Mass Effect Series

[Hisako]

also, Grunt passed out in the shower was adorabibble

THEY AREN'T BIRDS, MORE LIKE CATS SNRRRRRHHHHH

 

[Carlie]

Well here it is:

Sharks!, Who's a space cowboy? Me! (that one is funnier if you know what it means). Is like your watching Oghren drunk which makes it more awesome.

 

[AvecAloes]

I should have waited til after I beat the game to play the DLC. Then maybe the ending of ME3 wouldn't have bothered me so much (or at least, it would have simply been pushed from my mind for a few blissful hours).

I'd like to replay the DLC sometime. Actually, I'd like to replay ME2 and 3 sometime soon, but I'm deep in several other games that I need to finish before I should even consider doing that. So for now, I will continue to placate myself by watching all of these videos - it's amazing how many different scenarios can happen in that DLC, especially when it seemed like none of the choices I made in ME2 actually meant much in ME3.

 

[Carlie]

To Cortez I would like to say; dude have you seen yourself dancing? You're worse than Shep. Also Tali can move, hello hips.

 

[Hisako]

especially when it seemed like none of the choices I made in ME2 actually meant much in ME3.

Really? I personally felt that they simply spread themselves thin trying to fit as many references as possible from ME2 and 1 into the last game.

 

[AvecAloes]

I mean stuff like

Spoiler

the fact that I didn't have Tali in ME3 (she died during the suicide mission in my game because I didn't have her loyalty and I guess I hadn't used her enough or whatever else factors into who lives and dies). Didn't seem to make a difference at all - I just had a different general with me for the geth/quarian mission. Also, I know that in Force's game, he killed the Rachni queen (in the ME1 comic sequence of 2), and he still had the mission with the Rachni queen in 3. How? Stuff like that.

 

[Joe]

Spoiler

stuff like the showdown between the quarians and the geth I can totally understand having a replacement fill in for Tali. That stuff was always going to go down and it makes sense that it isn't just Tali that is important in that role. Same goes for SalariansVSGenophage but that makes a LOT of sense with Mordin.

On the flip side yeah it doesn't make any fucking sense that if you kill the queen in 1 the same events transpire more or less.
The other thing I didn't like is that if Legion dies or you never got him in ME2, his replacement is just a friggin' clone of him in so many ways. It really bugs me.

 

[Hisako]

Spoiler

his replacement is just a friggin' clone of him in so many ways. It really bugs me.

Spoiler

His replacement was a douchebag who most of the characters said didn't come close to the original ME2 Legion, they mostly addressed it as such.

Also, the Rannoch endgame is possibly one of the most complex outcomes in Mass Effect 3, taking in variables of decisions made not only during the Rannoch missions but during Mass Effect 2. At the very least, on release date the outcome of the geth-quarian peace was dependent on decisions made not only during Tali's loyalty mission, but Legion's loyalty mission as well. People who played the game upon release were beating themselves up trying to figure out why they didn't have the option to secure a peace between the two races.

So uh, kinda bad example there imo

 

[AvecAloes]

Spoiler

i understand the need for the replacement, it just seems as though it honestly didn't make a difference whether I had Tali or not when comparing those missions to the ones Force did in his playthrough (he did have Tali). Other random things as well, but it's late and I'm having trouble thinking clearly, haha.

 

[Hisako]

For further reference, see: wiki page

 

[Carlie]

Spoiler

Tali being dead makes a huge difference, if she's dead you cannot make peace between the quarians and geth. Like Satsu said Rannoch is possibly the most complex mission of the game (Tuchanka would be another choice) because its outcome depends heavily on the actions you took in the second game.

Better examples would be the Rachni mission, Bioware said the Rachni would play an important part in the final fight against the Reapers which was bullshit, they only appear once in the game and have no real effect on the final mission. You get the exact same mission whether you saved or killed the Queen in ME1, the only real difference is that if you save the Queen's clone she goes on a murder spree after that and you lose a few war assets. Another one would the Citadel mission, the final part of the mission should've been affected by the actions you took at the end of ME2, if you destroyed the Collector's base than the VS shouldn't have been distrustful of Shep, it seemed like it was only done to add unnecessary suspense to the scene even if it didn't make any actual sense.

 

[Lex]

Could you clarify what you mean by

Spoiler

if you destroyed the Collector's base than the VS shouldn't have been distrustful of Shep, it seemed like it was only done to add unnecessary suspense to the scene even if it didn't make any actual sense.

? That sentence makes no sense to me no matter how many times I read it.

Also, to me ME3 feels like a different game without Tali, but I grew attached to her and thought honouring her wish to keep her dad's thing a secret in ME2 was the honourable thing to do, so I'm biased.

 

[AvecAloes]

Bioware said the Rachni would play an important part in the final fight against the Reapers which was bullshit

Bioware said a lot of things that turned out to be bullshit.

Spoiler

Ok, if Tali had been alive in my ME3 game, I would have had the opportunity to make peace between the geth and the quarians....to what end? That has absolutely no impact on the rest of the game. That's what I mean. Everything turns out the same way, no matter who you have on your team, what war assets you have, etc etc. Force had Tali alive in his game, she was dead in mine - our games ended the same way.

 

[Joe]

Spoiler

Also if you had Tali alive in that mission, peace is still only an opportunity. I know dozens of people, my gf included, who had both Tali and Legion present and still couldn't make peace.

Like I said though, this is an event that was ALWAYS going to happen with or without Tali, so it makes sense things play out similarly if she's not there. The genophage stuff is questionable without Mordin, though. The rachni bullshit made no sense regarding your decisions in ME1.

 

[Lex]

Spoiler

IIRC Force had Tali alive and didn't manage to make peace between the Quaarians and Geth because he didn't get Tali's loyalty.

 

[AvecAloes]

Spoiler

Right, he wasn't able to, either.

 

[Carlie]

Could you clarify what you mean by ? That sentence makes no sense to me no matter how many times I read it.

Spoiler

You mean the "VS" part? That means the Virmire Survivor.

Cassie -

Spoiler

Making peace did have an impact, stopping a 300 year old conflict without committing genocide on either race, for the first time in millions of years organics and synthetics are working together proving the retarded troll logic of the Reapers wrong, with the help of the Geth it would only take the Quarians a few years to live without their suits again as oppose to decades. Yeah none of that mattered in the ending of the game but really none of the decisions did because we still end in the same place with the same moronic options but really looking at it that way none of our decisions mattered at all. For me accomplishing the feat of making peace between Geth and Quarians and curing the genophage is the achievement.

 

[AvecAloes]

Spoiler

yes, they are great achievements, as far as RPing goes, but I'm looking at it as base level, game changing stuff. Maybe if Bioware had actually shown any of the war assets actually doing anything during the final battle I'd have felt differently, although, maybe not, since again, it didn't do anything game changing. I guess I just wanted to feel, based on the end game, that anything I did mattered.

 

[Hisako]

Yeah I suppose the problem is that a lot of the decisions made, while plot-relevant and given quite appropriate significance during their moment, aren't really specifically reflected upon during the endgame where it's all supposed to come to a head.

Despite my love for pretty much all of the game (and I put up with the ending too you fuckers ) I do think it's a valid point that they don't specifically influence the actual ending, at least not in the minutae that people were expecting it to.

 

[Joe]

Seeing a lot of decisions of the series boil down to the number of war assets you have (which has little impact in itself, really) was a tad disappointing. Still though, the game is an incredible piece of work and the series as a whole is my favourite video game franchise of all time.

 

[AvecAloes]

Oh don't get me wrong, I really really enjoyed this series. I'm really glad I played, and I had a ton of fun with it. It really impressed me by how well it was done, and I found myself really liking a lot of the characters. The writing was excellent....until the end

 

[Carlie]

This is how I see the endgame now:

Spoiler

We got to Earth and reach the Alliance base, I got a chance to talk to my former and current crew, then I gave a big speech and for some reason everything after that goes black and next thing I know I'm in the apartment Anderson gave me partying hard with my crew.

 

[AvecAloes]

That's pretty much how Force sees it too, and how I'll try to make myself see it during my next playthrough

 

[ForceStealer]

Mass Effect 2's ending is exactly how it should have treated the war assets.

Spoiler

2's ending has tons of variables to it and there are several parts that prove why you got the things you did. The approach proves why you needed upgraded engines, shields, and weapons on your ship. The infiltration itself proves why you were provided dossiers on these people to establish your team. You need biotic specialists, tech experts, sneaky people, leaders, etc. etc.

3's lacks this completely. Sure, saving both the Quarians and Geth is a great, emotional accomplishment, so is curing the genophage. But they don't even have a superficial influence on the ending. Even if the ending itself was unaffected, they could at least have shown the battle going differently depending on the war assets.

Why the dramatic difference in the way the two games ended?

 

[Hisako]

Because Bioware attempted to bring in variables from all 3 games and overreached themselves, and didn't have the time to complete all the things they wanted to do.

Remember, they had to beg the publishers for 3 more months on the game.