Mass Effect

I've almost got to 100% galactic readiness and I can be done with multiplayer.

I went from 50-100% readiness in 6 (or so) hours of multiplayer last night and today (25% xp bonus weekend). Fell in with some good players for most of the evening. Revived most of the time even on bronze. Probably would have been better if I had a headset.

Biggest faults: Aside from the reactor and Tuchanka map, they're all on the small side. I spent 100s of thousands in credits for random packages and never got a lightweight assault rifle (M-15 or M-96) suitable for an Adept. Stuck pling-plinging away with a Locust SMG.

I've got this pistol, I forget the name but it shoots projectiles that stick to the enemy then explode. It's been pretty sweet.

this is circulating
http://i39.tinypic.com/1gnlw2.jpg

altho it's pretty lame how this "laid off so secrets of the universe revealed" phenom has been such a continual occurrence. i'm partial to this one as well, mostly considering a) dragon age 2 was far past an "alpha stage b) the volus antag thing sounds like some serious trolling.

Are there spoilers in that link?

heres a cool read http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/23/mass-effect-3-ending-what-do-game-writers-think/

that pastebin i posted up above is by a bioware writer who posted it on the pennyarcade forums, he admits that the ending was written by one guy with autism and wasnt reviewed by any of the other writers which is completely against hte norm for any of their mission writing

i enjoy your gloss on it

otm

hilarious, heated "debate" in the comments thread over whether the asari in mass effect count as biologically female or not:

http://io9.com/5890426/why-did-bioware-add-a-gay-option-to-mass-effect-3?tag=space-opera

kinda cool article about the gear used to make the music of ME3 http://toksin.tumblr.com/post/17925900472/the-music-of-mass-effect-3-synthtopia

ending was shite

Beat this last night finally. Didn't mind the ending, actually sort of hilarious. I thought it mimicked real life in that you really only had the illusion of free will throughout the game. Everything will almost always turn out the same anyway. With different color explosions.

i wasn't so left with a feeling of being mugged as by the illusion of choice (just a half-assed move by bioware, there) than the closing scene involving joker and edi ready to get jiggy with it on a private island resort planet. and then those smarmy fucking credits: "Project Director: Casey Hudson" with the boogie-down music was the point in which blood started flowing to my head and i couldn't fucking believe they could ruin a series in a matter of minutes.

you really only had the illusion of free will throughout the game. Everything will almost always turn out the same anyway. With different color explosions.

― Jeff, Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:53 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SRSLY

to think that in ME2, when deciding whether save the genophage cure data, i actually went to length of putting down the controller and thinking it through whilst taking a piss, coming to the painful decision to save the data as i shook out the last driblets of urine

bioware, you dicks

Spoilers. Saving the genophage data does allow Eve (the fertile Krogan shaman) to live in ME3, and its pretty clear that the Krogan are doomed to more apocalyptic expansionist and/or intraclan warfare post Reapers without the females having a stronger voice.

BioWare Announces Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

Wow.

http://www.joystiq.com/screenshots/the-gallery-of-questionable-shepards/#/0

So I just played all three games for the first time over the past month or so.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I couldn't figure out why people hated the ending, save the oddness that the Normandy was flying through a Mass Relay and the kind of quick "that's it!" but I also didn't mind. It felt like the game was all about sacrifice and inevitable doom anyway, and I really loved some of the character stuff (basically Liara and Shepherd as bros was really pretty moving tbh). 3 had a great, epic feel to it, and even if the ending wasn't some amazing thing (though I had no issues with the god child thing), it didn't do a disservice to those quality Garrus moments, or the Mordin death scene. I chose to kill the Quarians, but that's because somehow I made a stupid decision and Tali died in 2 despite me having ~~romanced~~ her. It's all a bit RTD-era Who, though, in that the build up to the finale is fantastic and the actual finale is inevitably a let down. Had a great time, and as I don't play video games very often, I was quite surprised how taken I was with the universe and some of the characters.

Mordin :~(

that gallery is great

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/shep4-1334155217.jpg
http://www.joystiq.com/screenshots/the-gallery-of-questionable-shepards/#/10

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/ugshep3.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox?ie=UTF8&ref_=pe_26410_20202130#

29.99 today only

thanks for the heads up. purchased.

am i crazy or is that a sign that it's about to be a much cheaper game to get?

not necessarily

Decide app says Buy now

It's the third highest selling game this week, so it would maybe be a little early to make it a platinum hit.

Prices will rise or hold steady with 83% Confidence

Amazon often does these one-day, half-off deals. I don't think it's indicative of a price-drop.

if you miss it check out walmart, they also knocked it down to 30 for a spell, it is definitely going back up to 60 after though, according to people who work there? some thing i saw on reddit, anyway.

http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2012/04/23/laser-time-special-the-end-of-mass-effect/

neat little podcast covering the series

Anyone downloaded the new ending?

i haven't even gotten past the 5 or 6th mission in the full game. i met up w/ jack, met that arachni queen that i saved in game one, said hello to krogan friends and then stopped logging in.

I'm still playing the multiplayer despite having quit the single player halfway through.

New ending was more story, which was needed. Still the same endings though, which I'm ok with.

I'm still slowly slugging through this, just up to the bit with the quarians and the geth. Bloody bored of it though, the combat was never hugely fun anyway but I think I've hobbled it for myself even more by switching to the engineer class this time round - fights come down to "chuck in gun turret, chuck in combat drone, wait 2 mins for everyone to die, continue". So I'm only playing for the story at this point. Got the new endings downloaded, which means I'll never even get to see the original ones.

The multiplayer is really fun. I was not expecting it to be good at all. However once you play it the combat in single player is zzzzzzz - at least until the very end when it's somewhat challenging.

The free expansions are what really has helped keep it fresh. For a guy like me who doesn't really like shooting that much, all the different biotic power options are great. Co-op against computer enemies is my favorite kind of multiplayer. Wish they'd come up with something more mission based and less pure horde.

Bought this cheap on Sunday, blew my American Labor Day playing it. I enjoy it, but some of the combat is kinda bleah. Am playing as FemShep with the default character model as I like Jennifer Hale's voice better and I enjoy the idea of a galaxy-saving Commander as this cute green-eyed freckled redhead.

Kinda want to throttle who wrote the dialog as the expository stuff is so clunky and horrid while the more character-revealing interactions are far, far better. Was surprised that even a secondary character like Primarch Victus had a great performance.

Other things: nice that they still got the ass shot of Miranda in her brief appearances, and the Allers/Jessica Chobot character model has something deeply wrong with the construction of her face. This weird bulging cheeks/dead eye combo that makes her look like a Chucky doll.

Laughed at the fact that your initial dude sidekick is a full-on tatted-up fauxhawked MMA-type bro.

The Krogans are fun and I like their voice-work.

Glad that they brought Mordin back, as I think he's the best auxiliary character who has the highest contrast with the rest of the crew.

As buying the deluxe digital pack, you get a little robot dog mech that wanders around the hanger. It's name is "Kei-9", naturally.

The emotional vibe is so jarring to start the game and quickly slam into this intergalactic war. The characters sound so shell-shocked and war-weary that fast that my reaction was, "Dude, what are you talking about? Ive only been playing this game for two hours."

Download the mod that adds film grain; it's a nice touch that they took out for who knows why.

What branch of the military are these guys supposed to be, anyway? Can we assume in the post-solar Terran combined military that all branches combined into one thing, with mixed up titles? You're obviously in a navy with Admirals and are the "master & commander" of your ship, but "marine" and "soldier" are tossed around a lot.

These are the kinda things I somehow think about whilst gaming and drinking a good amount of beer.

i bought ME3 as it was on sale.
I now have all three volumes for 360
i have yet to play this at all. Maybe this holiday

You'll have a bit of a clunky start, as ME1 famously has some bits it took until the 2nd release to lock down.

also, at some point, the characters in the game are so great that it's like you only play missions just to increment the story so you can come back and talk to the characters again.

Anyone for multiplayer?

I still play the multiplayer some, but fyi I don't use headsets. polyphonique

lol remember when people got really mad over this game's ending

and then insane nerds crashed a poll of worst companies ever and got EA to beat out bank of america

in the middle of Mass Effect I now, as I continue playing all the games I bought on holiday sales a long time ago. This game seems great! I think we're gonna make it with an alien, (s)he's got a hot voice. about 15 hours in now, the combat is getting easy & rote, but there are surprises still: the thresher maw on some planet we explored, the geth colossus.