Topic: Effects of Mass (Read 67008 times)

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #200 on:** January 11, 2010, 05:42:14 PM »

Quote from: 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.

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.

Detonator · « **Reply #201 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 :(

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #202 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.

Doom · « **Reply #203 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]

Doom · « **Reply #204 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]

yyler · « **Reply #205 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.

Doom · « **Reply #206 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.

yyler · « **Reply #207 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.

TA · « **Reply #208 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.

yyler · « **Reply #209 on:** January 13, 2010, 05:30:18 PM »

Perhaps they'd have more dimensions if they ever said anything?

yyler · « **Reply #210 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.

Detonator · « **Reply #211 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.

Thad · « **Reply #212 on:** January 15, 2010, 10:18:26 PM »

Quote from: 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.

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

Quote from: Doom on January 13, 2010, 10:55:10 AM

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.)

Quote from: 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.

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.

Detonator · « **Reply #213 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.

Quote from: Thad on January 15, 2010, 10:18:26 PM

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.

Rico · « **Reply #214 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.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #215 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.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY

TA · « **Reply #216 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?

Ted Belmont · « **Reply #217 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.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #218 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. I think.

Thad · « **Reply #219 on:** January 21, 2010, 09:37:30 PM »

Quote from: Detonator on January 16, 2010, 10:46:36 AM

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.)

Quote from: Detonator on January 16, 2010, 10:46:36 AM

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.

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Author Topic: Effects of Mass (Read 67008 times)