Mass Effect Universe (Spoilers) - The Bear and Badger

ChattinWithChet

Gonzo wrote:

Skipped to some bit in the middle of the video and the guy was saying synthesis was the wrong choice because Legion doesn't have a soul . . . kind of put me off watching the rest of it.

This. Some of this stuff really misses a whole lot of the point of the What Is Life question and who is qualified to make the decision on who lives and dies work that so much of Mass Effect has been about.

I saw that vid, and it's very strong. This point was a rare weak moment. Pointless to focus on that. Personally, I chose destroy, because FUCK YOU that's why. If I had to choose, I'd choose organics over even Edi and the Geth. SORRY. BUT WE CAN MAKE YOU AGAIN.

I'll have to watch the whole thing later, but yeah there is definitely some interesting stuff in there. Just seems to be missing a good part of what Mass Effect has been up until now, and is instead focusing on the hidden meaning, signs of a twist etc. That's cool, but I think even if the indoctrination is the main deal they were going for - at least at one stage - then I still think there are more interesting things going on underneath that. Particularly around the synthetic/human stuff, burying costly feuds between different life-forms and being able to trust each other.Â

What about the other points?

The details with the Rachni Queen were particularly interesting from what I watched. I killed the Queen first time, so I didn't get to see any of that, and I had totally forgotten a lot of the Reaper stuff from the first game. There is definitely quite a bit of reading into things in an unhelpful way, and as monkey mentioned earlier, an expectation for an insane level of consistency, and connecting parts. It's a hell of a lot of fun to talk about it though. There were some insanely detailed posts on Reddit on The Matrix, I read a while ago where folks were going completely nuts but the quality of their going nuts was very compelling.

JonB

Finished last night. Honestly I didn't really get all the details of the 3 choices as they were explained and then didn't know which one was which when I had to decide. I ended up walking straight ahead and that triggered the synthesis ending. At the end I saw Jeff and Edi emerge from the Normandy and then only Garrus came out. Does that mean everyone else was dead? Strange too, seeing as he was fighting alongside me when we got hit by the reaper in London. That's another question maybe - what happened to your squad mates at that point?

I liked some of the major decisions earlier in the game, especially the Krogan one. I decided, true to renegade character, not to cure the genophage. Knowing you've tricked them into fighting for you when you meet them later on is an interesting feeling (and at least Mordin survived). I also managed to get the Quarians and the Geth together, which was nice.

Overall, they probably tried to cram too much into the thrid game, especially when compared to 2 which had a lot more room to flesh out its details because the mission itself was far simpler. I missed the more personal level of the missions, and the focus on my squad - the cast was pretty dull on this one, bar Garrus and maybe Tali and Liara. Here, while the last hours of the game dragged in terms of the combat, the actual ending all happened too quickly.

JonB

Gonzo wrote:

Shame you missed the convo with the Godchild. It's kind of the payoff for the game. There you were, minutes earlier, convincing TIM to off himself, and here you are listening about control again. I tried to shoot the child, shot a few times in the air like an arab celebrating, well, anything, and raced towards the red destroy door to shoot it down, as a final act of rebellion.

I didn't exaclty miss it, just thought it was explained a bit too quickly considering the size of the decision and couldn't remember the finer details. I was leaning towards the synthesis thing anyway, but it would have been good to maybe have it repeated and made more clear which path led to which decision.

Or perhaps this is just what happens when you're on the verge of finishing a game just before dinner.

The Krogan thing was just a really great dilemma, built up brilliantly with both sides of the argument well represented. I really hadn't decided until the last minute which way I was going to go. And Eve didn't make it anyway, although obviously I had no idea that was going to happen when I made the decision. My Krogan leader was Wreav, perhaps because I never played the first game, so maybe that made it easier to decide. Lots of different permutations there based on earlier decisions as well. Definitely one of the highlights over the two games anyway.

RasDam

@JonB are you tempted to pick up Mass Effect and work your way through the trilogy again?

monkey

All the Krogan stuff was excellent. Felt like a proper military campaign push across the surface of the planet. Wove in all the moral dilemma stuff brilliantly. And that genophage stuff has been brewing right from the beginning of the first game.Â

And Mordin. I spent a lot of time in ME2 depleting his dialogue trees about the genophage and what he thought about it. Real poignant stuff that he sacrificed himself in the end.

JonB

RasDam wrote:

@JonB are you tempted to pick up Mass Effect and work your way through the trilogy again?

Not at the moment. It'll be a while before I want to play 3 again, and I've already done 2 twice. One of the problems with them is it's a bit of a slog to replay all that dialogue and galaxy scanning when you've only recently done it. Maybe in a couple of years...

RasDam

It seems everyone overlooks the chore of scanning the galaxy in ME2. It didn't seem so bad in ME1 and it never felt like a priority in ME3.

mistercrayon

If you beat the first game with the rich achievement you cab avoid a fair chunk of scanning.

JonB

I found the scanning in 3 even more tiresome than in 2 in the end. They should have made more of the 'avoid the reapers' game, or not bothered at all.

ChattinWithChet

I loved the scanning in 2 because it gave a reason to read all about the planets. In 3 there was no need to do that, especially seeing as the places where the Reapers weren't didn't need your attention. And big yes on the avoiding Reapers thing. False danger, there was no penalty in being killed by them and the best tactic was to go in, scan everywhere, get caught and go back in with no alertness rating. Silly stuff.

Little Franklin

I think the planet scanning in 2 really got on my nerves because I was using a mouse and it was clearly designed for a pad. I had to drag my mouse across my desk about 100 times to scan each planet. At least it's nice and quick in 3.

Little Franklin

The galaxy map bit in 2 and 3 really bugged me actually. If I remember correctly, in 1 you just plotted a course and it took you there, in 2 and 3 you moved a little toy spaceship around the map like some lame space Mariokart, you can apparently even fly your ship through stars. Kind of kills the sense of awe of the vastness of space.

Matt_82

Little Franklin wrote:

The galaxy map bit in 2 and 3 really bugged me actually. If I remember correctly, in 1 you just plotted a course and it took you there, in 2 and 3 you moved a little toy spaceship around the map like some lame space Mariokart, you can apparently even fly your ship through stars. Kind of kills the sense of awe of the vastness of space.

Yeah that annoyed me as well. Â Not the flying through the sun bit, just the way you had to control the ship. Â Pointless.

Little Franklin

Clusters can refer to stars inside galaxies as well as groups of galaxies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyades_(star_cluster)

Little Franklin

Well that's pretty much all Sci-Fi movies and games nowadays, I guess regular old stars are just too damn boring. With the amount of multicoloured nebulas, meteors, asteroids and shit they seem to think clutter up space we shouldn't be able to see any stars at all.

Bollockoff

The star that was often behind Illusive Man was always quite pretty.

Little Franklin

On the subject of bad science, that gay pilot guy had a line I liked, something like "I'd switch off the aural simulators and watch the ships fly by in silence." as a way of explaining why we can hear sound effects in space. Doesn't explain why we can hear them when watching the ship from the outside though.

Bollockoff

Just drama. Mass Effect isn't a particulary hard science adventure.

Although I remember reading somewhere that explosions in space are audible up to a certain distance as they have their own air in which to transport sound.

Raiziel

Get your Extended Cut on 26th June, all 1.9 gigabytes of it.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/324/index/12690832

Not sure I'm ready to tackle London again just yet to find out what happens in my game.

MattyJ

It's free isn't it? I'll be getting it.

Raiziel

Yes it's free.

Little Franklin

Raiziel wrote:

Not sure I'm ready to tackle London again just yet to find out what happens in my game.

My gameÂ auto-savedÂ just before or after Harbinger appeared. Did yours not?

Little Franklin

To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.

Son of a bitch! Well I'm can't be bothered to do all that again. Youtube it is then.

Tempy

Son of a fucking gun. No thanks.

Raiziel

I was under the impression you had to play from the point just before you hit the Cerberus base. Â I'm pretty sure one of the devs said as much. Â Don't ask me for a source though.

Raiziel

Ah, there we go then.

Bollockoff

I think EA needs to have a massive falling out with Bioware before Dragon Age 3 development gets in full swing.

MattyJ

Little Franklin wrote:

To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.

Son of a bitch! Well I'm can't be bothered to do all that again. Youtube it is then.

Wtf. I don't think I have a save. Bollocks.

Raiziel

You should have. Â At the very end of the game you're dumped back just before you infiltrate the Cerberus base where it autosaves. Â It did that, I assume, so you could take on any dlc released for the game as per the "Tell me more stories about the Shephard" line.

MattyJ

Ah okay cool.

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