Mass Effect Series Catch-All

Finished the first ME again. I'm really pleased with the new coat of paint of the Legendary Edition, although I have occasionally been running into the oft-reported issue where a line of dialogue cuts out a bit early. The HDR in particular is a nice touch with how often you are dealing with both natural skylines and artificial lights in a lot of the scenes. I am disappointed with how low the level of film grain is - it's almost impossible to notice.

I did a bunch of side stuff I never recall doing previously, to the extent that I looked online to see if they restored cut content or something. It appears the real surprise is how much I must have skipped during previous playthroughs to minimize the Mako missions.

I just started ME2 this morning and immediately forgot how much more subtle some of the lines are. I sometimes finish a conversation and see a +2 Renegade and can't fathom what I said that fits that. Mixed feelings about that. Kinda feel that the system should be clearer, but also kind of appreciate that it's not as obvious (yes, I know a lot of the major choices coming up are closer to "protect the puppy/kill the puppy").

I just started the Legendary Edition. Played ME1 on the X360, but I never got around to the later games.

One question, though: would it have killed them to implement the quick resume on the XSX?? Having to go through a menu each time you pop back into the game is just...well, I guess it's truer to the original experience, but unnecessary!

Planning a full trilogy replay on the Legendary Edition later this month.

I never gave much if any play to the Sentinel class. And through some recent reading it's looking like a very strong pick for ME2 and ME3.

Does anyone know if the Sentinel can effectively use rifles in the sequels or will I be largely stuck with pistols?

I took the infiltrator class because I loved sniper rifles, and had a great time. Their incinerate ability is so, so useful.

It looks like Sentinels are mostly pistols or submachine guns.

It's gonna be free on Prime day for anyone still waiting for legendary

In ME2 you do have a chance to add another weapon specialization like rifles to classes that don't initially support them. About halfway through the game during a mission you are forced into you are given the option for Advanced Weapon Training and can choose between Assault Rifles, Shotguns, or Sniper Rifles. If you choose one you can already equip you get a special weapon and if you choose one you can't equip you can equip them from then on.

Edit: Oh there are also a couple of Pistols and SMGs that are as good as some of the Assault Rifles. The Locust is a very good SMG to fill in for a rapid fire Assault Rifle and there are a couple of Pistols (Carnifex and Phalanx) that can fill in for a marksman style rifle pretty well.

It's been a good long time since I played a Sentinel in ME3, but what I recall is that with the right skill selections, you can make yourself into a nigh-invulnerable tank tossing out Biotic explosions every second or two, and there are also some lighter shotguns--a Cerberus "pistol shotgun" and Asari one--that were very light and well suited to that style. It wasn't for me, but it was very effective.

I recall the third game being very interesting for using non-pistols with my Adept. You trade off between weight carried and power cooldown time, and there are mods that can reduce weapon weights (at the expense of using a mod slot that can be used to power up the weapon).

Generally, I felt I could carry one extra weapon (in addition to a pistol and SMG, both of which are very light) with only a small punishment; and depending on the level, picking which one (or none at all) was strategically interesting.

I would love to play different classes in ME. But I can't give up my Mattock

Thanks peeps. I am in the mood of wanting my cake and eating it too, in that I want to blast away with all the big automatic guns but feel like going Soldier is too bland.

My plan is to whip through ME1 on easy, maybe normal, because I don't care for the combat much and just want to grab all the big story beats. Then play ME2 and 3 on Veteran.

Play as a Sentinel for ME1 because whatever. Then either do Sentinel or Soldier for the sequels. Knowing there are some good AR-like SMGs for the Sentinel to use makes me feel a bit better.

Maclintok wrote:

Thanks peeps. I am in the mood of wanting my cake and eating it too, in that I want to blast away with all the big automatic guns but feel like going Soldier is too bland.

My plan is to whip through ME1 on easy, maybe normal, because I don't care for the combat much and just want to grab all the big story beats. Then play ME2 and 3 on Veteran.

Play as a Sentinel for ME1 because whatever. Then either do Sentinel or Soldier for the sequels. Knowing there are some good AR-like SMGs for the Sentinel to use makes me feel a bit better.

I like playing soldier because it makes me concentrate on the abilities of my squaddies. I want Biotic powers, better get a biotic in my party. I want engineer stuff, better put one of those in there.

Plus, I likes my guns.

@UpTolsomorphism: I like the way you think!

Maclintok wrote:

Thanks peeps. I am in the mood of wanting my cake and eating it too, in that I want to blast away with all the big automatic guns but feel like going Soldier is too bland.

My plan is to whip through ME1 on easy, maybe normal, because I don't care for the combat much and just want to grab all the big story beats. Then play ME2 and 3 on Veteran.

Play as a Sentinel for ME1 because whatever. Then either do Sentinel or Soldier for the sequels. Knowing there are some good AR-like SMGs for the Sentinel to use makes me feel a bit better.

Sentinel is super interesting for ME2 and ME3. I played a build in ME3 that let me just tank basically everything. I was just out in the open gunning everything down like a Krogan. Cover? What cover?

.

Decided to try an Insanity run of the trilogy since I’m planning to devote significant time to this.

The current class plan atm is Sentinel - Soldier - Sentinel.

D'oh

Level scaling: Legendary or Classic?

Legendary

Maclintok wrote:

D'oh

Level scaling: Legendary or Classic?

Definitely Legendary. All the games are designed to be played through twice, so the XP and level scaling is created to account for NG+. For a complete playthrough of a Legendary edition, you'll want Legendary Scaling so you get all the perks in one playthrough and get the whole experience.

Thanks guys! A few hours into my ME1 replay. Oh yes! I'm definitely appreciating the wealth of talent points that get thrown my way with each level up. Legendary is definitely the way to go.

Something that I've noticed on the PC version that I've not run into on the PS4 version of the Legendary Edition is how difficult it is to aim skills. Sabotage in particular has been very unreliable, often time hitting walls or other environmental objects near my target. I never used to do this but I have to ADS with my gun before pulling up the skills radial menu to ensure I've properly aimed a Sabotage, Warp or Throw. I do NOT remember the skills targeting to be this temperamental, even when playing the OG version of ME1 back in 2007.

So just finished ME1 from the Legendary version. I had the original on PC but only played the first intro mission. Never played 2 or 3.

Thought it looked good for a 15 year old game and I thought there were a tons of cool story elements and side quests. Overall it was a good game and I'm looking forward to playing ME2. That being said I feel like the main story, specifically the antagonists, was pretty shallow. Shepherd seems to have pretty emotional feelings in the dialogues about Saren even early on and you don't really know him. You only interact or hear from Sovereign one time? And I don't think we ever see Sovereign and Saren interact? Did I miss a side quest or something?

Nope. That's kind of all there is.

PoderOmega, I think a lot of your concerns are addressed in ME2.

The romance stuff was impressive at the time for being “proof of concept” rather than well-realised. It becomes more complex and nuanced in later games

On my LE replay, I avoided all flirting & romance. By the mid game, I still had 2 NPCs thinking we were in a love triangle and approaching me to clarify who I had feelings for. Shepard can get it even when ignoring it completely!

Felix Threepaper wrote:

On my LE replay, I avoided all flirting & romance. By the mid game, I still had 2 NPCs thinking we were in a love triangle and approaching me to clarify who I had feelings for. Shepard can get it even when ignoring it completely!

I remember that happening to me!... the first game strongly assumed you'd want to do romance, and sort of forces you to be a jerk to avoid it.

beeporama wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:

On my LE replay, I avoided all flirting & romance. By the mid game, I still had 2 NPCs thinking we were in a love triangle and approaching me to clarify who I had feelings for. Shepard can get it even when ignoring it completely!

I remember that happening to me!... the first game strongly assumed you'd want to do romance, and sort of forces you to be a jerk to avoid it.

The ME1 characters are all just desperate for attention and misunderstand any attention they get as you being into them. Truthfully there isn't that much difference in ME2. The romance conversations for many of them is the same as the friendship one plus one extra conversation. Tali for instance will talk about linking suits (which is basically Quarian for lets get it on) with both Femshep and Broshep and then just not have anymore conversations with Femshep after that, but then have a conversation with Broshep about how suggesting that was a bit forward of her.

I did like the romance between Jack and BroShep in ME2. If you rush to sex, she completely shuts you out because you just proved that you're like all the other people she deals with. If you take the time and just talk to her, you get a much better relationship where she really opens up.

Grenn wrote:

I did like the romance between Jack and BroShep in ME2. If you rush to sex, she completely shuts you out because you just proved that you're like all the other people she deals with. If you take the time and just talk to her, you get a much better relationship where she really opens up.

But that would require not romancing Tali so what is the point?

Was able to complete my Insanity run of ME1 after contending with a nasty hard lock or desktop crash at the final battle with Sovereign-Saren. Four crashes in a row sent me looking for help. Apparently this was a known issue since the Legendary Edition release last year. Troubleshooting ranged from disabling all graphical enhancement options, putting Origin into offline mode and abstaining from using any biotic powers during the fight. Going offline with Origin did the trick for me. So did High Explosive Ammo on everyone's guns. Holy crap, that melted everything.

Can't wait to transfer my new Shepard over to ME2!!

Sorry if this was asked before but has anyone tried playing Mass Effect 3's multiplayer on a Xbox Series console? Seeing as I'm probably going to sign up for Game Pass this week I will definitely install ME3 to the box if multiplayer is still alive. I miss it!

Maclintok wrote:

Sorry if this was asked before but has anyone tried playing Mass Effect 3's multiplayer on a Xbox Series console? Seeing as I'm probably going to sign up for Game Pass this week I will definitely install ME3 to the box if multiplayer is still alive. I miss it!

I still fire it up from time to time. Runs great on Xbox One and Series consoles. Better than it did on the 360 thanks to faster storage and bus. And yes there are still people playing it. I really wish they would have remastered it as well as the single player and reran the challenges and other stuff they did originally.

I was plagued by a camera bug through out my ME1 Legendary playthrough but managed to get past it. The same bug pops up occasionally in ME2 and this time it's really caught me with my pants down in the finale of the Overlord DLC mission.

The camera will suddenly stop tracking from behind Shepard, allowing me to turn him 360 degrees to face me directly. Aiming becomes pretty much impossible and movement controls almost feel reversed for brief moments of time. Meanwhile I'm on the clock to prevent the rogue VI from uploading himself to the galactic network with Geth bombarding me with gunfire.

Has anyone dealt with this camera bug before & have a workaround that doesn't involve reloading an old save/avoiding this mission altogether?