Mass Effect Series Catch-All

Yeah I've romanced both Garrus and Thane as femshep. Great stuff.

In all the replays I've ever done or thought about, I've never considered keeping Kaidan alive, much less romancing him.

My headcanon is Femshep and Liara are an item, and Kaiden always lives. YMMV

What I was trying to get at is that they've done a great job making Kaidan a far different character than Ashley. What I'm hoping for are that the interactions between Shepard and Kaidan in ME2 and ME3 aren't just the same lines of dialogue as Ashley. He comes off as understanding and accepting. She wears her xenophobia on her sleeve.

But I'd forgotten you could romance Thane. That might make the hospital scene all the more devastating.

Ashley kinda should be the understanding one. She would have fit well in Cerberus.

Shadout wrote:

Ashley kinda should be the understanding one. She would have fit well in Cerberus.

If only the limitations in ME2 let her have more than a glorified cameo.

Ok. Insanity run of ME1 down. All achievements acquired, all missions (except collection missions) accomplished, level 60 reached. Time for ME2. And steam doesn't want to recognize that I own all the DLC for it. Looks like I'm stuck with Origin.

So much truth:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIw68T_XUAAUBSH?format=jpg&name=900x900)

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/vf0zsab6ekwz.jpg)

Happy N7 day!

Think I am going to go home and do a round or two of ME3 multiplayer before my GF gets there.

I am resisting. But I am weak.

I tried streaming Mass Effect 2 without any texture mods.

It did not go well. ^^

For some weird reason I prefer the original textures.

BadKen wrote:

For some weird reason I prefer the original textures.

Was there something wrong with the original textures? I played Mass Effect 2 for the first time earlier this year (I'm in the midst of the third game right now in fact), and I don't remember thinking them ugly, except for perhaps a few crude civilian clothing textures that looked like they were kept on from Mass Effect 1.

(Of course, Mass Effect isn't the only game series I'm behind on, so maybe I just don't appreciate how much better recent games look in comparison.)

Ravanon wrote:
BadKen wrote:

For some weird reason I prefer the original textures.

Was there something wrong with the original textures? I played Mass Effect 2 for the first time earlier this year (I'm in the midst of the third game right now in fact), and I don't remember thinking them ugly, except for perhaps a few crude civilian clothing textures that looked like they were kept on from Mass Effect 1.

(Of course, Mass Effect isn't the only game series I'm behind on, so maybe I just don't appreciate how much better recent games look in comparison.)

They're fine as long as the camera is sufficiently far away, but zoomed in a lot of the textures look really, really bad. Like, I'm not the sort of person who usually even notices, but once you see pixelated zoomed in clothing during a conversation, you can't avoid seeing it from then on.

Yeah, I had to mod to even get ultrawide to work right, so I ended up doing a full-retexture thing too, downloading for all three games and to me, it's basically like doing Fallout or Elder Scrolls at this point, the game just doesn't feel right if I haven't modded it to basically modern standards of fidelity now. XD

Amusingly, the textures were easy, it's the ultrawide and getting all the "overlay" stuff to sync up that tends to be somewhat weird.

Interesting video essay by a university student done for an assignment on "morality and the common good" in his Honors English course.

Finally finished Mass Effect 3 for the first time!

So that was fun. Miscellaneous thoughts (obviously spoilers, but I'm fairly sure I'm the last person in the world to get around to finishing the series, so...):

Spoiler:

— I did a run of the full trilogy as an almost entirely-pure Paragon Adept. I was pretty happy with the results. Lots of pay-offs for choices made back in ME1 and ME2 (though arguably the fact that there is always a clear Paragon choice and Renegade choice made dilemmas a bit easier when you've already decided what kind of playthrough you're going to make).

— I romanced Tali, after starting with Ashley and getting her blown up in Virmire in ME 1 (which seemed suitably tragic for my Colonist / Sole Survivor Shepherd). I liked the Tali romance.

— I did the synthesis ending. It seemed a good choice, even if Shepherd had to sacrifice his life to do it. Actually, I was a little surprised there was a 'good' ending—based on all the complaints (see below), I went in expecting I'd have to make a more morally-ambiguous choice a la Deus Ex. Or maybe I'm just a synthetic apologist.

— Though it took me this long to get round to playing the trilogy, I remember the fuss about the ending when ME3 was just released. I also had friends commenting, when I mentioned finishing ME2, that I'd 'best stop there'. Having finished, I'm a little mystified why people had such a problem with the ending; it seemed a fitting end to Shepherd's narrative arc, even if there was sadness there. Maybe because I played the Extended Cut? Was the problem just that the endings were too abrupt in the original version?

— Yep, I get why this trilogy is so beloved.

Ravanon wrote:

Finally finished Mass Effect 3 for the first time!

So that was fun. Miscellaneous thoughts (obviously spoilers, but I'm fairly sure I'm the last person in the world to get around to finishing the series, so...):

Spoiler:

— I did a run of the full trilogy as an almost entirely-pure Paragon Adept. I was pretty happy with the results. Lots of pay-offs for choices made back in ME1 and ME2 (though arguably the fact that there is always a clear Paragon choice and Renegade choice made dilemmas a bit easier when you've already decided what kind of playthrough you're going to make).

— I romanced Tali, after starting with Ashley and getting her blown up in Virmire in ME 1 (which seemed suitably tragic for my Colonist / Sole Survivor Shepherd). I liked the Tali romance.

— I did the synthesis ending. It seemed a good choice, even if Shepherd had to sacrifice his life to do it. Actually, I was a little surprised there was a 'good' ending—based on all the complaints (see below), I went in expecting I'd have to make a more morally-ambiguous choice a la Deus Ex. Or maybe I'm just a synthetic apologist.

— Though it took me this long to get round to playing the trilogy, I remember the fuss about the ending when ME3 was just released. I also had friends commenting, when I mentioned finishing ME2, that I'd 'best stop there'. Having finished, I'm a little mystified why people had such a problem with the ending; it seemed a fitting end to Shepherd's narrative arc, even if there was sadness there. Maybe because I played the Extended Cut? Was the problem just that the endings were too abrupt in the original version?

— Yep, I get why this trilogy is so beloved.

The extended cut did help a bit. It added quite a bit to those storyboard/art sequences at the end... in your case, seeing the rebuilding of certain cultures on their homeworlds, seeing what became of a few of the crew members, etc... It also added a bit more about the motivations of the reapers and their origins... and while I get the disappointment behind that (after all, Lovecraftian horrors, but their very definition, are ultimately supposed to be impossible to comprehend)... I still liked having an answer.

Part of the problem came from what SEEMS to be something of a late rewrite going from ME2 to ME3. Now, a lot of this is less confirmed and more anecdotal but...

Spoiler:

The actual motivation for the Reapers was significantly changed from 2 to 3. Tali's original recruit mission in ME2 actually started this plot thread (as basically the second most popular companion to Garrus, her having the plot hook in her story mission made it good to drop there as everyone was super excited and paying attention)... Dark Energy and its usage basically accelerating the death of the galaxy's stars, and thus all of its life. Basically the idea was that the Reapers were supposed to be... almost psuedo-environmental protection devices (think those damn robots from No Man's Sky). This was changed into them being a way to stop basically skynet situations with AI taking over and destroying all organic life.

Few issues with BOTH endings here...
1. Ummm... so Dark Energy's usage destroys the galaxy... which is why the Reapers lead civilizations down certain technological paths that... also rely upon dark energy... wait what...

2. ME3 suddenly makes the Reapers into anti AI... which is a weird position for... AIs...

3. The Reapers assume that AI cannot NOT attack organics. Except we see that the ultimate goal of the majority of the Geth is peaceful coexistence. Separate coexistence, but none the less.

4. Depending on your choices, you can quite literally bridge even that gap and restore a positive and working relationship between the Geth and the Quarians. Like... that's an option. How is that an option in a game with a villain/antagonist group that starkly believes that's impossible? How... having done that, is that NOT something you can bring up in the final conversation with Starchild? It's like Fallout 3 and having Fauxes with you, who is immune to radiation, and him saying to you when you send him in to save everyone without needlessly sacrificing yourself to do so... "no, this is your destiny". Like, seriously? You're going to make me do the deathwalk for my destiny instead of recognizing that we all came here anyway specifically do this together as a team and your skills/attributes are best suited to this bit?

Now, to note, I don't think the game deserves anywhere NEAR the hate it receives... and I think most of the sh*ttiest fans who still to this day will go on and on about how EA destroyed Bioware and ME3 (ignoring that EA was involved in the first two as well)... I think they miss a very simple truth:

No ending would have made everyone happy. That was never going to happen. Not in a million years. It's an amazing bit of work and I love Bioware for it.

Sidenote, Rav, did you take Tali on the last mission on Earth?

Demosthenes wrote:

The extended cut did help a bit. It added quite a bit to those storyboard/art sequences at the end... in your case, seeing the rebuilding of certain cultures on their homeworlds, seeing what became of a few of the crew members, etc... It also added a bit more about the motivations of the reapers and their origins... and while I get the disappointment behind that (after all, Lovecraftian horrors, but their very definition, are ultimately supposed to be impossible to comprehend)... I still liked having an answer.

Part of the problem came from what SEEMS to be something of a late rewrite going from ME2 to ME3. Now, a lot of this is less confirmed and more anecdotal but...

Spoiler:

The actual motivation for the Reapers was significantly changed from 2 to 3. Tali's original recruit mission in ME2 actually started this plot thread (as basically the second most popular companion to Garrus, her having the plot hook in her story mission made it good to drop there as everyone was super excited and paying attention)... Dark Energy and its usage basically accelerating the death of the galaxy's stars, and thus all of its life. Basically the idea was that the Reapers were supposed to be... almost psuedo-environmental protection devices (think those damn robots from No Man's Sky). This was changed into them being a way to stop basically skynet situations with AI taking over and destroying all organic life.

Few issues with BOTH endings here...
1. Ummm... so Dark Energy's usage destroys the galaxy... which is why the Reapers lead civilizations down certain technological paths that... also rely upon dark energy... wait what...

2. ME3 suddenly makes the Reapers into anti AI... which is a weird position for... AIs...

3. The Reapers assume that AI cannot NOT attack organics. Except we see that the ultimate goal of the majority of the Geth is peaceful coexistence. Separate coexistence, but none the less.

4. Depending on your choices, you can quite literally bridge even that gap and restore a positive and working relationship between the Geth and the Quarians. Like... that's an option. How is that an option in a game with a villain/antagonist group that starkly believes that's impossible? How... having done that, is that NOT something you can bring up in the final conversation with Starchild? It's like Fallout 3 and having Fauxes with you, who is immune to radiation, and him saying to you when you send him in to save everyone without needlessly sacrificing yourself to do so... "no, this is your destiny". Like, seriously? You're going to make me do the deathwalk for my destiny instead of recognizing that we all came here anyway specifically do this together as a team and your skills/attributes are best suited to this bit?

Now, to note, I don't think the game deserves anywhere NEAR the hate it receives... and I think most of the sh*ttiest fans who still to this day will go on and on about how EA destroyed Bioware and ME3 (ignoring that EA was involved in the first two as well)... I think they miss a very simple truth:

No ending would have made everyone happy. That was never going to happen. Not in a million years. It's an amazing bit of work and I love Bioware for it.

Sidenote, Rav, did you take Tali on the last mission on Earth?

Thanks for the additional context, Demos. That all makes sense to me, but the extremeness of the reaction seemed strange to me. Because of it, I actually went into Mass Effect 3 braced for some terrible ending that I'd have to mentally separate out from the rest of the trilogy ("Mass Effect was great up until...")—so when the ending I actually got was (for all the flaws you point out) actually fine, I was left a little perplexed.

Yes, I did take Tali with me, for additional heartbreak.

Now you just need to experience the series as the real Commander Shepard

FEMSHEP FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think a big part of it is we just expect so much less from games now. There was so much wonder and promise in games back then. Mass Effect failing to deliver was one of the first major disappointments of that era. Now we're just all used to being disappointed.

Demosthenes wrote:
Spoiler:

The actual motivation for the Reapers was significantly changed from 2 to 3. Tali's original recruit mission in ME2 actually started this plot thread (as basically the second most popular companion to Garrus, her having the plot hook in her story mission made it good to drop there as everyone was super excited and paying attention)... Dark Energy and its usage basically accelerating the death of the galaxy's stars, and thus all of its life. Basically the idea was that the Reapers were supposed to be... almost psuedo-environmental protection devices (think those damn robots from No Man's Sky). This was changed into them being a way to stop basically skynet situations with AI taking over and destroying all organic life.

Few issues with BOTH endings here...
1. Ummm... so Dark Energy's usage destroys the galaxy... which is why the Reapers lead civilizations down certain technological paths that... also rely upon dark energy... wait what...

I can't find the original thread on here, but I always thought there was something to that name 'Reapers':

Spoiler:

they lead them down that path, but then they, uh, 'reap' them. They let civilizations grow until they become an environmental threat, and then they cut those civilizations down. Not to let them spoil, but to give them new life as new Reapers.

There's a lot of ways you can go with your ending from there that are a lot better than, like you said, the whole 'AI aggression is inevitible' silliness. Maybe the Reapers keep allowing civilizations to develop to make progress on solving the Dark Energy problem. Maybe the Reapers don't think the problem can ever be solved, so rather than just nuke any civilization that starts messing with Dark Energy back into the stone age, they let civilizations develop and then harvest them.

I guess you could say that if the Reapers are motivated by the environmental threat that Dark Energy poses, they could Destroy all sentient life, or they could Control them to keep them from advancing too far, or they could Synthesize them when they begin to pose a danger...

: D

Yeah the Geth-Quarian bit was a big problem. The writing on that was great and all the stuff I did for 3 games let me make peace between these mortal enemies. And then, nope, reapers dismiss that as impossible 5 minutes later.

And the other big thing was one of Casey's interviews right before 3 released. He said they would take player choices into account and the endings would be pretty varied based on how you played things. And the direct quote was "there won't be endings a, b, and c."

Then they f*cking gave you endings red, blue, and green, and nothing you did mattered.

It's similar to why everyone was pissed that No Man's Sky didn't have multiplayer because they did all those interviews and specifically talked about seeing other players in game.

Just don't lie to people to hype your game and they won't be so pissed about what you deliver.

Can you imagine him saying in that interview, “Basically we’re going to funnel you down to 3 main endings, but there will be at least 2 narrative endings for each teammate, so it’s not just like A, B, C.”?

I don’t know how you do anything, but spin while trying to explain that.

I wasn't disappointed. It did not fail to deliver for me. I loved the whole series, particularly the fanservice in 3. It also had some of the best DLC I've played for any game.

My take on it was that ME3 was one of the first big takedowns by an Angry Internet Mob learning how to toss their feces and make them stick.

There are and were valid criticisms, to be sure, but the backlash was all out of proportion with the game's problems. I saw the whole Indoctrination Theory movement, for example, as grasping at straws to reinvent the story with a retcon as weird as Jar Jar the Dark Lord of the Sith. Of course, few bothered to revisit the game and praise Bioware for putting in so much post release work to both placate the Angry Internet Mob and to improve the game.

I do not mean to invalidate anyone's negative opinion. If ME3 didn't do it for you, Bioware failed you. But the volume of hate flung into the ether over the game was breathtaking.

Oh totally. If that game were remade for the Switch it would be a day one purchase for me even at full price. Heck, I’d probably buy it again on PS4. I’d love to replay it, basically.

It fizzled out a little for my liking, but it was still a brilliant series.

BadKen wrote:

My take on it was that ME3 was one of the first big takedowns by an Angry Internet Mob learning how to toss their feces and make them stick.

(edit) Seeing the way those valid criticisms were dealt with, my take is that it was one of the first big mishandlings of a big takedown by an Angry Internet Mob. It definitely contributed to me realizing people are just full of bullsh*t most of the time, so just pick the side that is making the world a better place.

Of course, the collateral damage is that things like games become uninteresting, but, them's the breaks.

BadKen wrote:

I do not mean to invalidate anyone's negative opinion. If ME3 didn't do it for you, Bioware failed you. But the volume of hate flung into the ether over the game was breathtaking.

I think that's what gets me. I can totally understand some of the points about the Reapers' purpose, motivations and justifications not meeting expectations, and I'm sure I could find more holes to pick in retrospect now that I've played through the game for myself. I also see how making the choice of ending basically independent of everything you've done up until then would be a let down (hi there, Deus Ex!). But there seemed to be this notion floating around that the ending somehow despoiled the whole trilogy, which was a little... overwrought?

On the plus side (?), my expectations were lowered to the point that I probably liked the ending more than I would have going in completely uninformed. So that's good?

Rykin wrote:

Now you just need to experience the series as the real Commander Shepard

FEMSHEP FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha. I spent some time agonising over whether to play male or female—in the end, I figured I'd play the trilogy with the Shepherd that was closest to a self-stand-in as possible (that is, a biotic-wielding space wizard, obviously).

In a hypothetical future renegade run, I'd definitely play as FemShep. In the foreseeable future however, there really are other games I should get round to playing...