Oh yeah, I've been playing Andromeda. It's not great but it's fine. I've been skipping all the quests that don't relate to my crewmates or creating outposts and I've been having a pretty good time. Still feels like it was rushed out the door.
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Mass Effect General Thread: This is My Favorite Thread on Talking Time
- Thread starter Issun
- Start date
Most of that DLC is horse armor, (weapons/costumes) the substantive DLC is good, as are the non-genocidal Mass Effect 3 endings, but even a bad ending doesn't have to ruin an experience for you. BUT far be it from me to say anyone "needs" to play anything. A lot to do on this earth!
That's right.
Mass Effect 3 contained both the best and the worst writing the series.
The DLC for the series included multiple full-size missions in addition to piddly little add-ons.
Games good. I've long since come to terms with the dumb ending and am ready to return to them.
The DLC for the series included multiple full-size missions in addition to piddly little add-ons.
Games good. I've long since come to terms with the dumb ending and am ready to return to them.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
They were all brilliant, wonderful games and I'm especially excited to see FemShep getting so much screen time in the trailer.
There are only a couple DLCs that add any significant time to the playthrough. The three I'd call out are Shadow Broker for making Liara slightly interesting for once, Leviathan for filling in some significant background lore and Citadel for being a wonderful absurd goodbye party to the characters in the trilogy.
There are only a couple DLCs that add any significant time to the playthrough. The three I'd call out are Shadow Broker for making Liara slightly interesting for once, Leviathan for filling in some significant background lore and Citadel for being a wonderful absurd goodbye party to the characters in the trilogy.
The revised ending is the only only ending in the game.
New ending is obligatory. Also no more Pinnacle Station. (will miss the apartment only)
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Decided I'm going to get the remaster. I love these games and I'm also really pleased to see they're changing the camera angles so Miranda's ass isn't the focus as much. I look forward to a day where there is no more boob armor or lingerie or skin tight anything on female characters in games or at least DLC that is baggy sweatpants/hoodies or only beefy armor like male characters have. That ain't happening anytime soon but maybe someday.
I'm trying to think of what kind of run I'd like to attempt for the remaster.
I could go for the ultimate failure Shepard, who makes all the worst and most contradictory decisions (for instance: kill the Rachni Queen, then recruit her horrible Reaper-clone abomination for the war effort, resulting in horrific sabotage), makes enemies of all possible NPCs, gets as many squadmates killed as possible without resulting in the nonstandard game over after the Suicide Mission (ideally by personally killing as many of them as possible), hosts the saddest Citadel party ever, ends up locked into the bad ending, and leaves the galaxy in an unstable condition even if it weren't fucked, all while being incredibly handsome.
This, however, would be incompatible with (I'm pretty sure) the most arcane sidequest in the series:
I could go for more flexible but still obscure challenges. Some squadmates can't ever be killed in any permutation, but there are a few like Miranda who are simply very hard to get killed, so I could arrange for them to die in the rarest way possible. I could go for a run where I meet or use the maximum number of replacement characters: Wreav, Morinth, Padok Wiks, Admiral Xen, Dr. Michel, and so forth.
Contariwise, I could set it up so that characters who usually do die, such as Mordin, instead survive all the way to the end. It takes a very rare combination of circumstances in order to make that one happen, let me tell you.
I could go for the ultimate failure Shepard, who makes all the worst and most contradictory decisions (for instance: kill the Rachni Queen, then recruit her horrible Reaper-clone abomination for the war effort, resulting in horrific sabotage), makes enemies of all possible NPCs, gets as many squadmates killed as possible without resulting in the nonstandard game over after the Suicide Mission (ideally by personally killing as many of them as possible), hosts the saddest Citadel party ever, ends up locked into the bad ending, and leaves the galaxy in an unstable condition even if it weren't fucked, all while being incredibly handsome.
This, however, would be incompatible with (I'm pretty sure) the most arcane sidequest in the series:
In Mass Effect 2 and 3, you get an aquarium in your cabin, and you can collect various kinds of fish to populate it with. However, you have to feed these fish between every mission, or they will die.
In Mass Effect 2, after having a private dinner with Kelly Chambers (an act which, surprisingly enough, has no impact on any other romance storylines), you can ask her to feed your fish for you. If you give her this instruction, and she survives Mass Effect 2, and you encounter here again in Mass Effect 3, it turns out that she saved the fish, and you get them all back.
There is one kind of fish, the Prejek Paddlefish, that you can buy in Mass Effect 2 that cannot be obtained by any other means in Mass Effect 3 than by getting it back from Kelly.
Your fish carry over in New Game+. If you start NG+ with a Prejek Paddlefish and keep it alive throughout the entire game, then start another NG+, you will be able to research an upgrade that gives you +10% to either weapon damage or power damage.
In Mass Effect 2, after having a private dinner with Kelly Chambers (an act which, surprisingly enough, has no impact on any other romance storylines), you can ask her to feed your fish for you. If you give her this instruction, and she survives Mass Effect 2, and you encounter here again in Mass Effect 3, it turns out that she saved the fish, and you get them all back.
There is one kind of fish, the Prejek Paddlefish, that you can buy in Mass Effect 2 that cannot be obtained by any other means in Mass Effect 3 than by getting it back from Kelly.
Your fish carry over in New Game+. If you start NG+ with a Prejek Paddlefish and keep it alive throughout the entire game, then start another NG+, you will be able to research an upgrade that gives you +10% to either weapon damage or power damage.
I could go for more flexible but still obscure challenges. Some squadmates can't ever be killed in any permutation, but there are a few like Miranda who are simply very hard to get killed, so I could arrange for them to die in the rarest way possible. I could go for a run where I meet or use the maximum number of replacement characters: Wreav, Morinth, Padok Wiks, Admiral Xen, Dr. Michel, and so forth.
Contariwise, I could set it up so that characters who usually do die, such as Mordin, instead survive all the way to the end. It takes a very rare combination of circumstances in order to make that one happen, let me tell you.
I actually had no idea Mordin could survive. That scene really wrecked me the first time around.
In my first playthrough around 7-8 years ago, my Shepard was the perfect galactic goody-two-shoes Paragron, beloved by everyone he met. He was Soldier class through all three games and bedded his Boring Space Boyfriend, Kaidan. This time I think I'll mix it up! I hear Vanguard is a good time, and I think I'll play Femshep so I can get it on with Garrus. I'd say "this time I'll go Renegade" but I know myself, and I'm too much of a weenie to ever be an asshole in games. Maybe I'll just be a slightly snarky Paragon this time.
Looking forward to revisiting this world.
In my first playthrough around 7-8 years ago, my Shepard was the perfect galactic goody-two-shoes Paragron, beloved by everyone he met. He was Soldier class through all three games and bedded his Boring Space Boyfriend, Kaidan. This time I think I'll mix it up! I hear Vanguard is a good time, and I think I'll play Femshep so I can get it on with Garrus. I'd say "this time I'll go Renegade" but I know myself, and I'm too much of a weenie to ever be an asshole in games. Maybe I'll just be a slightly snarky Paragon this time.
Looking forward to revisiting this world.
Absolutely rude they make you flirt with Kelly to keep your fish (will never) but also she’s (presumably) turned into a husk if you don’t, which is interesting.
First, make sure Wrex dies on Virmire so that Wreav becomes the head of Clan Urdnot.
Second, make sure that Maelon's test data is not recovered. It's easier to do this by destroying it at the end of Mordin's loyalty mission, because that makes it more likely Mordin will survive, but you can do it by skipping the mission. Doing this will ensure that Eve dies.
If Mordin is alive, he'll be there trying to repair the sabotage to the Shroud. But with Wreav as the leader of the Krogan and Eve dead, you have the option to persuade him to let the sabotage stand without shooting him. Wreav will be none the wiser about your betrayal and lend the support of the Krogan to the war effort, the Sakarians will acknowledge your aid and give you their support, and Mordin himself will also become a war asset. He'll also be available to call on Earth.
Second, make sure that Maelon's test data is not recovered. It's easier to do this by destroying it at the end of Mordin's loyalty mission, because that makes it more likely Mordin will survive, but you can do it by skipping the mission. Doing this will ensure that Eve dies.
If Mordin is alive, he'll be there trying to repair the sabotage to the Shroud. But with Wreav as the leader of the Krogan and Eve dead, you have the option to persuade him to let the sabotage stand without shooting him. Wreav will be none the wiser about your betrayal and lend the support of the Krogan to the war effort, the Sakarians will acknowledge your aid and give you their support, and Mordin himself will also become a war asset. He'll also be available to call on Earth.
Well, bought the LE on Steam. Guess we'll see if I can manage to break my streak of always going paragon because renegade all too often boils down to being willfully dumb or spiteful for no reason.
That is it, you’ve broken the code of every “morality” system in video games!
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I can't remember the NPC name right now, but the fanboy guy was broken in ME2 and only did dialogue as if you'd been mean to him in ME1. I wonder if they'll fix that, I've always been curious what his "nice" dialogue was.
Some of the Renegade options are simply too good to ignore, but following them consistently doesn't add up to a coherent character the way Paragon options do. Mass Effect, for me, is a game about being a space hero, with a really obvious villain in Cerberus.
The Renegade options that add up to Shepard taking advantage of their authority to use as much violence as they want as long as they can justify it under their very broad mandate, or Shepard being skeptical about whether mutual aliens can actually get along, or Shepard thinking this whole thing would be easier if somebody were dead - those paint a good picture of a cunning and audacious hardass. Playing such a role is a transgressive fantasy, and it leads to some very dramatic outcomes too.
But the Renegade options that are basically Shepard saying they kinda think Cerberus has a point this time, those are more problematic. Not because there are no situations where it makes sense for Shepard to sympathize with their point of view, and not because the series decisively resolves the ambiguity about the nature of Cerberus by making it clear they're simply the galaxy's most incompetent mad scientists, but because "Shepard the enthusiastic Cerberus recruit" is inconsistent with "Shepard the judge, jury, and executioner of space scumbags." They're different kinds of transgressive fantasy.
Meanwhile, it's much easier to reconcile the disparate parts of a Paragon Shepard. They appeal to people's better nature; they defer to legitimate authority; they believe everything's better when people get along. It's a fantasy of a different sort to be someone whose convictions as much as their strength allows justice to prevail.
The coexistence of these two kinds of fantasy in the same game creates a certain kind of tension as well. The secret of Mass Effect, as well as many other games with a morality system, is that they reward the player's choices by revealing that they were right to have chosen that way. That means that any decision motivated by imagining that Shepard thinks the opposite alignment's outcome is impossible may be less compelling to the player (depending on how exactly they've suspended their disbelief), and it's Renegade choices that are more likely to get that kind of option.
Really, though, it's a good system because it really sells the illusion that things might turn out at least superficially differently. The mere existence of an opposite option makes the player feel much more attached to the outcomes they saw.
The Renegade options that add up to Shepard taking advantage of their authority to use as much violence as they want as long as they can justify it under their very broad mandate, or Shepard being skeptical about whether mutual aliens can actually get along, or Shepard thinking this whole thing would be easier if somebody were dead - those paint a good picture of a cunning and audacious hardass. Playing such a role is a transgressive fantasy, and it leads to some very dramatic outcomes too.
But the Renegade options that are basically Shepard saying they kinda think Cerberus has a point this time, those are more problematic. Not because there are no situations where it makes sense for Shepard to sympathize with their point of view, and not because the series decisively resolves the ambiguity about the nature of Cerberus by making it clear they're simply the galaxy's most incompetent mad scientists, but because "Shepard the enthusiastic Cerberus recruit" is inconsistent with "Shepard the judge, jury, and executioner of space scumbags." They're different kinds of transgressive fantasy.
Meanwhile, it's much easier to reconcile the disparate parts of a Paragon Shepard. They appeal to people's better nature; they defer to legitimate authority; they believe everything's better when people get along. It's a fantasy of a different sort to be someone whose convictions as much as their strength allows justice to prevail.
The coexistence of these two kinds of fantasy in the same game creates a certain kind of tension as well. The secret of Mass Effect, as well as many other games with a morality system, is that they reward the player's choices by revealing that they were right to have chosen that way. That means that any decision motivated by imagining that Shepard thinks the opposite alignment's outcome is impossible may be less compelling to the player (depending on how exactly they've suspended their disbelief), and it's Renegade choices that are more likely to get that kind of option.
Really, though, it's a good system because it really sells the illusion that things might turn out at least superficially differently. The mere existence of an opposite option makes the player feel much more attached to the outcomes they saw.
Some of the Renegade interrupts in 2/3 are good, the rest I can leave because there's no real throughpoint to the scale; it's just xenophobic hyperaggression which is not so much a moral/ethical position as a lack of one. There's no ethos to it, which is pretty fucking important in a series where you can talk villains into defeating themselves given the right dialogue options.
Like, if you wanted to sell Renegade as the lone hero cutting his way through red tape and enemies like every blockbuster movie hero instead of Paragon's more Star Trek captain route I could get behind that. I still probably wouldn't do a full run of it outside of satisfying my curiosity, but it'd be a more valid option than Renegade as it existed (and probably still does).
Like, if you wanted to sell Renegade as the lone hero cutting his way through red tape and enemies like every blockbuster movie hero instead of Paragon's more Star Trek captain route I could get behind that. I still probably wouldn't do a full run of it outside of satisfying my curiosity, but it'd be a more valid option than Renegade as it existed (and probably still does).
The one interrupt I will always remember is the choice in 2 on whether to shoot the dickhead Krogan baddie in the middle of his "you won't shoot me" speech. It was the only time I had my Shep kill someone unarmed, but in the situation it felt like the time for Shep to do the unexpected, and it's little moments like that that make me remember the game so fondly and look forward to replaying it.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Coworker and I were talking about this today and I mentioned to her that you can complete ME1 without recruiting Garrus which she didn't know! Then we were both sad that you have to recruit Liara. God I tried so hard to move the plot forward without her.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
She's whiny and pointless in ME1. I've noticed all the other female scientist gamers I know also hate her* (until Shadow Broker came out and she slightly had a purpose) so there's also this frustration about the portrayal of a female scientist, as in ME1 she's just a weak, whiny sex object who needs help and comforting all the time. But this is one of the things I'm curious to revisit and see if my feelings have changed, or if I can now express them more eloquently.
Actually, this reminded me that my husband once wrote into a podcast about how I did this (note: I did not become best buds with Liara in ME3, he's wrong about that, she was just easier to put on the sidelines). Starts at 56 minutes. Now I need to decide if I want to bring back Resting Bitchface Shepard.
*One of the board members of the women's group at my old job WENT OFF on Liara once during a meeting and it was probably the greatest women's group meeting of my life. She even called her a dumb bitch in a rage, then paused because she realized what language she just used but then the rest of the group was like "yeah that checks out".
Actually, this reminded me that my husband once wrote into a podcast about how I did this (note: I did not become best buds with Liara in ME3, he's wrong about that, she was just easier to put on the sidelines). Starts at 56 minutes. Now I need to decide if I want to bring back Resting Bitchface Shepard.
*One of the board members of the women's group at my old job WENT OFF on Liara once during a meeting and it was probably the greatest women's group meeting of my life. She even called her a dumb bitch in a rage, then paused because she realized what language she just used but then the rest of the group was like "yeah that checks out".
I only did one reload to get better outcome. It was to stop a thing with Tali in 3. Man she rules
I know what thing you're talking about. I managed to avoid that, and read about it later. It would have ripped me apart