Mass Effect (1)

[Jeyl]

I'll give Mass Effect the biggest credit I haven't given to a game/movie/series in a long time.

It didn't cater to the "HUMANITY IS IN DANGER!" crap that the later games would envelop. I actually love how in the original Mass Effect, you think Saren's plot is against humanity and humanity alone, until you find out that it's against the whole entire galaxy. That's going from something typical to something epic. I like that.

Than we have ME2 with it's "humanity is under attack" and "humans are special" tropes. And ME3?........ TAKE EARTH BACK. Screw you. I came to save the galaxy and break the cycle, not liberate the most non-diverse planet we didn't give two #!*&s about in the previous games. I never liked Earth being the center of the universe in scifi stories, and the original Mass Effect was one of those stories, even with ME2, that had a story dedicated to what made it's universe unique, and not what everyone expects.

*cheers*

I'll miss you Mass Effect, and I'll miss you Paragon/Unity Shepard. ME3's opening hurt me more than the ending.

 

[Ood Sigma]

Played quite a bit tonight... There are still times when I'll just get crushed over and over, and then other missions that go smoothly. I'm hoping if I keep leveling up those battles will be easier. Do the enemies level with you or do they stay the same?

Thanks for the answer about the downloadable content. I may try to pick that up before I finish the game.

 

[LeadHead]

Enemies level up with you to some extent. What I've found to be very helpful in tough situations has been making sure I chose a Squad that plays to my strengths. Either someone whose healing improves things, or has good biotic attacks, can take a lot of punishment. Based on your career path, that can be important.

Also, despite the fact that it gets old fast, choosing the right mods for your weapons and armor can be a real boost. I used the Incendiary/Inferno/It has another name that I forgot Ammo a lot, and more damage would be done with every shot because of it. Most of the time, I'd use Shield Mods on my armor to make them last longer and have fewer instances of shields going down.

Getting to know the battlefield helps too, sometimes there'll be some cover I hadn't noticed, or a further point useful for sniping.

Also, don't feel like you have to use one weapon in a battle. On tougher targets, I like to use a Sniper rifle Modified with kinetic coils or stabilizers and High Explosive Ammo, you only get one shot before it overheats and you have to wait for another shot, but it does Extreme damage to well armored enemies. And if I don't have time to wait, I switch back to Pistol or Assault Rifle and work on remaining enemies in the meanwhile.

Hope that's helpful.

 

[Thestral]

Spoiler: SPOILERS

You can do Noveria after Virmire? Seems like it would be a really strange order, what with the whole "the Council grounded me but I need to go to Ilos quick to stop Saren!"

Spoiler: later missions

You don't get grounded after Virmire, you get grounded once you've completed all four missions. So I went to Virmire, then Noveria, then I was forced back to the Citadel where I was grounded.

I liked that order because of my reaction to the Rachni problem. After Kaiden died on Virmire I was pissed at the whole galaxy for dragging their feet about the threat and my pure paragon swung more towards the renegade side of things. But when I was forced to choose between killing the Rachni Queen or letting her go, my paragon instincts came back and turned me into a paragade, which is what I remained for the next two games. It worked well for personalising my experience with the game.

Oh, I gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up, and that does make more sense.

Spoiler: SPOILERS

Seems a bit odd to confront Saren before dealing with Benezia, but then I guess he does get away so he could serve as more of a "mid-game boss" in that way.

I'll give Mass Effect the biggest credit I haven't given to a game/movie/series in a long time.

Well,

Spoiler: Earth

they're pretty explicit that the Reapers (and the Collectors) only shift their focus to humanity/Earth because of Shepard's actions - after all, s/he killed Sovereign and it was the Alliance fleet that struck the killing blow, whether you sacrifice some of them to save the Destiny Ascension or not. So I'd say the trope was justified.

Besides, it wasn't till ME2 that we got to see Tuchanka, and ME3 gave us extended visits to Rannoch and Tuchanka, not to mention Sur'Kesh, almost-Palaven, and Thessia.

 

[Jeyl]

Spoiler: Earth

they're pretty explicit that the Reapers (and the Collectors) only shift their focus to humanity/Earth because of Shepard's actions - after all, s/he killed Sovereign and it was the Alliance fleet that struck the killing blow, whether you sacrifice some of them to save the Destiny Ascension or not. So I'd say the trope was justified.

Spoiler: Reap

Shepard didn't kill Soverign, she only talked to him. Admiral Hackett and Joker did the real head on fighting while Shepard was busy talking down Saren and fighting his robotic corpse. So it makes sense when in ME3 the Alliance council calls in Shepard and only Shepard on how to deal with the Reapers..... even though she's never fought a genuine Reaper face to face.

And where exactly does it state that Shepard is a threat to the Reapers simply because she's human? I would say that humanity being a threat had more to do with chance, because every other race has their own fleet as well, and they weren't all at the Citadel when the fight occurred.

Spoiler: Earth

Besides, it wasn't till ME2 that we got to see Tuchanka, and ME3 gave us extended visits to Rannoch and Tuchanka, not to mention Sur'Kesh, almost-Palaven, and Thessia.

And what does it all come boiling down to?

Spoiler: Take a guess

Taking back Earth and stranding an entire galactic fleet in the Sol system. Earth is saved, but galactic civilization is screwed. I hope our good neighbors the Turians brought extra food to last each one of their numbers a life time because they can't eat Earth food.

 

[PsychoPere]

And what does it all come boiling down to?

Spoiler: Take a guess

Taking back Earth and stranding an entire galactic fleet in the Sol system. Earth is saved, but galactic civilization is screwed. I hope our good neighbors the Turians brought extra food to last each one of their numbers a life time because they can't eat Earth food.

Spoiler: Response

The fleets aren't necessarily stranded. They still have conventional FTL travel (granted, it would take a long time to travel anywhere). Depending on which ending you chose, there's also a great deal of Reaper tech left that could conceivably be reverse-engineered. The turians won't have to worry about starving if the quarian Migrant Fleet is there, since both species are dextro-amino acid-based (and, granted, assuming the Liveships weren't destroyed in the fight).

By the way, species names in the ME universe are always lower-case.

 

[ATimson]

I've only ever played on the PC (don't own a current gen console) and the Mako is...manageable if you're aware of it's quirks and limitations. I gather it handles much worse on XBox though, so...you might want to avoid the harsher terrain and just take the long way around.

Other way around - it's a lot more manageable on 360 than it was on PC. (At least for me. The Mako moves relative to the camera, rather than to its actual position.)

 

[Reverend]

And what does it all come boiling down to?

Spoiler: Take a guess

Taking back Earth and stranding an entire galactic fleet in the Sol system. Earth is saved, but galactic civilization is screwed. I hope our good neighbors the Turians brought extra food to last each one of their numbers a life time because they can't eat Earth food.

Spoiler: Response

The fleets aren't necessarily stranded. They still have conventional FTL travel (granted, it would take a long time to travel anywhere). Depending on which ending you chose, there's also a great deal of Reaper tech left that could conceivably be reverse-engineered. The turians won't have to worry about starving if the quarian Migrant Fleet is there, since both species are dextro-amino acid-based (and, granted, assuming the Liveships weren't destroyed in the fight).

By the way, species names in the ME universe are always lower-case.

Guys I hate to min-mod and I know you're using spoiler tags, but how about we keep the ME3 ending discussion to the ME3 ending thread?

Also, let's try to be considerate and *not* spoil anything for Ood Sigma. Remember he's not even half way thought ME1 yet.

I've only ever played on the PC (don't own a current gen console) and the Mako is...manageable if you're aware of it's quirks and limitations. I gather it handles much worse on XBox though, so...you might want to avoid the harsher terrain and just take the long way around.

Other way around - it's a lot more manageable on 360 than it was on PC. (At least for me. The Mako moves relative to the camera, rather than to its actual position.)

As I said, I've only ever played it on PC so I have just taken people at their word that the xbox controls were "worse." It's all a bit subjective I suppose since I've know people who-for example-prefer to play FPS's with a controller rather that a keyboard and mouse. I tried it a few times and I was rubbish at it!

As for the Mako, I honestly never had too much difficultly with it. What problems I did have, had more to do with the terrain than the vehicle.

 

[Jeyl]

By the way, species names in the ME universe are always lower-case.

I don't think we are in the ME universe, and I fail to see why we should care.

 

[ATimson]

By the way, species names in the ME universe are always lower-case.

Except the Reapers, I thought? (Which seemed like an odd inconsistency to me...)

 

[TheGodBen]

Shepard didn't kill... the fight occurred.

You should probably spoiler tag that whole section of your post for the sake of the OP, those are some pretty big spoilers about ME1.

I've only ever played on the PC (don't own a current gen console) and the Mako is...manageable if you're aware of it's quirks and limitations. I gather it handles much worse on XBox though, so...you might want to avoid the harsher terrain and just take the long way around.

Other way around - it's a lot more manageable on 360 than it was on PC. (At least for me. The Mako moves relative to the camera, rather than to its actual position.)

As I said, I've only ever played it on PC so I have just taken people at their word that the xbox controls were "worse." It's all a bit subjective I suppose since I've know people who-for example-prefer to play FPS's with a controller rather that a keyboard and mouse. I tried it a few times and I was rubbish at it!

I've never played any ME game on the PC but I can't imagine trying to control the Mako with a keyboard. In general, I find that vehicles tend to be easier to control on consoles because the analogue sticks allow for fine steering that binary keyboard keys can't replicate, while aiming tends to be better with a mouse because it's faster and has more precision than analogue sticks.

The Mako is just a weird vehicle to drive, the physics of it feel off no matter what you do. I know they excuse that by claiming that it's affected by mass effect fields, but that just seems like a poor justification for bad mechanics. The warthog in Halo has almost the same controls as the Mako but it feels much more natural because they got the physics of it right.

 

[Jeyl]

The Mako is just a weird vehicle to drive, the physics of it feel off no matter what you do. I know they excuse that by claiming that it's affected by mass effect fields, but that just seems like a poor justification for bad mechanics. The warthog in Halo has almost the same controls as the Mako but it feels much more natural because they got the physics of it right.

I liked the Mako because it really opened the worlds you explored. Going from facility to facility on Noveria, crossing dangerous bridges on Ferros, and my favorite part, Charging fortified enemy bunkers, running over numerous soldiers, incinerating the bad guys with your big canon and dismounting to raid the facility. How did we go from that to just "cover and shoot!"? That's nuts.

And Ilos wouldn't have been epic if it was all just walking.

 

[TheGodBen]

I don't have a problem with the idea of the Mako, I usually enjoy vehicle sections in games, but the execution was off. That thing controlled like a cross between a truck, a land rover, a tank, and a rabbit. It was weird, it made what should have been a fun diversion (the uncharted worlds) into a chore.

And seriously Jeyl, you should spoiler tag what you said above. I once had a first-timer thread for Babylon 5 and someone spoiled a big part of the the plot in there and I was pissed. It's best to play it safe with things like that.

 

[Jeyl]

And seriously Jeyl

Ugh, I hate these calling outs. I'm out of here.

 

[Thestral]

Spoiler: Earth

they're pretty explicit that the Reapers (and the Collectors) only shift their focus to humanity/Earth because of Shepard's actions - after all, s/he killed Sovereign and it was the Alliance fleet that struck the killing blow, whether you sacrifice some of them to save the Destiny Ascension or not. So I'd say the trope was justified.

Spoiler: SPOILERS

Shepard didn't kill Soverign, she only talked to him. Admiral Hackett and Joker did the real head on fighting while Shepard was busy talking down Saren and fighting his robotic corpse. So it makes sense when in ME3 the Alliance council calls in Shepard and only Shepard on how to deal with the Reapers..... even though she's never fought a genuine Reaper face to face.

Spoiler: ME1, 2, and 3 spoilers)

Well, the robo-corpse was Sovereign in a way (ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL?), enough so that it was the fight with Shepard that kept the ship Sovereign distracted and allowed the Alliance to blow it up good, and it was Shepard whose plan allowed it to happen (chase Saren to the Citadel, hold the fleet back until the arms are open or don't to save the Council), plus there's the embryonic Reaper on the Collector Base (which you may have also blown up real good), so she has by far the most experience with Reapers in the Alliance. It's safe to assume that Shepard wasn't the only one the Alliance council called in - Hackett was off-world with the fleets (and this if after the Batarians had been torn to shred), and we see the Virmire Survivor coming from that general direction.

Spoiler: ME Spoilers

And where exactly does it state that Shepard is a threat to the Reapers simply because she's human? I would say that humanity being a threat had more to do with chance, because every other race has their own fleet as well, and they weren't all at the Citadel when the fight occurred.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Somewhere in ME2, there's a conversation that the Collectors are focusing in so much on humanity because it was primarily humans that killed Sovereign. Even an implication that they've shifted their focus since humans are new on the galactic scene - possibly turians were meant to be the "collected" species before Saren failed? Unlike in the last cycle the galaxy isn't under the domination of one species, after all. Of course it had more to do with chance, the whole saga would never have happened if Normandy didn't happen to be doing a test run to Eden Prime right when Sovereign attacked.

And what does it all come boiling down to?

Spoiler: Take a guess

Taking back Earth and stranding an entire galactic fleet in the Sol system. Earth is saved, but galactic civilization is screwed. I hope our good neighbors the Turians brought extra food to last each one of their numbers a life time because they can't eat Earth food.

Spoiler: ME3 ending

Well, Earth is saved but it's also screwed. Except for Kar'Shan and likely Palaven, it's probably safe to say that Earth was the most devastated of the major species' capital planets, even if you do get the best possible ending. Certainly Sur'Kesh, Rannoch, likely Thessia and (relatively) Tuchanka didn't get it as bad.

I don't have a problem with the idea of the Mako, I usually enjoy vehicle sections in games, but the execution was off. That thing controlled like a cross between a truck, a land rover, a tank, and a rabbit. It was weird, it made what should have been a fun diversion (the uncharted worlds) into a chore.

I think the phrase you're looking for is "drunken rhino," right Steve Cortez?

And seriously Jeyl, you should spoiler tag what you said above. I once had a first-timer thread for Babylon 5 and someone spoiled a big part of the the plot in there and I was pissed. It's best to play it safe with things like that.

 

[TheGodBen]

Ugh, I hate these calling outs. I'm out of here.

Okay, that's an extremely strange response to my friendly request. Seriously, all I'm asking for is some common courtesy to the OP. You spoiler-tagged the other part of your post so why wont you do it for the first part?

If you're not going to spoiler-tag what you said then I'm going to notify the post and hope a mod does it. I don't know if they will, but it's the only option left.

 

[Jax]

Ugh, I hate these calling outs. I'm out of here.

Okay, that's an extremely strange response to my friendly request. Seriously, all I'm asking for is some common courtesy to the OP.

Seeing his/her anger behind a relationship in the spoilers ending thread am not surprised. ME Spoilers are for the spoilers thread. Jeyl, all GodBen was asking was to please repsect the op who is at the 1st game.

 

[Jeyl]

Okay, that's an extremely strange response to my friendly request.

Well, I thought bolding my name to draw attention to me and saying how PO'd you are in other threads wasn't very friendly. Sounds like you wanted to draw attention to me and label me as someone who intentionally tries to tick people off. Now you're threatening to go to the mods and you have other users mocking my user name.

Jeylall, all GodBen was asking was to please repsect the op who is at the 1st game.

Are you trying to compare me to that stubborn mean character Jeyal from that mediocre DS9 episode? Guess that is kind of clever.

 

[Jax]

Are you trying to compare me to that stubborn mean character Jeyal from that mediocre DS9 episode? Guess that is kind of clever.

Or an accidently typo as it was, just forgot the space after your name and the word all.

 

[TheGodBen]

Well, I thought bolding my name to draw attention to me...

Bolding people's names is common practice among many of us on this forum, I picked it up shortly after I joined the site. I didn't do it to single you out, I do it every time I mention a poster by name.

...and saying how PO'd you are in other threads wasn't very friendly. Sounds like you wanted to draw attention to me and label me as someone who intentionally tries to tick people off.

That was not my intention at all, I was merely trying to explain why spoilers in threads like this bother me. I didn't think you did it intentionally, I once accidentally posted spoilers in a DS9 first-timer thread so I know that mistakes like that can happen. But when someone pointed out to me that I had posted a spoiler, my immediate reaction was to edit the post and spoiler-tag it, I did not consider it an attack on me in any way.

Now you're threatening to go to the mods and you have other users mocking my user name.

You were alerted to the spoiler three times, once by Reverend and twice by me, and you didn't do anything about it. Yes, I found that rude on your part, but I didn't notify the mods to get you in trouble, I notified them because they have the power to edit posts, and since you seemingly weren't going to I did that as my last resort. I also PMed Ood Sigma to warn him to avoid reading post #45 if possible.