant pile of money. If you talk to Stanley Loo, he bans you from accessing origin content for 24 hours.


Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 16, 2012, 12:24:34 AM
Jennifer Hepler didn't even work on this game.

Don't let the existence of histrionic anti-fans distract from the point that they have, which is that the ending really was lousy by any objective metric. I think Ben Kuchera had the right idea when he said that it's a good sign that such a meltdown is possible (though not a good sign that it's happening): if a game can build up an emotional attachment so powerful that it goes nuclear when it's not released at the end, then it must be doing something right. Something other than delivering catharsis. It's like saying that Chernobyl is a good sign for the technology level of the power industry, because you could never get such a dramatic disaster from a primitive coal-fired plant.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 16, 2012, 12:40:21 AM
On the one hand I agree that the entire game up until the ending sort of IS the ending we were all hoping for. The problem is that that stops.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 16, 2012, 12:45:02 AM
I was more making the point that forces like Hepler are entirely why Bioware has turned into such a shitty company.

Quote
Don't let the existence of histrionic anti-fans distract from the point that they have, which is that the ending really was lousy by any objective metric

The real issue for me, beyond everything else, is how little sense everything makes. Nothing adds up. [spoiler]in the absolute best-case scenario, billions, possibly trillions of people die. There is no ending in which the Quarian and Turian forces around Earth survive, for example. Arrival established that mass relays extinguish all life in a system, because they go supernova when they blow - so how did anyone survive, save for Joker and the crew of the Normandy, who just happened to outrun the explosion and make it to a system without a mass relay? And what's the implication here, Joker and the crew populate an entire world and the post-credit followup was descendants of the Normandy. Except, there's not enough genetic diversity on the Normandy to repopulate a planet.

You have to suspend disbelief and swallow a lot of bullshit in Mass Effect already. (for example: how do the Asari not have a larger population than Humans despite having lifespans about 18x longer? WHY IS THERE MEDIGEL ON THE GETH DREADNOUGHT? FOR THAT MATTER, WHY DOES MEDIGEL HEAL EDI?) But that's all something that comes with playing a game. I mean, they're telling a space opera so you can't expect hard science fiction - however, that does not excuse an ending that basically ignores everything that happened before it for the sake of unsatisfying narrative. The ending simply has plot holes a mile wide that are absolutely impossible to ignore if you were paying attention. What the fuck, Bioware? How does this happen in a game series which pays so much fucking attention to detail?

I'm also pretty peeved that they basically just took Human Revolution's ending and slapped an RGB coat of paint on it. The ending was the shittiest part of Human Revolution by far, but at least it made contextual sense.[/spoiler]

Quote
On the one hand I agree that the entire game up until the ending sort of IS the ending we were all hoping for. The problem is that that stops.
The problem with that is the ending invalidates everything you did prior to that point. Shepard waking up on the Normandy 1 and Nihilus saying "Hey, Eden Prime just sent a message, apparently their comms went out!" and it turning out to have all been a dream wouldn't have been any less satisfying.

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 16, 2012, 12:54:46 AM
Except that everything before that was extremely satisfying. I don't choose to have the work I did and the results I achieved totally nullified by an unsatisfying ending that may or may not undo some or all of them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 16, 2012, 12:58:07 AM
For the record:

[spoiler] I don't think many people honestly had the expectation that the ending would be sunshine and puppydogs or that Shepard would even survive. I do, however, think that people had the expectation that every ending wouldn't be "(almost) everyone dies"[/spoiler]

Quote from: Bal
Except that everything before that was extremely satisfying. I don't choose to have the work I did and the results I achieved totally nullified by an unsatisfying ending that may or may not undo some or all of them.

So it's Gurren Lagann again?

I'm OK with recognizing the gameplay and story prior to the ending as meaningful and interesting and fun and good on it's own. I just don't feel it's right to end things in the shittiest, most half-assed way possible, [spoiler]and I can't re-iterate this enough: as a blatant copy of another cinematic game that came out in the last 12 months and won shitloads of awards. I can't help but feel that someone at EA saw Deus Ex's success, felt like ME3 needed to get out the door and just told the development team to copy it.[/spoiler]

Walking away from a game I otherwise really enjoyed and a series that I rank as one of the best overall videogaming experiences of my life feeling shitty because Bioware didn't think the ending experience was important is pretty fucking stupid. You can't please everyone, but Bioware couldn't have really thought people invested in the series would be OK with this. I'm sorry, but it's just really unacceptable to me.


edit: obvious spoilers: http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/ (http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on March 16, 2012, 01:28:01 AM
Personally, having gone with what we will ambiguously call the "Green" ending, I felt pretty good about how things seemed to turn out, I just wanted more in the way of epilogue. Having done so much for so many, I want to know what happened to at least some of them. However the ending itself, the result of choosing Green, was as result I liked in and of itself. I'm even willing to accept the push-button-receive-ending scenario, in the context of a [spoiler]totally ancient and inscrutable AI giving me no other options[/spoiler], I, again, just want more in the way of epilogue with regard to my last choice, and the choices that went before it.

Mass Effect has always kind of been a game of three choices. Hundreds per game. One more more set of three choices at the end is not the problem, the problem is that they don't tell you the results.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Zaratustra on March 16, 2012, 04:05:01 AM
You can repopulate a planet from a single couple, by the way, as long as you have relatively unlimited population capacity. If everyone has, say, ten kids, three or four are going to be reasonably healthy to keep going.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 16, 2012, 11:06:20 AM
Personally, having gone with what we will ambiguously call the "Green" ending, I felt pretty good about how things seemed to turn out, I just wanted more in the way of epilogue. Having done so much for so many, I want to know what happened to at least some of them. However the ending itself, the result of choosing Green, was as result I liked in and of itself. I'm even willing to accept the push-button-receive-ending scenario, in the context of a [spoiler]totally ancient and inscrutable AI giving me no other options[/spoiler], I, again, just want more in the way of epilogue with regard to my last choice, and the choices that went before it.

Mass Effect has always kind of been a game of three choices. Hundreds per game. One more more set of three choices at the end is not the problem, the problem is that they don't tell you the results.

They tell you enough of the results that I think my shepard would rather fight and die to the last man than take any of them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 17, 2012, 05:47:56 PM
Quote
I want to point out that Chrono Trigger had more variable endings based on player choice and it came out nearly twenty god damn years ago.

I agree that ME3 would be greatly improved if there was an ending where you died during the final battle, and it showed the Reapers slowly exterminating all life in the galaxy, then it zoomed out to show the Milky Way with lots of tiny explosions, and then it sort of fades to monochrome greyscale, and then fades in

BUT THE FUTURE REFUSED TO CHANGE

Also after beating ME3 you can start over in ME1 on new game + and immediately take a portal to the illusive man, shoot him, and then the credits fly by while sped up music plays

A good bad ending would go as follows in my mind:

 Without enough assets/GR, the invading forces are slaughtered. The last one to go of course is The Normandy, which explodes around Shepard. *cut to credits*
  Scene then changes to some humanoid but vaguely defined figures surrounding a box on a table. One activates it and a hologram of Shepard appears and tells them about The Reapers.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Büge on March 18, 2012, 12:38:30 PM
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/03/mass-effect-3-ending-petition/ (http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/03/mass-effect-3-ending-petition/)

OH COME ON
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on March 18, 2012, 03:25:05 PM
My biggest problem with the ending was not the choices they gave you but the fact that there was no epic battle scene. Somehow assembling a gigantic army of krogans turian asari geth and quarians, with even some salarians and some motherfucking volus and elkor and hanar and shit leads to a squad of three accompanying 2 fucking tanks.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 18, 2012, 03:26:31 PM
[spoiler]"I didn't want you to stand alone Shepard. That's why I became an Admrial. But I see you're not alone, you've got Liara now."[/spoiler]

I DIDN'T MAKE A SAVE TO FIX THIS.

[spoiler]FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKK[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 18, 2012, 04:04:55 PM
Ps: [spoiler]Bring EDI onto the Geth Dreadnought. She has a lot to say in response to.. Everything.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Joxam on March 18, 2012, 05:04:47 PM
If you aren't bringing her everywhere you're doing it wrong.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 18, 2012, 11:55:31 PM
Well, I feel I'm near beating the game but I feel I'm only half way through ME3. Maybe even the Mass Effect series really. Seeing as I'll have to beat it again with different choices, variables. I can see a lot of the variables but there's a lot of unknowns because of compound things going on. My War Readiness is goddamn perfection however. I've been building this shit for years and I am being rewarded properly.

Then again, I guess I could just read the wiki for hours. Days.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Stush on March 19, 2012, 08:10:31 AM
I just finished Mass Effect 3! After days of hearing how the ending is apparently the worst thing ever, It turns out that it actually isn't. It's not even really a bad ending, it's not on my Top 10 list, because it didn't make me cry like a little girl, but Hell, It was an enjoyable ending to a really enjoyable game. I really can't understand why it seems to be so universally hated!

9/10 would play again. Especially if I can keep my armour and guns for my next playthrough, but I bet it won't let me. >:(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 19, 2012, 08:12:44 AM
I wish NG+ would let me keep my Spaceships and fish as well as armor and guns.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on March 19, 2012, 11:11:53 AM
I just finished Mass Effect 3! After days of hearing how the ending is apparently the worst thing ever, It turns out that it actually isn't. It's not even really a bad ending, it's not on my Top 10 list, because it didn't make me cry like a little girl, but Hell, It was an enjoyable ending to a really enjoyable game. I really can't understand why it seems to be so universally hated!

9/10 would play again. Especially if I can keep my armour and guns for my next playthrough, but I bet it won't let me. >:(

Because after 5 years of being told everything you does matter, your choices mean jack shit for the palette-swapped endings.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 19, 2012, 12:01:37 PM
People got rightfully pissed off when Human Revolution did the same thing and it was a prequel that had to arrive at a particular world state. It's way worse in the ME series.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 19, 2012, 12:09:32 PM
If you aren't bringing her everywhere you're doing it wrong.

Engineer Shepard + EDI + Tali was the most ridiculous combo in the game. You don't really need medigel when you have 6 drone/decoy/sentries sapping up hits for you, sabotage is retardedly overpowered in ME3, Energy Drain was improved to be better than overload and incinerate/cryo combo kills everything.

BTW: if anyone feels like starting a new character, Engineer is incredibly fun in ME1 and ME3. It was kind of a chore in 2, though
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 19, 2012, 12:12:43 PM
People got rightfully pissed off when Human Revolution did the same thing and it was a prequel that had to arrive at a particular world state. It's way worse in the ME series.

HR's ending also made sense. The biggest nagging question it asked was, 'what happens when the ocean displaces all that water from the facility blowing up?' as opposed to ME, which asks the question of [spoiler]how long until these species turn to cannibalism to make up for not having any edible food within ten years worth of travel time?[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 19, 2012, 12:20:52 PM
I just finished Mass Effect 3! After days of hearing how the ending is apparently the worst thing ever, It turns out that it actually isn't. It's not even really a bad ending, it's not on my Top 10 list, because it didn't make me cry like a little girl, but Hell, It was an enjoyable ending to a really enjoyable game. I really can't understand why it seems to be so universally hated!

9/10 would play again. Especially if I can keep my armour and guns for my next playthrough, but I bet it won't let me. >:(

While it exists in the context of an argument that the entire ending sequence is [spoiler]a hallucination to mask the fact that Shepard is being indoctrinated[/spoiler], which I feel is giving the incompetent writers far too much credit, here is a very long and comprehensive article about why literally everything about the entire end sequence makes absolutely no sense (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Pacobird on March 19, 2012, 02:50:59 PM
While it exists in the context of an argument that the entire ending sequence is [spoiler]a hallucination to mask the fact that Shepard is being indoctrinated[/spoiler], which I feel is giving the incompetent writers far too much credit,

Yes, that WOULD actually be an interesting "ending", but it would underscore the main problem with making True Endings via DLC: while this is a clever reading of the ending and if tricking players with a false flag ending to be resolved via a DLC ending with [spoiler]the fight to rescue Shepard[/spoiler], we'll never know, because fan apologists came up with this idea on their own and thus committing to this interpretation makes Bioware look beyond desperate.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 19, 2012, 06:18:48 PM
Amazon offering a full refund on already-opened copied of ME3 (http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/playstation-3-news/amazon-offering-a-full-refund-on-already-opened-copies-of-mass-effect-3/).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 19, 2012, 08:05:14 PM
Holy fuck. I need the looping .wmv of that loading screen: [spoiler]the ships flying by the mass relay that's just spinning before the crucible arrives.[/spoiler] I use Dreamscape so I imagine it would be great.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 19, 2012, 08:37:14 PM
Well. I can see why some would say it was awful and a part of me can agree but I feel what happened was.. adequate.

Edit: Okay, it's had time to soak in and here's my issue with it. It isn't the actual ending part of it. The choices I can.. swallow. But the actual path to getting there is the problem. [spoiler]From the part on of Shepard being hit by the beam onward it just gets weird. Between that and the ending is where my problem is. The actual choices felt fitting all things considered.[/spoiler]

here is a very long and comprehensive article about why literally everything about the entire end sequence makes absolutely no sense (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QT4IUepvrU1pfv_B95oQj0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true).

I got a few pages in before this started reading like a group of people in serious denial. I understand what they want. They want to believe that the way it ended wasn't true. And they're giving Bioware too much credit. I see this as possible, but not plausible.

In any case, here's what I think of your theories: [spoiler]Shepard never left the Geth Consensus. [/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 19, 2012, 10:17:36 PM
I got a few pages in before this started reading like a group of people in serious denial. I understand what they want. They want to believe that the way it ended wasn't true. And they're giving Bioware too much credit. I see this as possible, but not plausible.

Well, yeah.  That was my take - while this theory that the entire ending is a prolonged metaphor for [spoiler]Indoctrination[/spoiler] is an interesting one, and definitely allows for much more storytelling room for post-ending DLC and whatnot, there's no way that's what they had in mind.  They're just not that competent.

That said, were I the lead writers at Bioware, I'd fucking run with this theory.  Be all "Oh, darn, you figured us out, well shucks we wanted that to be a surprise" and start working on post-ending DLC to [spoiler]Broken Steel the Destroy choice, since the others represent giving in to indoctrination[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 19, 2012, 10:45:12 PM
A 'Save Shepard' DLC? Pick a team and head into the rubble. Low assets mean Shepard's corpse is recovered for a fuck-huge funeral, and high means a beach house, royalties, and little blue babies.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Büge on March 20, 2012, 03:35:44 PM
I just finished Mass Effect 3! After days of hearing how the ending is apparently the worst thing ever, It turns out that it actually isn't. It's not even really a bad ending, it's not on my Top 10 list, because it didn't make me cry like a little girl, but Hell, It was an enjoyable ending to a really enjoyable game. I really can't understand why it seems to be so universally hated!

Imagine the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Okay, remember that scene in Return of the King when Frodo and Sam were stuck on that rock after Mount Doom erupts?

Now imagine the camera panning out from that shot to reveal that it's been on a computer monitor. A man in a business suit, played by Alec Baldwin, leans in to look at the monitor, then glances offscreen. He says, "can we run the simulation again?" and it cuts to black.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 20, 2012, 03:55:48 PM
Oh so it's the ending of Enterprise.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 20, 2012, 04:06:32 PM
Re: Ending:

[spoiler]I would like to add that Martin Sheen put on one hell of a performance for that. Body language in perfect synch with voice, facial expressions, etc. That's one point where I'm glad they hired a great actor and used his face.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 20, 2012, 04:07:53 PM
Worse.  At least the rest of Enterprise was implied to be relevant.  Literally no choices you make at any point in the entire series affect the ending, except for whether you have enough total Assets/Readiness for [spoiler]Shepard to survive if you pick the one ending where it's possible for shim to survive.[/spoiler]  And the endings are 99% the same no matter which of the three choices you pick, and all three come out of absolutely nowhere and are nonsense.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 20, 2012, 04:28:38 PM
As soon as I saw the ending, I knew that it would be better if I just imagined my own ending. I'm imagining it right now, in fact. Oh wow this is so cool.

Perhaps doing this is what has enabled me to feel like it's about time to go through Mass Effect 1 again.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on March 24, 2012, 04:15:39 AM
so i just started this so obviously i have not read the last like ten pages of spoilers about the ending but

i am pretty furious at the beginning already!

citadel spoilers i guess [spoiler]why the fuck is there an alien council with udina on it when i instated a human council with anderson.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 24, 2012, 04:24:48 AM
Yeah, there seem to be a bunch of cop-out shits like that, which hit way harder than just an Email.

Right now I think the biggest happy surprise for me is the scanning and gathering. Yeah it's still pretty boring and lame, but at least each item you get has use now outside of "OMG RESOURCE FARMING" or ME1's "nothing" so that's a steady improvement. It's also retardedly easy which is nice.

Plus, the first time I over scanned an area it felt like I was trying to get to the Zoq-Fot-Pik all over again.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 24, 2012, 06:04:19 AM
Somebody at Forbes is now pointing out (http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-gears-of-war-3-and-why-reviewers-fail/) Mass Effect 3's universally flawless reviews and the rabid defense of Bioware by games journalists as the sterling example of how games journalism is schilling for the industry.

Instead of making a reasoned response or simply ignoring an underread section of a publication outside their industry, games journalists are publically flipping their shit. (http://i.imgur.com/INiVl.png)

The best part about this is where Jim Sterling implies they give big name titles 8s, 9s and 10s because of fan backlash, and not because of the huge piles of money they're getting from advertising.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 24, 2012, 05:37:53 PM
Anderson resigned. A lot of stuff like that is in the codex instead of a scene, probably to save money.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on March 24, 2012, 06:07:17 PM
Yeah, I'm aware of the lore reasons, it's more the lack-of-choice slap in the face that gets to me on account of the status quo being literally the opposite of the choices I made.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 24, 2012, 07:07:53 PM
Udina being the councilor and the citadel council consisting of aliens regardless of your choices in previous mass effect games is another example of how little Bioware cared about incorporating player choice into the final installment of the series. These were huge choices and the fact that they didn't have legitimate far-reaching implications is insulting to an extreme. You don't even get a real boost to your war readiness, since the point value of the Destiny Ascension is just composed of the point values of the three alliance fleets that are cut in effectiveness by 30% if you saved the fucking council!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on March 25, 2012, 04:20:48 AM
You guys need a better example because "We're going to let a council of all humans rule Asari and Turian and Salarian interests because Shepard is so handsome/kawaii uguu" was the worst written decision in ME1, even for LOLRenegades like myself.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 25, 2012, 04:33:46 AM
Well too bad, that's the best example. Almost all the other I know I've encountered are either just small changes in dialogue (Yeah I deleted the data, Shep, but kept it anyway because fuck you) or different numbers next to the war scores (you have Cerberus' best engineers now! No wait I mean the one mentally challenged colonist you saved from them, but they were equally skilled anyway).

The Council was basically "the" decision from ME1. Yeah the idea that it would actually last was stupid and it was obviously asking for more than any game company could deliver to expect that actual schism required for the two different outcomes at the end of the Trilogy. Still though just completely changing a major plot point with no player input in a series whose main call is that you control those events is totally lame and you know it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on March 25, 2012, 04:48:08 AM
Well ignoring it is terrible(but that's not my point, I knew all my decisions didn't matter the second I played ME2), but I can't see The Council as "the" decision because not saving them is so blatantly wrong. "You newbie humans have shown us that your rash decision making and zest for action overrides all the virtues of our three much older civilizations entirely. Please put all humans on the Council because we don't have any other worthy members of our entire species' to nominate."

"The" Decision of ME1 probably should have been the Rachni. What happened to them? They were sort of the cause of a colossal galactic war that led to raising the Krogan to space-faring status which led to the whole Genophage thing.

Basically I am savaging ME1's writing at this time, not ME3's.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 25, 2012, 05:32:16 AM
See, I had always seen the fully human council as less of a "humanity is so great let's let them rule us" and more of a "step forward if you still have a fully functional military and aren't afraid to use this chance to flex it". Not arguing the writing, though.

Mass Effect 2 had a lot of stuff that didn't impact as much as you would like or may not even have shown up at all, but 3 is the first to disregard a major decision. That's where my personal butthurt comes in, and it's not even a decision I made.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on March 25, 2012, 10:48:22 AM
"The" Decision of ME1 probably should have been the Rachni. What happened to them? They were sort of the cause of a colossal galactic war that led to raising the Krogan to space-faring status which led to the whole Genophage thing.

Basically I am savaging ME1's writing at this time, not ME3's.

You're right!  Fortunately, ME3 fucks that up too.  [spoiler]If you saved the Rachni Queen, then you find her being indoctrinated in ME3 and have to choose whether or not to save her again.  If you didn't save her, you find ... a different Rachni Queen in the same situation.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 25, 2012, 10:53:28 AM
"The" Decision of ME1 probably should have been the Rachni. What happened to them? They were sort of the cause of a colossal galactic war that led to raising the Krogan to space-faring status which led to the whole Genophage thing.

Basically I am savaging ME1's writing at this time, not ME3's.

You're right!  Fortunately, ME3 fucks that up too.  [spoiler]If you saved the Rachni Queen, then you find her being indoctrinated in ME3 and have to choose whether or not to save her again.  If you didn't save her, you find ... a different Rachni Queen in the same situation.[/spoiler]

I'd wondered what happened there. Nice, Bioware. Nice.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Disposable Ninja on March 25, 2012, 11:11:41 AM
I haven't played ME3 yet, but my favorite one I've heard about is the "The" Decision from ME2: it has a minor effect on your war readiness and a bit of dialog.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 25, 2012, 11:46:40 AM
"The" Decision of ME1 probably should have been the Rachni. What happened to them? They were sort of the cause of a colossal galactic war that led to raising the Krogan to space-faring status which led to the whole Genophage thing.

Basically I am savaging ME1's writing at this time, not ME3's.

You're right!  Fortunately, ME3 fucks that up too.  [spoiler]If you saved the Rachni Queen, then you find her being indoctrinated in ME3 and have to choose whether or not to save her again.  If you didn't save her, you find ... a different Rachni Queen in the same situation.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]That's a fake queen that Reapers stitched together Frankenstein-style. It begs for the release of death. If you choose to spare it, its children go crazy and it counts as negative war assets.[/spoiler] So it's not that identical.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on March 25, 2012, 12:11:08 PM
To be fair, I was also kind of annoyed in ME2 when a colonist from plant-town was gushing her sincere thanks for the way i saved their entire colony

by which she means i'm sure

COLONISTS SURVIVING: 0
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 25, 2012, 12:24:55 PM
I haven't played ME3 yet, but my favorite one I've heard about is the "The" Decision from ME2: it has a minor effect on your war readiness and a bit of dialog.

You get 125 or 150 points of war readiness so it's a pretty substantial boost, but I was expecting [spoiler]a mission where you retake it or something[/spoiler] rather than the garbage we got.

I suspect there will probably be [spoiler]an Omega DLC[/spoiler] that covers it eventually, but that's just part of the fucking problem. It should have been in the game from the get-go. EA is proving everything I was saying about DLC two years ago 100% correct.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 25, 2012, 01:21:21 PM
See, I get player choice and all, I just don't see Shepard as some huge magical puppetmaster who can prevent Anderson from rejoining the military when shit really goes bad, or cow the Asari, Turians, and Salarians into accepting 4 years of purely human leadership. Frankly, I'm much more annoyed by the KL fight or Shepard falling from everything in the galaxy.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 25, 2012, 09:04:38 PM
So the endings [spoiler]are really good. Not great or amazing or anything, but good.[/spoiler]

I can tell people why they're wrong when it's not one in the morning if they'd like.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 25, 2012, 09:39:17 PM
Which one did you pick? Did you go back and view another one? You can reload from immediately before the ending sequence if you pick "restart mission" post-game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 25, 2012, 10:33:34 PM
The basic idea for the endings are good, but that there's not enough choices and you get no actual resolution or information about the characters you've spent a hundred hours with.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 26, 2012, 03:18:51 AM
My ending was I guess what would be called the pragmatic one. I did go back and watch them all. Most importantly I feel like [spoiler]even though the kid being the Catalyst was basically the worst symbolism ever[/spoiler] I feel like they presented all your options well enough that I knew what the 'right' choice was for me.

[spoiler] Once the Citadel had been reclaimed by the Reapers it was clearly past the point of hopefuls for everything just going back to being fine again. The puree of flesh in the tunnels did a good job of highlighting the fact that no matter the good ending none of them would be the standard happy ending. The first game made obvious that when the Reapers came the galaxy would be anything but fine even if we survived.[/spoiler]

Rico is right though, which is why they're only good. I understand only one of these things is actually supposed to happen so they can be similar, [spoiler]but the only things that change in the cinematic are which direction you walk and what color the energy is, which is in fact quite lame.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 26, 2012, 10:57:55 AM
See, I read that and don't hear "good ending" anywhere.

To go more in-depth about lack of resolution, the bigger problem is that the endings don't make sense within themselves and the context of what you've accomplished in the games. [spoiler]Nevermind that you stopped the Quarian/Geth war and the Reapers don't have any actual malice towards civilization other than that their leader is a nutjob who thinks war is inevitable between organics and synthetics, you have no persuade option to get him to just call off the Reapers without using the Crucible.

You have no option to just straight up fight without using the Crucible.

There is absolutely no reasoning as to why synthetic-organic combined life would provide some magic golden age of peace.

There is no reasoning as to why using the Crucible to destroy the Reapers would destroy the Geth, nor any reasoning as to why this is all doomed to repeat 50,000 years from now. If you select that ending there is absolutely no reference to this consequence.

Etc. etc..[/spoiler]

They're just bad without even getting into why you don't get any closure about your immediate actions (because EA mandated leaving it open for DLC, likely, but still a huge copout that could've been worked around)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 26, 2012, 03:49:11 PM
Okay to respond directly to those points in as much an order I can keep.

[spoiler]Their leader is maybe an AI but seemed to respond more like a VI who was certainly at least designed by super advanced synthetics long enough ago to see the cycle enough times for the zetafuck of beings reaped before the current one who was very set in its programmed parameters.

I guess you like MGS storytelling maybe but I rather assume he knows his shit based off that than get an hour of exposition on why the war is inevitable and why he wouldn't take any of Shepard's shit. As for killing the reapers without it? Even if they didn't have a pretty good resource of examples as to why that's a fuck all terrible idea, by the time you could make the decision everything was on the line, there was no regrouping from that fight.

As for the final evolution guaranteeing peace? It doesn't. It just means it would be impossible for organics or synthetics to be wiped out since everyone is both.

Again for destroying all synthetic life I'm sticking with "I believe that's the only way it can work". A lame excuse, but since your complaint is "I don't believe that's the only way it would work", well, fuck you if you try to call me on it.[/spoiler]

That all said, the endings really could be a lot better without changing the themes drastically.
[spoiler] just don't destroy the relay with the blue pulse. Now people aren't trying to awkwardly fit "good" and "bad" labels but you have exactly what they're called in game

Break the Cycle - destroy all reapers and everything based on their technology (everything). Hope that shit never happens again, and if you're bad ass enough, even go home to fuck your girlfriend again. Well, someone else's girlfriend. Yours is now stuck on a deserted planet in a universe without faster than light travel.

Control the Cycle - Civilization gets to continue down the path it has been, everyone you know and love is still alive and mostly happy. The galaxy can start to rebuild and move on since you saved it from the biggest threat to ever face it, and now control that ultimate force. Civilization gets to continue down the path it has been, everyone you know and love is still alive and mostly happy. Whatever space may try to throw at life, organic or synthetic, you'll be their to stop it. You are ten thousand Godzillas.

Fuck That I'm Shepard - You inspire people so powerfully through charm or raw intimidation that nothing can stop you. By destroying everything that ever is, was, or has been Shepard, you're able to alter the genetics of all known life so it does what the fuck you say for the rest of eternity.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on March 26, 2012, 03:55:11 PM
So in other words, you like the ending so much that you're already making up a better one?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 26, 2012, 03:58:35 PM
I loved my ending. If they changed that other one slightly all three would benefit from it. So I guess that is what I am saying, yes?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 26, 2012, 08:36:49 PM
Commander Shepard, age 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the incident. He is now serving a life sentence.

This is my canon ending.

Edit: [spoiler]JOKE'S ON YOU GARRUS I TOOK YOU DOWN WITH ME. Honestly I saved you from whatever the fuck happened when I pressed one of the three ending buttons.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 26, 2012, 08:43:25 PM
By the way did anyone else think that [spoiler]the fact that Bioware thought the Deus Ex endings were great and added them into ME3[/spoiler] was pretty hilarious?

That is all I can think about right now.

[spoiler]There needed to be an ending where you could take your space hamster into the bathroom, shove it into a toilet, and get a secret nightclub ending.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 26, 2012, 10:13:20 PM
That's exactly what I said when I finished the game. The 'homage' is so blatant that it ceases to be cribbing and starts to be ripping off.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 27, 2012, 01:36:36 AM
Why am I seriously listening to a thing that controls things that turn people into slurpees while raping their minds and giving them toxic equipment? Liara's mother goes on about how 'Do you know what it is like to be a prisoner in your own mind while something else uses your body to murder loved ones?" Collecter weapons are designed to bleed radiation that hurts the user. Fuck you Tiny Space Hitler!
 I don't know what the DLC will be about, but will hold off until I get some reviews and if we still get teleporting crew members, Buzz Aldrin and pick your hue endings I won't fel bad about dropping any remaining content.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 27, 2012, 11:04:50 AM
Quote
I'm sticking with "I believe that's the only way it can work". A lame excuse, but since your complaint is "I don't believe that's the only way it would work", well, fuck you if you try to call me on it.
I'm not calling you on it, I'm calling Bioware on it. One of the main reasons deus ex machina are frequently criticized by consumers and critics alike is that they frequently don't pay attention to the context and internal logic of the story. If you're going to use a deus ex (or a double deus ex, as the case may be), it's not my responsibility as a consumer to to scramble to justify it when it's shittily written. Nor does it even require an hour's worth of dialogue to reason it all out (although it has it already!). Hell, it didn't even have to be a deus ex; tack thirty seconds of scientist dialogue at the end of every Hackett check-in after you've sent scientists over or gotten a new race about how we're learning more about what the Crucible's capabilities are and you've fixed it right there.

And speaking of my responsibility as a consumer, plenty of people have stated why the endings, the presentation of the endings, et cetera are bad. I'm still waiting for why they're "really good" and why everyone else is not only wrong but "stupid."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 27, 2012, 11:12:25 AM
Re: The Human Revolution

I had this guess before, but after having played the game a couple of times I'm pretty sure the whole thing was the dev team coming out of a meeting with EA going "Oh fuck oh fuck they want us to finish tomorrow and we have $5 left in the budget oh fuck." It's sad, but publisher control is an inevitable consequence of the incredibly-rising production cost of games from the graphics arms race.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ted Belmont on March 27, 2012, 11:35:50 AM
Or maybe Bioware just got lazy/greedy
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on March 27, 2012, 11:53:37 AM
I'm sticking to the theory that their veteran, "BioWare Flavor" talent was busy trying to craft 8 campaigns for TOR.

But BioWare does have some lore-consistency problems.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 27, 2012, 12:32:42 PM
Ending spoiler that I am not sure has been posted here yet or not: [spoiler]The Buzz Aldrin thing at the end was inspired by letter written by a 12 year old.[/spoiler]

Also spoiler for the midway point of the game: http://i.imgur.com/oxfno.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/oxfno.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 27, 2012, 12:36:14 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/KmK6q.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 27, 2012, 12:51:37 PM
Holy crap so apparently the dude who replaces Mordin if he died in ME2 is amazing.

Padok Wiks (slight ME3 spoilers) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_AqcRHVQ7U#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 27, 2012, 12:57:55 PM
Edit: Fuck it there are too many to put in one post. Javik is awesome. (http://skoolmunkee.tumblr.com)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 27, 2012, 01:15:55 PM
He's got his pattern of speech down. Every word fits perfectly in his voice.

[spoiler]Wait a minute. Holy shit, why does Javik never talk about the Thorian, now that I think about it?[/spoiler]

Oh, and one of my favorite plot holes so far:
[spoiler]Why didn't they just use the conduit on Virmire to get onto the citadel? I guess they could explain that away, though. The citadel moved, it wasn't a reaper relay that could account for being moved like the Mu Relay.. etc.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 27, 2012, 03:27:32 PM
[spoiler]Virmire[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Ilos? The easy explain away is that it moved, yeah. Though it's been more than tested at points I don't think they've ever outright broken the "relays need direct line of sight" rule.[/spoiler]

Hell, it didn't even have to be a deus ex; tack thirty seconds of scientist dialogue at the end of every Hackett check-in after you've sent scientists over or gotten a new race about how we're learning more about what the Crucible's capabilities are and you've fixed it right there.
pretty bad idea you've got there, bro. [spoiler]No one had any idea what that shit did when they hooked it up. Hell, you found out on the way over to Earth what the power source was, and seemed to plug the thing in the first place it looked like it might fit. I'm not about to say that was the smartest plan for everyone to hinge the universe on, but the scientist thing would just add a dozen new problems.[spoiler]

I'm still waiting for why they're "really good" and why everyone else is not only wrong but "stupid."
I'm trying to do my part with the "wrong", but I never promised anything about stupid (which is weird since you bothered to put it in quotes), you can do that if you'd like.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on March 27, 2012, 04:11:32 PM
Hello. Siince I turn 30 in two days i figure there's bbetter than even odds that i'll be getting a computer that doesn't spend 30 seconds choking every time it tries to render mongrel's avatar/sig ccombo, so I think it's safe to end my exile. this post brought to you by the awesome power of the samsung galaxy and At&t.

"War assets" are simultaneously "an elegant solution to a complex problem" and complete bullshit. bioware had an impossible problem at the end of ME2. Player choices needed to be respected and have sroryline signidicance, but no choice from a previous game cojld lock a player out of experiencing any given ME3 gameplay scenario, or take up disproportionate development assets. the ending, the state of the counccil, and Udina vs anderson demonstrates that ME3 wound up being far more ambitious thhan thhey could handle--which is fine, really. i pretty much gave up on bioware's ability to make choices matter after seeing Ashley and kaiden use the same fucking dialog in ME2... despite the fact that both characters needed to be recorded. So, yes, the ending and implementation of the story basically sucked, but it doesn't change the fact that i enjoyed the game, and it certainly doesn't tarnish my appreciation for the second game's suicide mission, even though everything else about that game's main storyline was basically awful.

(doom i am catching up on the ithyan reaches and hope to be able to resume soon)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 27, 2012, 05:33:05 PM
I'm sticking to the theory that their veteran, "BioWare Flavor" talent was busy trying to craft 8 campaigns for TOR.

But BioWare does have some lore-consistency problems.

They've gotta have those premium campaigns ready for when TOR goes free to play.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 27, 2012, 05:49:58 PM
[spoiler]Virmire[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Ilos? The easy explain away is that it moved, yeah. Though it's been more than tested at points I don't think they've ever outright broken the "relays need direct line of sight" rule.[/spoiler]

Hell, it didn't even have to be a deus ex; tack thirty seconds of scientist dialogue at the end of every Hackett check-in after you've sent scientists over or gotten a new race about how we're learning more about what the Crucible's capabilities are and you've fixed it right there.
pretty bad idea you've got there, bro. [spoiler]No one had any idea what that shit did when they hooked it up. Hell, you found out on the way over to Earth what the power source was, and seemed to plug the thing in the first place it looked like it might fit. I'm not about to say that was the smartest plan for everyone to hinge the universe on, but the scientist thing would just add a dozen new problems.[spoiler]

I'm still waiting for why they're "really good" and why everyone else is not only wrong but "stupid."
I'm trying to do my part with the "wrong", but I never promised anything about stupid (which is weird since you bothered to put it in quotes), you can do that if you'd like.

Honestly, between this and the ToR thread I think you're starting to drink the biodrone kool aid a little too much.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 27, 2012, 06:33:57 PM
Yeah, mentioning items from Mass Effect's story and saying TOR has fun game play is the same as sacrificing babies in some cultures.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on March 28, 2012, 06:12:59 AM
it's more the refusal to acknowledge legitimate criticism of either Bioware product, and to go to great leaps of logic to refute that criticism
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 28, 2012, 07:34:13 AM
Well as soon as I'm done not acknowledging and also... acknowledging but in a bad way, I'll be sure to keep my eyes out for legitimate criticisms from you, Shinra. There has to be one some day.

[spoiler]Pretty sure I've been open about the fact that even though I think each individual ending and the ending as a whole are good, the complete lack of differences between the three is a problem. If you look up you can even acknowledge where I suggested a small fix.[/spoiler] Kind of trying to avoid just talking about if we all just like it though, because that wont get anywhere anytime for anyone. What I have been doing is taking specific references and giving examples from the game as to why I disagree.

I'm sorry, I mean "going to great leaps to refute".
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 28, 2012, 08:06:57 AM
[spoiler]Beat Bandit is a Biodrone[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 28, 2012, 08:17:38 AM
[spoiler]YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, WE CAN CONTROL ORIGIN[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on March 28, 2012, 09:16:50 AM
Guys guys I figured it all out.

[spoiler]The synthesis ending leads into Beast Machines. It's cool because the krogan can be like, dinosaurs that turn into tanks, and Joker's hat can turn into an airplane.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Büge on March 28, 2012, 10:06:44 AM
[spoiler]But Beast Machines was a terrible show.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on March 28, 2012, 10:12:46 AM
I'm still waiting for why they're "really good" and why everyone else is not only wrong but "stupid."
I'm trying to do my part with the "wrong", but I never promised anything about stupid (which is weird since you bothered to put it in quotes), you can do that if you'd like.
That's my fault, yes, too many Mass Effect discussions at once.
pretty bad idea you've got there, bro. [spoiler]No one had any idea what that shit did when they hooked it up. Hell, you found out on the way over to Earth what the power source was, and seemed to plug the thing in the first place it looked like it might fit. I'm not about to say that was the smartest plan for everyone to hinge the universe on, but the scientist thing would just add a dozen new problems.[/spoiler]
Yes, the point is that—as the game currently stands—no one had any idea. This is one of the major things that not only shoehorns the game into requiring the deus ex ending but limits its options and time to explain it. In lieu of dumping another hour into the ending spreading it out over the course of the game makes sense in a number of ways. It only makes sense that, even though it's advanced technology, over the course of the best scientists in the galaxy assembling the Crucible they would discover at least anything about what it might do or how. Or they could just add more dialogue as a voiceover during the hour Shepard limps very slowly towards freedom and the ending would stay the same time length!

Again, the main point is that a deus ex machina ending is usually bad and this one is bad for exactly textbook reasons, and further that this could have been largely fixed with a fairly low amount of effort.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on March 28, 2012, 11:36:28 AM
Okay, this is definitely entering the semantics danger space. I totally agree that the idea behind [spoiler]this crazy magical space device being the only hope for the galaxy even though we don't know why is dumb.[/spoiler] I'm willing to let it go because the story of the first game was you were the only person who believed the evil alien overlords that want to wipe out all life (again) basically solely because of a weird dream and the guy actively trying to make you look disreputable admits it to you. I mean obviously it worked out but clearly gathering all the details isn't a big requirement of Shepard's.

Deus Ex Machina though? I don't think so. I mean it certainly fits a literal definition, but I wouldn't hold it to the cop-out connotation of the term that you seem to be. I mean, the entire game you have to [spoiler]finish the crucible, find the catalyst, beat the reapers. When you learn the catalyst is the citadel and the reapers move it the plan gets fleshed out a bit more. New plan: Shepard opens the citadel, the crucible gets hooked up and Shepard activates it. All of that happens. Nothing comes along and changes everything, we're simply given a bit of the what and how (which we agree there could be more of still) and then go about our business.[/spoiler]

Completely seriously I'm curious if this ending would be more or less Deus Ex-y to people
[spoiler] You get the catalyst from Cerberus, it resembles a simple Prothean orb. Returning to the crucible everything is hooked up and Shepard tries to use it, having another vision shot into his head as the Prothean beacons and cipher had. It becomes clear that destroying the Reapers wasn't the original intention of the device, and that you could instead control them. Also, if you were able to gather X amount of war assets, the crucible's design was so perfect it unlocked the potential to merge all organic and synthetic life. All ending cinematics remain the same.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 28, 2012, 07:02:59 PM
[spoiler] Also show the reason why Joker is flying away. It would take a direct order from Shepard to make him leave the fight.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on March 29, 2012, 12:54:40 PM
Can't confirm yet, but Bioware apparently sent away the cupcakes before the devs saw them. :popcorn:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on March 29, 2012, 01:00:27 PM
The surprise was ruined by the internet.  ::(:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Lottel on April 01, 2012, 08:45:26 AM
Mass Effect Cartoon - Debut Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOqHUa2LfNY#ws)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Defenestration on April 01, 2012, 08:50:19 AM
Harry Partridge is pretty much the best.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Misha on April 01, 2012, 10:27:47 AM
I would pay money for DLC that makes the true ending rocking the reapers to destruction
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 05:46:50 AM
Bioware Announces Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut (http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=662095)

They'll be showing us their attempt at fixing the ending this summer. It will be free. They keep using words like "clarify" and "maintaining artistic vision" which makes me worry that it's just going to be [spoiler]the starchild dropping some technobabble about how Joker's hat can possibly be alive[/spoiler], but the fact that they're not going to try to charge for it makes it already better than I dared hope.

Realistically, they're just trying to not commit to anything at all until the release. And anyway, there's to be a Bioware panel at PAX East tomorrow, so maybe some new developments then.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 06:17:03 AM
I'm honestly really, really hoping that it's just a half hour of someone giving exposition Q and A style as Shepard outright reads forum posts at them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 06:26:32 AM
Neither Shepard VA has been hired to read more lines for it yet, but recording would obviously happen pretty late in the process, so there's plenty of time between now and summer for your dream to come true.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 06:48:33 AM
But it's actually not going to change anything. They're just making the shit longer with closure. I can't wait to see the horrible fucking handwaving at [spoiler]destroying the relays. That's probably the worst part.[spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]. They haven't even contacted Jennifer Hale. (http://www.edge-online.com/news/jennifer-hale-weighs-mass-effect-3-ending)

Ps, here's something neat: http://shannon.users.sonic.net/masseffect/ (http://shannon.users.sonic.net/masseffect/)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 09:04:06 AM
Unfortunately, evidence is mounting (http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/05/mass-effect-3-extended-cut/) that they're not going to remove the part that's stupid, only pile words and FMVs onto it. Still, they've got enough time and enough writers who aren't complete hacks that they might be able to pull it off.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 09:11:12 AM
Quote
The goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story.

Yeah. Not really interested. There's too many fucking holes for that to be an acceptable end. This isn't really what people wanted, you assholes.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Büge on April 05, 2012, 09:13:31 AM
DR. SHEPARD NEVER RETURNED HOME
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 09:46:00 AM
[spoiler]the relays weren't destroyed, they just went into dark space[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 10:47:13 AM
If they lied about the existing ending before, maybe they're lying about the new ending now?

I'd rather not have to stop trusting a company whose output I've enjoyed in the past.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 05, 2012, 11:51:58 AM
At least explain why Joker turned coward and potentially dead squad members can show up.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 05, 2012, 12:01:20 PM
Quote
The goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story.

Yeah. Not really interested. There's too many fucking holes for that to be an acceptable end. This isn't really what people wanted, you assholes.

Yeah, it sure does suck that they're trying to fix an ending the public saw as full of plot holes by clarifying and filling in those holes. Can this group that wrote a story so enthralling that their fanbase became personally offended when the ending didn’t match each of their expectations do nothing right?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on April 05, 2012, 12:06:28 PM
Beat, remember how you were trying to convince people you weren't a BioWare loyalist/apologist?
...
...
I think you just conceded whatever points you managed to make.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 12:19:59 PM
They're not fixing anything if they're not changing it.

[spoiler]They're not going to change anything. Without changing anything, it's hard to cover up the holes of:
-a very inconsistent Shepard (never challenging the Star Child. Just accepting everything he says as fact. No renegade or paragon speech options.) Why does he take everything as truth? Why doesn't he question anything? You don't even really get to question the Star Child a whole bunch - you know, when faced with the entity that is controlling the reapers I figure he'd have a lot of questions.

-the Relays blowing up, wrecking galactic Galactic civilization. The implications of the relays detonating - even if you cross out the whole "They destroy the star system" with some handwaving about the energy, it's still a problem that so many alien species are surrounding earth and on earth that has no ability to eat the food produced by it. (Quarians and Turians will die.)

Not to mention the tens of thousands of worlds that rely on imports of foods or goods to survive because of the harsh environments or various stage of terraforming or what have  you. The entire galaxy is fucked without relays. All communications and travel goes through the relays - full stop. There is no alternative. In fact, in Mass Effect 1 in the codex it talks about how the first act of war is to destroy comm buoys because messages take at best months or years to cross galactic space.

-Why Joker is running in the first place. They can try to explain that away all they want but that is so far out of character it's completely unbelievable. He would never abandon - Even if people were telling him "Shepard is dead. We saw him hit by a reaper beam. Joker would be saying "Yeah well I've heard that one before."
[/spoiler]

I had my own expectations for the ending to be actually changed as well as some of this epilogue bullshit. Not changing the ending and supplying the epilogue doesn't do much besides lip service and PR to the tune of "WE TOTALLY LISTENED BUT WE'RE NOT COMPROMISING OUR ARTISTIC VISION"
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 12:22:17 PM
There are many, many problems with the ending; its ambiguity is one of the smaller ones. The language they use suggests that the altered ending will be the existing ending with additional exposition regarding the mechanics of the deus ex machina. That's not a fix at all; they're still left with [spoiler]introducing an uninteresting new character after the climax, who assigns an unforeshadowed new motivation to the villains, which is based on an idea that the story has already demonstrated to be false the few times it came up[/spoiler]. And that's in the best case, where they do "clarify" [spoiler]what happens to your crew, how fucked everything is, how you get back to earth in Destroy, why Destroy carries the drawbacks it does, what the fuck Synthesis even means, and what's the deal with that goddamned kid[/spoiler]. I can't imagine any explanation for some of those without retconning them, let alone satisfying ones.

The ending is bad as much for what it does as what it doesn't do. I'm hoping that this "clarify" nonsense is just amateurish PR desperately trying to avoid saying that what they're trying to fix is a problem.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bal on April 05, 2012, 12:23:19 PM
Well, the quantum entanglement comms fix one problem. I mean, that's why they exist in ME3 to start with, because the reapers have all but shut down normal comms. The rest is totally valid though.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 12:31:47 PM
[spoiler]Quantum entanglement only solves so much though. You have a few, very specific coms but it's like tin cans on string. Plus, it's not a widespread tech outside of military circles. I just think the general infrastructure of the galaxy is completely fucked. There's no extranet unless they hobble it together using the quantum entanglement points as hubs in an extremely convoluted solution that would take insane logistics to set up. Again, resources that will be hard to coordinate.

The bigger problem is there is no non mass-effect FTL technology - why would there be? The Reaper Tech solved all the problems and I don't think anyone was particularly close to unlocking it.

Maybe this is the final fuck you of the reapers - Organic Life evolves along the paths we desire, and if they ever rid the galaxy of us that cycle is fucked. At least for a couple decades.[/spoiler]

I think I've linked this before, but this would explain a lot. (http://www.gamesthirst.com/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-writer-distance-himself-from-game-ending-blames-casey-hudson/)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 12:38:25 PM
Additional thought: [spoiler]Is there a 100% fail state ending? Destroy with low resources maybe? I'd like to see a scene/cinematic of the next cycle (undoubtedly dominated by Yahg) discovering Glyph-in-a-box and preparing for the reapers. The yahg culture is basically "The leader asserts and you fall the fuck in line." So I can't imagine they'll have the council issue. They also wouldn't be caught with their pants down like the Protheans. One would hope.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 05, 2012, 12:39:23 PM
I'm not against the idea of a [spoiler]Pyrrhic victory wherein this cycle ruined itself in order to ensure that nothing like it would ever happen again[/spoiler], but I'd still be dissatisfied with it if [spoiler]the reason it was necessary is still because some space baby thought that robots always turn evil[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: patito on April 05, 2012, 12:44:07 PM
Ziiro, seems to be you're more upset that everyone is fucked in the end rather than because of plot holes. Complaining that everything is fucked is not really a valid complain the way you've phrased it.

Basically the way you're phrasing it comes out as "I didn't like the ending of cowboy beebop because spike dies."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 12:51:34 PM
Fair enough. It's both really. I'm sorry if I give off the idea that the "EVERYTHING IS FUCKED" feeling is the only reason why I'm mad.

Simply: I'm mad because it's all dogshit writing and they're refusing to actually fix it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on April 05, 2012, 12:53:53 PM
I think I've linked this before, but this would explain a lot. (http://www.gamesthirst.com/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-writer-distance-himself-from-game-ending-blames-casey-hudson/)

Man, that article names the guy and everything.  He is fiiiiiiiiiiiiired.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 01:00:27 PM
Apparently he's going to be on the Bioware panel at Pax, so.

Fate worse than unemployment.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on April 05, 2012, 01:12:07 PM
Mass Effect 3 Ending: Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage (SPOILERS) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs#)

Preaching to the choir, at this point, but this is the video I've found myself agreeing with the most so far.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 01:36:14 PM
Half way through it. That video is pretty solid. Explains everything.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on April 05, 2012, 06:09:25 PM
Apparently he's going to be on the Bioware panel at Pax, so.

Fate worse than unemployment.

I know you're joking but I really hope this isn't what nerds think. Oh no, some angry fatbeards are going to hyperventilate into a microphone as they try to work up the courage to ask a "scathing" question at a convention? People who, by definition, are usually afraid of human interaction and are going to try to be witty and condescending to somebody else on the spot in front of hundreds of their peers? Reminds me of Blizzcon. Or of people who feel sorry for the guys in the Republican Primary, like poor Mitt Romney, getting panned as "awkward" and "robotic" all his life. Yeah, I bet he cries himself to sleep at night on a pile of money.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 05, 2012, 06:46:28 PM
Okay. I have not played any of the Mass Effects. The only thing I know is that your character and choice history carried over between games? I think? (and that it's a space opera RPG that once again puts humans on a pedastal).

But I am now seeing this HUGE GAMER CONTRRRRROOOOVVERSY! everywhere I go - even a couple mainstream newspapers mentioned it.

Can someone give me the Coles' notes version of why a game trilogy ending would induce such incredible rage? Probably should spoiler that shit when you reply (not for my benefit, of course).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 06:51:42 PM
No need for spoilers;

Mass Effect allows you, in Mass Effect 1, to chose one of three pre-determined backgrounds for Commander Shepard.  You choose if Shepard is a man or a woman, where they come from in the universe (out of three more choices), and what they look like.  Through a series of dialogue choices you make, you guide Shepard's ideaology between SPACE BADASS and SPACE GOODCOP.  Some of these choices are small, and some of them are impactful up to and including party character deaths.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 allow you to import saved games, retaining your Shepard's backgrounds (which comes up in conversations regarding your history), looks, and prominent choices.  You are also able to romance characters, and since some of these characters return in future installments, you can carry on a lasting relationship with them.

All of this causes the player to form a deep bond with Their Command Shepard, guided by their choices and actions and decisions across three games and five years.

The final twenty minutes of the game are the same for everyone regardless of the choices they have made along the way, save for absolutely minute variations in the ending cinematics which are changed only by flipping one of three switches.  The actions you have made up to this point do not preclude you from flipping any of the switches (though one only appears if you do enough sidequests.)  This lack of acknowledgement and player input after the investment of 30 to 100 hours of gameplay and five years of attachment has lead to an absolutely monumental shitstorm the likes of which has not been seen since the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 06:54:56 PM
I should add that there are also genuine narrative problems with the ending as presented, but it's honestly the sense of attachment and illusion of shaping one's own personal character that makes this such a massive goddamn deal to people.  This is why Metal Gear Solid 4 failed to cause the same level of absolute shitstormery, as nobody determined the history or moral choices of Solid Snake outside of choosing to tranq everyone or, failing that, shoot them in the balls for the most hilarious riverwalk since Operation Dumbo Drop.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 06:55:22 PM
i don't actually know if they walked through a river in operation dumbo drop it just sounded funny when i was writing it
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on April 05, 2012, 07:05:07 PM
Hey stupid question.

Is the rest of the game fun up to the ending? All this talk and hype has me vaguely interested in seeing the ending and wrapping up my FemShep adventure.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 05, 2012, 07:09:06 PM
Personally, I was pret-ty burned out by the end of ME3 and the wet fart that is the final mission pretty much lives up gameplay wise to the doldrums that the ending gave everyone narrative-wise.  But I also played all three games back to back as the same class in all three, so I think I would be burned out by the end in any measure.  Overall I found ME3 to be a pretty classy game with some pretty major flaws.  Well worth playing, just be braced for a sidequest interface that is actually somehow worse than the first two games combined with a mission structure that perfects the "send just three too many waves of enemies at Shepard each time to keep things exciting" aspirations of the prior games.

On the other hand, Mail Slot is the best achievement.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 07:23:20 PM
I'd suggest it. Every part until that end point is just golden.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 05, 2012, 07:24:18 PM
I should add that there are also genuine narrative problems with the ending as presented

This statement intrigues me. Care to expand on it? Like, I've heard this "IT'S REALLY BADLY WRITTEN" elsewhere, and I guess that's the second hit in a one-two punch (the first being the total dismissal of your efforts as a player). I'm just wondering how bad these "narrative problems" are. Like are we talking Anakin Skywalker Goes On a Date bad?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on April 05, 2012, 07:29:09 PM
I think this might be the explanation you're looking for. SPOILARS though.

Mass Effect 3 Ending: Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage (SPOILERS) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs#)

Preaching to the choir, at this point, but this is the video I've found myself agreeing with the most so far.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 05, 2012, 07:32:48 PM
The idea of asking for a coles notes version is that it's easier to read a paragraph (or type a paragraph, even!) than it is to watch a forty-minute video.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 05, 2012, 07:33:44 PM
Skip to 23:00
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on April 05, 2012, 07:37:07 PM
Sorry. Didn't realize you were asking for a Cole's Notes because you only asked for someone to expand on a sentence.

Apparently [spoiler]the game throws out a plot twist that functionally voids your efforts thus far and completely changes the main conflict of the story. It creates a vague choice and doesn't show the effects of your choice on anything you, as a player, have come to care about in the previous 80+ hours of gameplay.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 05, 2012, 08:18:07 PM
Okay, I can see how that would be a problem.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 05, 2012, 09:55:59 PM
In regards to the 'Everyone is fucked'. A bioware twitter has posted some tweets about it. This is her twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

 She has said 'No body will starve' and it is possible to reunite with crew members, but as an rpg.netter has posted..

I should however STRONGLY EMPHASIZE that throughout this whole thing Merizan has had a very frustrating history of answering fan questions with coy tweets along the lines of "How do you know they're stranded?" and "Are you sure that's a plot hole and not intentional?" and stuff like that, and then, when people get excited and think she's hinting at IT or something, saying she was just speculating like any other fan and it's not her fault if people assume she knows something just because she's a well-known Bioware employee who's in charge of communicating with fans. It's totally possible that she's just doing more of the same here, and that by "you can reunite with the crew" she just means something like "we don't explicitly rule out the possibility that Shepard could, in theory, one day reunite with the crew." I wouldn't get my hopes too high. But it would be awfully nice to think that she's learned her lesson, and that she actually realizes what she's implying this time.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Stush on April 06, 2012, 01:00:33 AM
We should talk about stuff other than the ending more often!

BEST WEAPON POLL:

Totally the M-99 Saber, Best weapon in the game, it's too bad you get it so late, but i'm really looking forwards to using it from the start for my next playthrough. >:D

Also, Best armour is Hahne Kedar, It looks so cool. And gives you bonuses to damage, which is pretty much what I focussed all my bonuses towards, which is why Stush shepard's M-99 saber was so murderous, I was one-shotting cannibals all over the place. I need to find the Hahne Kedar arm pieces, though, i must have missed them!

Second best weapon?

(http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l14/Stushcinta/ME3Stush.png)

That one.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 06, 2012, 01:55:12 AM
Mongrel, here's the spoiler text of the biggest narrative problem:

[spoiler]In the game there is technology called a Mass Relay.  It's basically a giant slingshot that allows space ships to travel at super faster than light speeds, shooting them from galaxy to galaxy.  At the very end of Mass Effect 2, you destroy a Mass Relay -- and doing so wipes out the entire system it's in as the unstable energy ignites from it.  Your character is incarcerated for this being a war crime upon doing this, even though it was to prevent the villains from using that Mass Relay to quickly jump around the galaxy upon their arrival.

The end of Mass Effect 3 destroys every single Mass Relay in the galaxy, which essentially should mean that you just wiped out every single civilized world in existence.  Whether or not this is true is unconfirmed.

On top of that, the final 20 minutes are essentially The Architect from the second Matrix movie, dumping a bunch of exposition about heretofore unmentioned aspects of the villains and their ultimate purpose, but you're not even given the dubious satisfaction of a third movie which which to properly contextualize this new information.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 06, 2012, 03:20:11 AM
A big part of the thing with the ending is the suddenness with which it goes bad. It's got one rather well-written and touching scene that would be a great way to kick off a conventional denouement, and then all of a sudden [spoiler]you're being moved into another room where a hologram babbles about the villains' idiotic true purpose[/spoiler], and it manages to keep going downhill from there.

The ending has a lot of problems, and it's difficult to summarize concisely, but I'll try: [spoiler]After the climax, it introduces a really lame new character, who expositions up an unforeshadowed and thematically questionable new motive for the villains which is largely less interesting than the one implied of them over the course of the last 2.9 games, and which is based on a premise that the events of the game have already demonstrated to be false. Based on this information - which, uncharacteristically, you can't question or reject - it offers you a choice with consequences so far-reaching that they overshadow all the events leading up to it. The mechanics of the choice are unclear and appear to violate the established rules of the setting; one of the options is outright nonsense when considered at any but the most abstract level. However, the consequences of the choice don't matter, because it never depicts them; it shows one of several almost identical brief cinematics including some (not all) of your party members, which leaves them in a situation that appears to totally overshadow the directions their lives had been going in as well (and it is possible to view a permutation of the scene which contradicts the stated effects of the choice you just made so what the fuck).[/spoiler] Then the credits roll and it shows an ambiguously distant epilogue narrated (poorly, I'm afraid) by Buzz Aldrin, and a message that if you want more adventures, DLC is available.

Notably, it does not depict [spoiler]what happened to anybody except your crew, and in the case of your crew it doesn't explain what the fuck they were even doing there[/spoiler], and therefore [spoiler]people have every reason to assume that the ending is not so much "bittersweet" as it is "nihilistic," with billions starving including everybody you grew attached to over the course of the series, and the setting as a whole never regaining its defining element of a huge and diverse galactic community[/spoiler]. Their promises to "clarify" the ending imply that this particular failure will be addressed, but that still leaves lots of others.

There's the kernel of a good idea in there, but the way it's presented, executed, and (not) depicted is about as unsatisfying as imaginable. When you build up players' emotional attachment to the story so well and then do... that... then is it any surprise that all those emotions will go nuclear?

Hey stupid question.

Is the rest of the game fun up to the ending? All this talk and hype has me vaguely interested in seeing the ending and wrapping up my FemShep adventure.


It's still Bioware, and that means laden with inconsistent quality and cut corners, but it's their A-team, not the B-team behind Dragon Age 2. Apart from the ending, its biggest failings are being occasionally dumb and having too few enemy types, but when it's good, it's got a strong claim to being the best they've ever produced.

Gameplaywise it manages to bring back the RPG-like weapon and build customization of the first game and apply it to the shooter-like streamlinedness of the second.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Stush on April 06, 2012, 03:46:28 AM
I have to admit, the message that pops up after you finished really annoyed the heck out of me, Moreso than anything else. Advertising is annoying, and one popping up just after the last cutscene in a game series I really enjoyed? That's not cool.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: JDigital on April 06, 2012, 06:08:33 AM
You know your ending is bad when it borrows the plot from Master of Orion 3:

[spoiler]At the end of Master of Orion 2, you win by wiping out the aliens who threaten the galaxy, saving all of spacefaring civilization. At the start of Master of Orion 3, it turns out that you didn't wipe out ALL the aliens, and they immediately show up in great numbers to reduce all spacefaring civilization to a pre-warp state. It canonically wipes out your achievement.

Master of Orion 2 is the top rated game on gog.com after Planescape: Torment. Master of Orion 3 is the worst rated.[/spoiler]

There's also a tradition in American cinema where [spoiler]if the hero has been righteous, he survives; he can only be killed at the end if he sacrifices himself to redeem himself for previous evil or wrong actions. Since the player chose all Shepard's actions, he probably thinks Shepard has done nothing to deserve failure. Sometimes in movies the hero willingly sacrifices himself at the end to save everyone else, but in ME3 you don't get that choice, and it doesn't save galactic civilization.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 06, 2012, 06:11:58 AM
Well, [spoiler]with a name that's a homophone of "shepherd," a martyrdom ending was always a reasonable expectation[/spoiler].
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on April 06, 2012, 06:16:54 AM
BEST WEAPON POLL:

The Javelin. Vwoop, PEW.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 06, 2012, 08:31:18 AM
Mass Effect 3: Resurgence Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasebmHiqIo#ws)

Looks like I'll be playing again on 4-10. All I ever wanted to play was Geth Infiltrator or Engineer, and now I have it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 06, 2012, 08:37:34 AM
So do you get all of that with the DLC, or does it just seed those things into the booster packs?  Honest question.  I'm not sure just how scummy or not EA is being on this front.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 06, 2012, 08:39:44 AM
It's unclear. However, based on the systems they have in place; Yeah, I think they're just going to start putting them in packs. Which means time for me to buy funbucks until I get Geth.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 06, 2012, 09:24:17 AM
It's unclear.
Quote from: 0:22
Reinforcement Pack Expansions
Is it really, though?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 06, 2012, 09:29:23 AM
(http://27.media.tumblr.com/9cyPFQbgCnrhuk16HVmUN2kCo1_500.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 06, 2012, 02:13:39 PM
http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=662095 (http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=662095)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on April 06, 2012, 03:05:45 PM
Apparently the resurgence pack is free dlc. Which probably means that you just have to keep buying those booster packs until you get one of the new characters.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 06, 2012, 03:06:28 PM
add ending elements to booster packs

buy packs to make your dream ending
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 06, 2012, 03:59:07 PM
Apparently the resurgence pack is free dlc. Which probably means that you just have to keep buying those booster packs until you get one of the new characters.

What I love is that the DLC is only free until April 24th... so if - in say six months - I decided "Oh hey, let's play this Mass Effect game all the kids liked" and buy it during a Steam bundle sale (or whatever), I'll then have to pay for the DLC frosting that covers up the shit-cake ending?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 06, 2012, 04:00:30 PM
Wait am I correct in understanding that the multiplayer game actually requires you to buy RANDOMIZED BOOSTER PACKS of DLC??!?!

:hurr:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 06, 2012, 04:38:15 PM
EDIT EDIT: didn't misread
1)
Quote
* OFFER EXPIRES APRIL 12, 2014
2) holy shit read a single post in this thread
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 06, 2012, 04:40:23 PM
Apparently the resurgence pack is free dlc. Which probably means that you just have to keep buying those booster packs until you get one of the new characters.

What I love is that the DLC is only free until April 24th... so if - in say six months - I decided "Oh hey, let's play this Mass Effect game all the kids liked" and buy it during a Steam bundle sale (or whatever), I'll then have to pay for the DLC frosting that covers up the shit-cake ending?

If you look closely, it says April 2014. It's not even going to be released until summer.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 06, 2012, 04:41:17 PM
wait a minute now I...

he seriously quotes about one DLC while talking about another, what the fuck Mongrel?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on April 06, 2012, 04:41:52 PM
Yes, that confused me as well.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 06, 2012, 05:29:11 PM
I just totally misread the date is all.

That's such a weird expiry... why would you even have an expiry in 2014? Why not just bundle it with any future copy of the game sold? Saying you'll offer it as long as the game is sold is a cleaner, more positive-sounding statement that's functionally the same.

Also, I thought the Booster Pack thing is a multiplayer thing, entirely separate from the Revised Ending DLC? That's why I made two explicitly separate posts.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on April 06, 2012, 06:22:59 PM
Wait am I correct in understanding that the multiplayer game actually requires you to buy RANDOMIZED BOOSTER PACKS of DLC??!?!

:hurr:

No.

Playing the multiplayer component earns you a metagame currency, which can be redeemed for various upgrades, including "booster packs" of assorted boons. It is possible to spend real money on additional boosters—essentially using money to simulate the effects of additional hours of play. But it is not required that you spend money.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on April 06, 2012, 07:07:12 PM
Oh, so they just copied TF2. :lol:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Stush on April 06, 2012, 11:32:38 PM
This is sort of related, They recently released a thing you can buy for battlefield 3 that unlocks all the stuff that you'd get from levelling up, it costs like $40.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 09, 2012, 12:24:11 PM
http://momeffect.tumblr.com/ (http://momeffect.tumblr.com/)

the most important work of our modern era
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on April 09, 2012, 04:18:15 PM
Mass Effect 3: El Cid's Best Worst Ending (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6YvbxzKRoc#ws)

[spoiler]my dick is the best ending[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 11, 2012, 01:15:19 AM
On hold, but the MEMovement people seem to be looking into getting a billboard with the phrase 'To Clarify: It Needs a New Ending' put up. :wat:
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 11, 2012, 07:10:44 AM
Krogan Battlemaster confirmed for best character in all of coop.

Properly spec'd I am getting +295% melee damage after a biotic charge. Charge in, heavy melee, then start meleeing and I am one shotting nearly everything with a chance to regain 100% shields every 5 seconds or so.

Who the fuck needs guns
(just kidding I carry a Disciple anyway)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 11, 2012, 09:15:57 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/tZaco.jpg)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on April 11, 2012, 05:20:38 PM
 Hydra Base is great for sniping although there are more paths for monsters to flank.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on April 13, 2012, 11:52:13 AM
Information about Equipment to bring on missions. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArNVjEsDluBFdHdMZlltdVFuNmFKS1c0bkl6WG5PUEE&single=true&gid=0&output=html)

Krogan Vanguard is great but it's not really my thing. Charge -> Heavy Melee -> Melee is great, but it's such a hard thing to manage and stay alive while doing it. And I have yet to get a Geth Hunter. :(
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on April 16, 2012, 05:47:08 PM
mom effect has concluded

and from the ashes, cerberus has reconstructed MOM EFFECT 2
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Kayma on April 16, 2012, 06:15:48 PM
Mom Effect was pretty great. That kid's mom is a nut.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on June 22, 2012, 10:00:40 AM
The Extended Cut DLC pack will be released on June 26.

What's in it? I'm not sure, but there'll be 1.9GB of it.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on June 22, 2012, 10:30:34 AM
Interesting. I have no doubt it's going to be terrible shit because they already said it's not getting changed. It's just "clarification"
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on June 22, 2012, 10:33:46 AM
Well, regarding the possibility of it being mere "clarification," keep in mind that they've outright lied about the ending before.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on June 22, 2012, 10:59:34 AM
Also keep in mind that they're giving away a free product just to appease the fan base.

You entitled dick.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on June 22, 2012, 12:48:28 PM
When gameplay's broken, you demand a patch to fix it, and your money back if they refuse to provide it.  See: Blizzard being forced to refund Diablo 3 purchases (http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2012/06/blizzard-refund-south-korea/).  And the producer does not get to charge for that patch.

How is it "entitled" to expect the same treatment for a broken story?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on June 22, 2012, 01:31:59 PM
There is so much stupid in that comparison that I literally can't sort out all the wrong to make a proper post. Thankfully anyone who isn't TA shouldn't require that.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Brentai on June 22, 2012, 01:40:12 PM
Our researchers have found that people with heavy exposure to the internet have difficulty distinguishing between what they demand and what they deserve.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Friday on June 22, 2012, 01:44:39 PM
I demand to be player 1.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Malikial on June 22, 2012, 01:45:01 PM
Ahem, TA, my only response can be... BITCH, I SAID WHAT?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Shinra on June 22, 2012, 01:50:31 PM
Is it really that bad to feel entitled to something when a single game can cost as much as two months of basic cable service? As much as 3 DVDs or four trips to a non-matinee showing at the movie theater? We have one of the most expensive forms of entertainment there is, and while I'm not going to argue that videogames aren't worth the money or cost too much, I am going to argue that when a game is sold on building people's expectations for closure, not providing that closure is what I would call a dick move. And I don't buy the artistic integrity/vision argument from Bioware, given that it's game 3 of a trilogy and at that point you owe something to the fans who kept the series alive long enough to make it that far. This is true of any trilogy.

I guess it's also entitlement when people say Phantom Menace was a shitty movie or ask Lucas to put out the original cuts of New Hope and Empire?

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on June 22, 2012, 01:53:27 PM
I don't know from no entitlement, but I admit I do have sympathy for people who tell a large company "What you made is broken and I did not enjoy it, please make it better."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Rico on June 22, 2012, 02:02:25 PM
Also keep in mind that they're giving away a free product just to appease the fan base.
That's an interesting way to rephrase "The company is desperately trying to recover from its own shitty product so that it doesn't suffer any more damage to its reputation or future sales."
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on June 22, 2012, 04:57:42 PM
Oh Christ.

Look. Bioware made a mistake when they expected people to like the ending. Maybe they ran out of time, maybe they really are that dumb, but at the end of the day, they really let their audience down. Thanks to the wonders of contemporary technology, they've been given a rare opportunity to correct that mistake and minimize the damage it does to their reputation. I hope they don't blow it.

Second chances are a big deal. Speaking for myself, if I like the extended cut then I'll have far fewer reservations about future Bioware games than I did back in April. Maybe that makes me an entitled little prince.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on June 22, 2012, 06:14:17 PM
Or I was very clearly responding to Ziiro.

Who was being an entitled dick.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Classic on June 22, 2012, 06:46:26 PM
It's like that time fans complained about the ending to Evangelion.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on June 22, 2012, 09:00:55 PM
It's like that time fans complained about the ending to Evangelion.

That's not strictly comparable, because there Hideaki Anno just shows up dressed like Groucho, saying "And if you don't like that ending we have another!", before spinning a giant wheel of fortune covered in nothing but EVA plot points.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Doom on June 23, 2012, 11:25:11 AM
TA, you're citing a situation in which the game was almost literally unplayable. Diablo 3 demands an always online connection, Korean servers have been having lag-bombs for three weeks straight(comparable to the understandable American release week issues, except not ending!), it really is a bizarre and inexcusable foul-up. In this situation, you're paying $60 Korea Dollars for a game that can't actually be played.

In the case of Mass Effect 3, a "broken story" is a joke. You shell out $60, you are Commander Shepard shooting aliens that are machines that eat aliens to become alien-machines, and then your paint-by-numbers Bioware story has a complete stink-up in the final lap. No matter how badly that story stinks, you still presumably got $60 worth of shooting aliens and picking dialogue options.

Quote from: Shinra
Entitlement

You pirated the game, by definition, you are entitled. Even if you want to cite something like DRM or first-day DLC, the principled thing to do would be to not play video games that use DRM or first-day DLC.

Which I find is the major obstacle to gamers actually performing any of the sort of "Outraged Consumer Makes Company Do Thing" miracles they dream of. If Mass Effect 3's new ending prompts a new tidal wave of angry refunds and doesn't convince anybody new to try the game, then perhaps Bioware will sit up and take notice. More realistically, it was probably very clever to convince people who might otherwise refund their game to wait it out for new content. The release of new content and the chance to bandy about the promise of a "fixed, full Mass Effect 3" will probably get a bunch of new sales.

Or it'll be really terrible and the entire series will go down in history as "pretty good until bad ending", but even then, that won't change the fact that all three games are what they advertise: video games. You are entitled to buy the video game and play it.

Now, I know we must then go to the next issue, aren't we entitled to a proper ending to a three part trilogy?

Quote
And I don't buy the artistic integrity/vision argument from Bioware, given that it's game 3 of a trilogy and at that point you owe something to the fans who kept the series alive long enough to make it that far. This is true of any trilogy.

Citation needed joke aside(though seriously, what other trilogies needed fan support to make it to part three? I'm a bit curious.), Bioware was(until TOR) a pretty successful studio with a free bill to make new franchises and pump them up to big bucks status and then sequel them appropriately. I'd be very surprised if Dragon Age 2 stinking caused a Dragon Age 3 to never see the light of day. Mass Effect 1 was a huge success, Mass Effect 2 was a runaway success while at the same time beginning the strip-mining of "your decisions matter", it doesn't seem likely that Mass Effect 3 would struggle to see a justification for a sequel to a successful series.

The real question is what comes after Mass Effect 3. In the words of Charlie Sheen: "I've already got your money, dude.", the dude in this case being the majority of ME3 buyers which seems to be to the tune of 2 million buyers. If we safely assume Dragon Age 3 is coming and that Mass Effect 3 and anything Star Wars is over, I guess it's time to revive an old franchise or make a new one.

If you really, really hate Bioware and/or Mass Effect 3's ending, then don't participate in their products further. Don't pirate them, either. Because if you still play them... if you're still a fan... then you're a sucker and worse than that, you can't influence others to do the same. You're part of the complete lack of a collective spine in gamers.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on June 23, 2012, 03:00:43 PM
Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut Interview with Casey Hudson, Mac Walters, and Jessica Merizan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y7xk1_x8ko#ws)

Extended Cut Bingo Card. (http://i.imgur.com/lxYRQ.png)

I said it before and I'll say it again. Fuck it, just use this. (http://shannon.users.sonic.net/masseffect/)

Additionally, this is a good comic. The Blue Rose of Illium (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/escapist-comics/9758-Blue-Rose-of-Illium)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on June 26, 2012, 08:37:16 AM
I started to watch a video of the EC endings but the guy actually didn't do any of the side dialogue options so I closed it and I am downloading it myself just to experience this firsthand. However I did learn something really really funny.

EC Spoiler: [spoiler]The best part is that you can now refuse. "I don't want to pick from your shit endings, Bioware" "THEN YOU GET BAD END"[/spoiler]Link (http://youtu.be/PThzItSAT5c). Here's the post-credits thing.  (http://youtu.be/RO4eh6HVomM?t=2m43s)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on June 26, 2012, 09:50:42 AM
Ha ha ha. Ha.

[spoiler]So the Catalyst(child) was created originally by a race that wanted to have a liaison between Organics and Synthetics. Let's look at that again. The race created an AI to broker peace between theirs and Synthetics. However it always ended in conflict. So the Catalysts' solution was to turn them into the first reaper. "They did not go along with the idea" is something that he said. So the catalyst is actually a run-away synthetic monster from a long ago race. His ideas are flawed because he is flawed.

ADMITTEDLY I LIKE THIS BETTER THAN THE WHOLE "HE WAS CREATED TO DO THE WHOLE REAPER THING FROM THE GET-GO."

But it all still falls flat on its face IN NEW AND INTERESTING WAYS! In the explanation of synthesis, he says that it has been something that was tried in the past but it never took. Because "it's not something that can be forced. Organics have to be ready to accept it."
:whoops:
If you pick the rejection ending, your EMS doesn't matter because it's insta-fail. I should be able to reject the bullshit and beat the reapers through sheer force if I have the full EMS.

Control ending is.. passable I guess? I watched the youtubes on the other two and actually did control myself. It's really the true Paragon ending in color and function.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Bongo Bill on June 26, 2012, 04:16:30 PM
I checked Control, Destroy, and the new ending. Unfortunately, [spoiler]the starchild[/spoiler] is still in, but [spoiler]he's more articulate this time; it's more obvious that it's gone haywire, fulfilling its original programming in literal fashion at monstrous cost[/spoiler], which is good.

It still doesn't explain the consequences of Destroy well enough for me to predict what happens, but the explanation it offers is better this time: [spoiler]EMS matters because the Crucible is less damaged and therefore it can be more precise in the way it fries the Reapers[/spoiler], or something. I noticed [spoiler]EDI's name was listed on the memorial in the Normandy afterward, and there were no Geth in the ending montages[/spoiler], which is more consistent with what the Starchild says but also means the writers still don't seem to understand what synthetic life actually is. [spoiler]Shepard still walks forward into the explosion like a nincompoop, but starts breathing again at the end in an unidentified location full of rubble anyway, so what the fuck.[/spoiler]

I didn't view Synthesis because the explanation the Starchild offers for how it is possible or what will happen somehow even more illogical than before, only now with some meaningless psychobabble on top. I just assumed that Shepard's response was "That doesn't even make sense!" delivered with such force as to retroactively eliminate it as a possibility.

Destroy seems like the good ending, not least because it is the one that makes sense. [spoiler]In fact, if you choose the renegade response when the Starchild describes it, he makes it clear that what's happening is that Shepard is replacing the Catalyst as the entity that controls the Reapers, to do with as she sees fit[/spoiler].

The new ending is as abrupt and unsatisfying as the original endings used to be, but that's appropriate considering it's the Bad Ending. Actually, no - it still resolves more than the original ones did, as it does at least make clear the state of the galaxy afterward ([spoiler]The Reapers kill everyone but you leave enough behind for the next cycle to be the last one[/spoiler]). The Stargazer in this ending is different. (In fact, I think the Stargazer's lines have been edited down in all the versions.) The fact that this one is still better than any of the originals speaks volumes about how terrible the original endings were.

Afterwards, it no longer tells you to buy DLC, which is a plus.

Both Destroy and Control had [spoiler]the same generic montages of galactic civilization proceeding and the crew of the Normandy putting Shepard's name on the memorial[/spoiler], and while [spoiler]a few of the scenes differed, like the ones explaining what became of the Mass Relays and the Citadel, the largest difference between them was the voiceover[/spoiler]. They also depicted [spoiler]Sword fleet pulling once the Crucible had been activated, because the mission had been accomplished. The Normandy still lands on that one pointless planet, but then immediately takes off again so I don't even know why the fuck they kept scene[/spoiler].

The scene where [spoiler]the Normandy evacuates your squadmates during the charge to the beam, not a shuttle but the actual Normandy which was supposed to be guarding the Crucible at that point, and for some reason Harbinger doesn't blow it up[/spoiler] is dumb, but no dumber than I was willing to tolerate.

Ultimately, I say: it fixed the largest single problem with the previous endings, which was that they didn't include anything that felt final. Notably, it doesn't fix the second-biggest problem: [spoiler]while it did show what happened to the setting, it didn't show what happened to any of the characters, apart from the fact that they had a small funeral for Anderson and Shepard, and I guess Jacob is a teacher now[/spoiler]. If the original endings had been these, I'd have said "Well, that was kind of a weak conclusion that came out of left field a bit, and I've still got some questions, but I'm glad to have gotten there." I would not have said "What the fuck did I just watch, that's how they're ending their trilogy?" the way I did the first time.

Interestingly, in both endings [spoiler]the repaired Citadel was left in orbit around Earth[/spoiler], which strikes me as a really weird choice. Anybody else with me on that?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Spikey on June 26, 2012, 06:40:27 PM
There is an ending slide that depicts [spoiler]Zaeed chilling on a deck chair by the ocean with Jessie and a couple of space beers.[/spoiler] All is forgiven.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on July 04, 2012, 06:18:34 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/KXuIM.gif)
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: DestyNova on July 05, 2012, 06:34:31 PM
http://makanidotdot.tumblr.com/ (http://makanidotdot.tumblr.com/)

 Check out the adventures of Shepard, Queen of the Reapers.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on October 31, 2012, 09:08:35 PM
Actual Footage of Salarian STG sniper team in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6YCwwuW9Ks#ws)

13 Minute gold duo run. I can barely keep visual track of this guys scoping in and shots.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on January 03, 2013, 06:56:16 PM
Standard and Deluxe $15 and $20 respectively on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Effect-Digital-Deluxe-Version-Download/dp/B0064TYRAU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357268033&sr=8-2&keywords=mass+effect+3) And both can have any of those $5 off coupons applied to them.

Malikial, Smiler, Nodal and myself have been playing this the last few nights, on ventrillo and everything! Wow! Other people should play too, it's about as fun as I imagined it was the entire time I was not playing it because lawl pirated copy.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 20, 2013, 08:16:28 PM
Still kind of want to play this at some point.

I wonder when they'll have a trilogy package sale. Hoping for something on Steam on Black Friday and/or Christmas.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on November 21, 2013, 12:15:50 AM
I wouldn't hold out much hope for Steam. You can only get 3 activated on ORIGIN!. Which means at best Amazon may have the first two with whatever the native DRM was plus 3 with the service.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 04:03:07 AM
Oh right, DRM. Forgot about that. That was also why I never got around to playing the copy of Fallout 3 I owned. I'm used to thinking of Steam games having less or no DRM because they're Steam games.

Which versions of ME have the least onerous DRM and just how bad is that DRM?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on November 21, 2013, 04:09:32 AM
You can get one and two on Steam, and one is almost objectively the better story of the three. It's just three that isn't on Steam, so don't expect any trilogy packs anywhere but Amazon, which sells both the non-steam version of the first two, and the origin (read: only) version of three.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 04:24:08 AM
That doesn't answer my question about DRM though.

Okay, you can buy it from three places that I know of. Steam (though not the third), Amazon, and (I believe), directly from Origin?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on November 21, 2013, 04:49:26 AM
Pretty sure the only drm 2 and 3 have is whatever service you are running it from (steam/origin). I think 1 might have some other sort of drm attached to it, but Steam's store doesn't list any.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 04:57:26 AM
Oh that doesn't sound as bad then unless the Steam version of #1 has OMG HIDDEN DRM.

Steam's bound to get #3 eventually. I'm sure Steam would love to have a trilogy package to sell, regardless of whatever price point it ended up at.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on November 21, 2013, 05:15:18 AM
Steam will not be getting 3 ever. The reason EA and Steam have parted ways on a lot of games is because EA refused to have their in game DLC for sale on the steam system. That's why Dragon age 2 is gone, and crysis 2 is only on there in "maximum edition" (read: all dlc included)

Due to the nature of ME3's multiplayer box bullshit, there won't be a way that it will get to steam without the multiplayer being entirely defunct first.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mazian on November 21, 2013, 06:20:50 AM
I think 1 might have some other sort of drm attached to it, but Steam's store doesn't list any.

The only thing I remember was needing to jump through some registration hoops for the Bring Down The Sky DLC, but while that's still done outside of Steam, it looks like it's now a simple code-free download (https://help.ea.com/article/mass-effect-bring-down-the-sky-dlc-redemption).
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 06:40:51 AM
You know, I don't actually mind having no multiplayer. I really only care about having the DLC.

Steam will not be getting 3 ever. The reason EA and Steam have parted ways on a lot of games is because EA refused to have their in game DLC for sale on the steam system. That's why Dragon age 2 is gone, and crysis 2 is only on there in "maximum edition" (read: all dlc included)

Due to the nature of ME3's multiplayer box bullshit, there won't be a way that it will get to steam without the multiplayer being entirely defunct first.

I wouldn't say "ever", because money. But, point taken.

I'm not installing uplay though.

This is all such a pain though. Maybe I should just try to remain unaffected as always.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Ziiro on November 21, 2013, 07:01:33 AM
Uplay is Ubisoft, Origin is EA.

But yea, I get your point.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on November 21, 2013, 07:02:01 AM
mongrel do you actually not know the difference between uplay and origin or is this a hilarious jape
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 07:40:30 AM
I don't usually pay attention to company-owned Steam alternatives. From context, I'd mistakenly assumed that uplay was Origin's distribution thingy.

Wait, so why do you need to activate ME3 on uplay if they have nothing to do with this?

Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: TA on November 21, 2013, 07:53:00 AM
I don't usually pay attention to company-owned Steam alternatives. From context, I'd mistakenly assumed that uplay was Origin's distribution thingy.

Wait, so why do you need to activate ME3 on uplay if they have nothing to do with this?

You don't.  All the references to uplay have been complete nonsense.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 08:32:45 AM
You can only get 3 activated on uplay.

What did this mean then? Confused? Maybe BB meant to say Origins?

I guess that takes me back to my question about what DRM schemes the various copies of the game has? It looks like it's just "You have to have Origin/Steam". But I can definitely live quite happily without ever installing Origin.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Beat Bandit on November 21, 2013, 02:53:51 PM
Yup! I've just had uplay on the mind because of Mighty Quest for Epic Loot (it's pretty dope (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpmjlcuVmtA))

My Bee
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 03:58:56 PM
Was looking at the list of available DLC.

Jesus Christ, how much DLC is available for this game?!
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on November 21, 2013, 04:58:07 PM
PC Gaming Wiki (http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_3rd_Party_DRM_on_Steam) says of ME1:
Quote
Found on the DLC installers only, SecuROM removable post-installation. 3 machine limit.
And ME2:
Quote
Single-player only.
Whatever the fuck that means.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on November 21, 2013, 05:23:04 PM
Was looking at the list of available DLC.

Jesus Christ, how much DLC is available for this game?!

There's a fucking ton, but the only stuff I'd bother with is the extra characters (some of whom are on-disc promos for people buying the game new—Zaeed being the only one I can remember) and the final ME2 mission that leads into the beginning of ME3. I guess ME3 might have some good stuff, but technically I still haven't finished that game.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 05:38:14 PM
Seems like there's a lot of extra missions in there too?

A couple friends have all described the DLC as "About 5% of the game in terms of size about but 40% of the fun".
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: jsnlxndrlv on November 21, 2013, 05:54:35 PM
The only ones I can remember are Kasumi's mission, Zaeed's mission, and the bridging mission between ME2 and ME3... but considering that I can remember a lot more about the first and last of those examples than I can even many of the interstitial missions in the games proper, your friends might be on to something.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 21, 2013, 06:37:09 PM
The consensus was that Bring Down the Sky was the #1 one to have, but to also try and get as much DLC as possible.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on November 22, 2013, 08:12:24 AM
If you play and enjoy ME1, then Shadow Broker is incredible for ME2, and highly recommended.  Arrival for ME2 is important in terms of bridging things for the third game.  Overlord for ME2 is pretty dumb.  For ME3, From Ashes should basically be goddamn required.  The character it adds brings more to the game than just about anything else could in terms of interesting dialogue.  I never got around to playing Citadel, but apparently it's the "all the characters get one final Star Trek episode romp chance to shine" setup that everyone actually wanted for the end of ME3.

Bring Down the Sky is good, but it's also not important to the overall narrative or structure.  It's just a good, solid ME1 mission. 

Thaaaat's all I remember.  There's a few other dumb one-off mission ones (wasn't the jumping tank lava planet thing a ME2 DLC?) but nothing that's really incredibly worth it.  But they were all worth what I LEGITIMATELY PAID for each and every one of them.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 22, 2013, 08:57:47 AM
Is the DLC for 1 or 2 even available on Steam? All I see is the game, be it the deluxe version (which is actually 1 & 2 combined). Do you get the DLC elsewhere or is it included with PC purchase? (the ME1 DLC seems to maybe be included with all PC version purchases?)

If it is separate and you get it elsewhere, I guess that's where the "SecuROM on the DLC installer" is?
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on November 22, 2013, 09:11:35 AM
Bioware is terrible and makes you buy all of the DLC directly from them, and you do so with points and they never go on sale.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mazian on November 22, 2013, 09:33:21 AM
[...] for the Bring Down The Sky DLC, while that's still done outside of Steam, it looks like it's now a simple code-free download (https://help.ea.com/article/mass-effect-bring-down-the-sky-dlc-redemption).

The other ME1 DLC, Pinnacle Station, is terrible - just a "battle simulation" pack, no plot, no reason to pay money for it.  BDtS is free.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 22, 2013, 11:06:48 AM
Bioware is terrible and makes you buy all of the DLC directly from them, and you do so with points and they never go on sale.

This sounds less and less like something I even want to play, let alone buy (which I am still on the fence about).

Christ, when did games get this complicated.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 22, 2013, 11:09:29 AM
Like, I do sort of want to play a cool and lavish space RPG/shooter, sure. That's absolutely something I'd enjoy.

But my primary motive is actually just to be able to understand the jokes on makanidotdot's art blog. There's a low bar for my walking away here.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Niku on November 22, 2013, 11:15:18 AM
LEGITIMATELY PAYING for Mass Effect was the best MORAL choice I ever made

+5 renegade

fuck you i don't want my ethics to be that transparent anyway
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on November 22, 2013, 11:19:31 AM
Someone just send Mongrel a 360 or PS3 copy of the ME Trilogy
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Mongrel on November 22, 2013, 11:30:49 AM
Someone just send Mongrel a 360 or PS3 copy of the ME Trilogy

:glee:

Truly, you are a master of your craft. 
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Thad on November 23, 2013, 04:08:02 PM
Christ, when did games get this complicated.

About the point EA bought BioWare.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: on November 23, 2013, 07:35:58 PM
I've played ME1 & 2, and got ME3 on the 360 for $5 or so at Gamestop a week or two after it came out. Never touched SP, just did MP with friends. Read up on the entire bullshit, went nope nope nope. They're decent games, Mongrel, but nothing that will make your mass erect, so at this point in complexity, just look up the clips of Shepard decking the reporter on youtube and call it good.
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Dooly on November 23, 2013, 10:50:46 PM
If you play and enjoy ME1, then Shadow Broker is incredible for ME2, and highly recommended.  Arrival for ME2 is important in terms of bridging things for the third game.  Overlord for ME2 is pretty dumb.  For ME3, From Ashes should basically be goddamn required.  The character it adds brings more to the game than just about anything else could in terms of interesting dialogue.  I never got around to playing Citadel, but apparently it's the "all the characters get one final Star Trek episode romp chance to shine" setup that everyone actually wanted for the end of ME3.

Wasn't Leviathan pretty much "Give EA Fifteen Dollars to Give the Ending Some Context?"
Title: Re: Effects of Mass
Post by: Smiler on November 24, 2013, 05:31:11 AM
Leviathan basically just reworded the ending, and also made it even shittier by giving it slightly more context.