Regarding Ash, I've heard that... Spoiler: ME3 Codex According to the ME3 Codex (people have found the files for it), Ash was promoted to Lieutenant Commander following the Battle of the Citadel. If true, this is obviously a massive retcon, as Ash was an Operations Chief (one rank above Gunnery Chief) in ME2. And yeah, according to the Alliance rank system, Kaidan does officially outrank Shepard in ME3. But Shepard is probably still CO of the Normandy, so at least while they're both on the ship, Kaidan would probably follow Shepard's lead.
Umm. He'll be higher in the Alliance hierarchy, but a Spectre Shepherd (assuming he wasn't stripped of that by the Council after the events of "Arrival") would still win.
Shepard may or may not have had his/her Spectre status restored in ME2, depending on your choices, so I don't think that will play much of a role. Also, you're assuming the VS isn't a Spectre now. Which is certainly a possibility.
I don't see why. If they were going to become one before ME2, sure, but I have a hard time seeing cause for them gaining that status between 2 & 3 (especially since they're implied to have spent their time on Earth)...
Probably the certification process, which can be particularly cumbersome in relation to Microsoft and Xbox 360.
The whole rank thing seems to be a case of Codex writers not knowing what story writers are doing and vice versa. At least as far as ME1 was concerned, it seemed pretty simple. You had your Marines with Marine ranks (Ashley and Kaiden) and you had Sheppard with his Naval Rank (Lt Commander). Both existed parallel with each other and the way the story went this seemed to be the case. After all, you had Ashley William's grandfather General Williams handling a Marine garrison at Shanxi. At the same time, you have Admirals commanding fleets (Admiral Hackett). The Codex writers on the other hand seemed to have been doing their own thing since (the internets tell me at least) that there is some BSG-esque combined rank system for the Alliance. I find this retarded so I'm going to choose to ignore it As such, in my mind Kaiden eventual got up to Major (feasible since he was a Lieutenant in ME1 and only 2 ranks away from Major) and is of equal rank to Sheppard. It also makes sense in regards to Captain Anderson since the next step up from him would be Admiral and that's what he becomes. Screw the Codex, it's just fucking shit up
Nonono, screw the Codex and the writers. They're just messing it up for the gameplay team and the cutscene team.
Got a surprise today when a friend gave me one of the Dark Horse SR2 replica as a gift. It just makes me want the game more...
No, I'm pretty sure that in-game the rank system was by and large, consistent with the codex's system. For one thing, Shepard refers to herself several times as a Marine, not a naval officer (hence all the running around on planets shooting things.) In essence it pretty much resembles B5's EF rank system (but let's not start *that* discussion again. ) To date the only real anomalies are the sudden dramatic promotion of a senior NCO to a LtCmdr and the fact that Shepard is always addressed as "Commander", whether she's a Lieutenant Commander or a Staff Commander. Still, even that is consistent as, for example, Kaiden is only referred to as "Lieutenant", not 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant or Staff Lieutenant. So just going by the dialogue, he could be either one (though officially he was a Staff Lieutenant.)
Perhaps the Alliance brass felt that such a promotion was warranted after the Council granted Ashley Spectre status.
UK players - Game will not be stocking ME3. Presumably, this includes the Collectors' Edition. EA is listing places you can order it from. Rather annoyed, since that's where I had my CE pre-order.
Got the email from Gamestation myself earlier However, Amazon are selling the PC CE version cheaper than Gamestation were so that helps a little.
^It helps me a lot since I just so happen to have some left over credit on my Amazon account. Knowing my luck though, the N7 wargear promotion won't be available from Amazon. Oh well, no huge loss. I wonder why the sudden change of vendors? Some falling out between the parent companies or something? For a while there it looked as if Game had an exclusive deal for the N7 edition. I'll give game some credit though as by way of an apology they've given a £5 gift token in the order cancellation email. Not that I'm personally likely to ever use it mind you, but it's a suitable gesture for the minor inconvenience. [EDIT] Looks like the cause is entirely at Game's end as they've "lost credit assurance with most publishers." For a major high street retailer, that's a rather surprising turn of events...but then so was what happened to Woolworths... I doubt Ash would take a charity promotion like that. Not so sure about Kaiden. I think it's more likely that the VS has been groomed as the second human Spectre ever since Shepard was declared KIA. Who knows, maybe Shepard recommended them for it before the Normandy was destroyed? It'd certainly explain why they were working so close with Andersen out of the Citadel, investigating Cerberus and the human Terminus Systems colonies. Especially considering (according to Andersen ) that they hadn't heard the rumours of Shepard's return in the beginning.
Game can't secure sufficient credit to purchase the games with anymore. EA, understandably, wants to be paid if they ship copies.
Thankfully there's three Gamestops where I live (never thought I'd be thankful for Gamestop). I don't see them going under any time soon.
Holy crap I'm glad I placed that order when I did! It's only been a few hours and it looks like Amazon have already sold out of the PC version (and the Xbox version by the looks of it.)
That's pretty standard in militaries though. Calling a Lieutenant Commander anything other than Commander in conversation is a big faux pas. Same goes for different rates of Lieutenant.