Mass Effect

the vibe and soundtrack in the first one are all-time, it's a shame they went down the orchestral bombast route in the other games.

That's too bad, soundtrack is awesome.

I beat the game this weekend, and I did not expect to get so wrapped up in it! Obviously the parts where you decide who lives (RIP Council). Now to free up space on my HD to be able to download ME2.

Started playing and when I saw Tali on the first real mission I was like YAY getting the team back together! But then noooo, she wouldn't come with and then my entire team from the first game is scattered across the stars, and even though I only ever used T and L, the remoteness made me sad.

Am I right in thinking that Miranda is an indispensable if not OP member to have on your team? And that teaming her with Jack covers most enemy types?

And am I also right in thinking that "Mass" stands for "Miranda's ass"?

Am I right in thinking that Miranda is an indispensable if not OP member to have on your team?

None of them are indispensable in terms of gameplay, I think. Your choices really only affect the story.

Did the Shadow Broker missions last night, excepting for how long they were, hella fun, probably because I've gotten a hang of the combat mechanics now.

In the mission where you recruit Kelly, there's a room with a damaged Geth crawling on the ground -- I punched it dead right away, but then I thought it looked like a Quarian and I was really bothered by the possibility that I killed it.

Two ME games in, and there's yet to be a vehicle-confined mission/assignment that isn't painful. (Well OK, the Shadow Broker chase isn't too bad, since I don't have to shoot anything.)

I beat ME2 yesterday! But two of my squad died (because I didn't get the sub-team assignments right, everything else is set up for an "Everybody lives!" ending), so thankfully there's an autosave where I can restart the entire mission (I overwrote the one save file I have).

Like, what was I thinking putting a tank-born krogan in charge of a squad?

It might be rudimentary, but I really liked how the ME2 ending lets you choose different team members to lead different squads or perform a specialized task to create the sense of teamwork (beyond having your two AI squaddies shooting enemies). Hearing my tech specialist tell me that it's getting hot in the pipes definitely immersed me further.

Started into ME3, I finished the Priority: Tuchanka mission, and omg, Mordin! Right in the heart!

This installment feels like the most fully inhabited in that I actually enjoy the conversations with the characters. The dialogue is generally sharper (even if a lot of Shep's dialogue branches still have that bad habit of paraphrasing the preceding statement) and the characters have more concrete personalities.

Gameplay-wise, I don't enjoy the combat as much as I ended up liking ME2 (of course, that may just be the learning curve), but one thing for certain is that my left hand hurts from holding the L1 button down so much.

The War Asset mechanic thing seems promising in that decisions seem to be a little more consequential, specifically that some decisions invariably involve tradeoffs no matter your paragon/renegade level -- I'm thinking of the Salarian who wanted me to sabotage the genophage cure.

Oh noes I missed the Thane cameo permanently. :(

Which was better, ME1 or 2?

ME2 easily. The writing is generally better (ME1 has too much extraneous detail that made it easy to lose track of what was going on), your squadmates are better developed, and obviously the gameplay is better.

Finished the game yesterday! I kind of stopped following the details of the main plot by the middle of ME1, so the plotholes don't bother me so much; the ending(s) don't seem horrible (aside from the possibility that Tali gets stranded on an alien planet after just helping to reclaim Rannoch, that is some cold Exodus-style blue balling) and in fact had some great pathos IMO.

So: loved the character interactions (in other RPGs I have little patience for running around my ship to see if ally dialogue is unlocked, but in ME3 it was a highlight of the game), gameplay not so much (the last level that spams Banshees == no thanks (I finally cheesed it by using tactical cloak to get to the goal)).

I'm envious of the fact you've been able to play these back to back, odd thing about playing them as they got released meant that through ME3 I was bumping into minor NPCs who were telling me about the outcomes of choices I'd made 5 years earlier, and I had no memory of the characters or of anything they were talking about.

lol I don't know about that, I finished a bunch of ME3-specific side quests where Shepard sez "Here's this thing you said you needed" to some NPC and I have no idea when I picked it up or even talked to the NPC.

Apparently the Citadel DLC is the exact sort of fanservice that I want but $15??? I paid $30 for the whole trilogy!

Are there ever any DLC sales?

Found a copy of the "Legendary" edition for $10. I will get around to it in ... 2024.

https://kotaku.com/playstation-plus-mass-effect-legendary-biomutant-leaks-1847556405

You're welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC2ib_efdRs

https://kotaku.com/mass-effect-teaser-n7-day-andromeda-1850999958

Gonna have to play the original trilogy (for the first time) this winter.

Looking forward to you finding out that the people fueling the ME3 ending controversy were screaming babies.

I played ME3 not having played any previous entries so my response to the ending was entirely "???".

I thought the whole deal with the series is that each one builds on the previous, and your decisions matter? Funny you started with ME3.

Don't know anything about a controversial ME3 ending, except that people don't like "Andromeda."

The non spoiler summary of the controversy is that you get presented with the same set of choices at the end no matter what character and story routes you took in all the preceding gameplay, and supposedly contradicted the "choices matter" ethos of the series. As someone who doesn't believe in free will, I didn't much mind.

An illusion of choice is an apt summation of countless video games. It's an aspect of their novelty, that they can produce compelling gameplay even when the typical conclusion (survival! victory!) is preordained.