Mass Effect Legendary Edition

[Floshenbarnical]

17 hours ago, Oz said:

I wish they had backtracked more of the combat to earlier games. Guess I just want more of a remake. I really do like me3 combat a lot better. Particularly the equipment weight mechanic. I was always carrying all these weapons i never used. I can just spec biotic and fucking send everyone flying all the time. This third one started stronger than I remember. Mars is brilliant. I love the piano theme of this one as well. It hits me in the sad feels of nostalgia for that time. 
 

fake edit: also it’s true no one else sees the kid! Maybe she is indoctrinated. 

i don’t - the cover in ME2/3 is too sticky so they play more like shooting galleries and you all have like 2 abilities. But I feel you

 

thane’s recruitment mission + soundtrack is spot on. 

[Oz]

I mean they did make some utterly baffling decisions in ME3. for example why the fuck would they not let you grab a party to explore the citadel. and why are you not wearing your armour. they suffered from trying to fix a things that were not broken. 

[JoeK]

27 minutes ago, Oz said:

I mean they did make some utterly baffling decisions in ME3. for example why the fuck would they not let you grab a party to explore the citadel. and why are you not wearing your armour. they suffered from trying to fix a things that were not broken. 

 

I'm still thoroughly fucked off that they never sorted out a fix so that you could actually holster your sodding weapon when you're on a mission. Nothing screws around with the immersion than running everywhere with the gun front and centre all the damn time. 

 

That and they never fixed the lip synch in ME3 either.

[R0b]

A ridiculous omission. 

[Floshenbarnical]

16 hours ago, JoeK said:

 

I'm still thoroughly fucked off that they never sorted out a fix so that you could actually holster your sodding weapon when you're on a mission. Nothing screws around with the immersion than running everywhere with the gun front and centre all the damn time. 

 

That and they never fixed the lip synch in ME3 either.

 

You can't hit the touchpad like in the other games?

 

I booted it up for a half hour and for some reason the motion capture, specifically faces, is really creepy and fucked up. I think they tried too hard with the facial expressions - whenever I use a renegade option or Shepard is slightly impassioned her face screws up like the Chuckie doll. Also it appears that Ashley Williams has had an astonishing amount of filler/ plastic surgery.  Also for some reason despite being the galaxy's most fearsome warrior Shepard has Kate Moss' fragile body under all that power armor.

 

On 08/07/2022 at 09:52, Floshenbarnical said:

 

Famous last words. I forgot that you can't do *any* missions after the Reaper IFF if you don't want your crew to get liquified. Poor Kelly Chambers. So I guess I will be hitting that level cap after all.

 

heck

 

Ok, got in, got everyone out. Mission accomplished. All DLC completed. Now I just have to do Legion's loyalty mission, the Firewalker guff, scan every planet, tie up all the assignments ... again. Then, and only then, will I start ME3 with my fucking perfect run.

 

The only thing I did differently this time was destroying instead of rewriting the Heretics because supposedly it allows you to reconcile the Geth & Quarians in 3, provided I also fulfill about 99 other criteria.

[Floshenbarnical]

I appreciate that I'm just talking to myself at this point but ME3 actually turns out to be my favorite in the series so far. It's full of plot/ character inconsistencies, but there is so much content. I've done so many fun little quests and missions and I haven't even attended the Summit yet. I still don't like the way Shepard controls, like she's floating above the ground while her legs move underneath her, but there is so much more variety and challenge in the combat with the new enemy types and combat mechanics and game mechanics and weapons and heavy melee. A major advantage of this playthrough is that I was so fucking stoned in 2014 when I played it that I'm actually playing it for the first time, really. I don't remember a single thing I've seen so far, with the exception of chasing the Dr on Mars.

[Vulgar Monkey]

On 10/07/2022 at 16:42, Oz said:

Just played the suicide mission again. It has been a while. Nothing has ever been this good. What mission in gaming has ever been this memorable? Although I still remember how to make everyone survive I was still tense all the way through wondering if I’d misremembered something. 

Part of why it is so memorable for me was getting everyone to survive on the first try. I remember being genuinely surprised that they let you go through a whole bunch of planning over who does what, and feeling quite clever that I knew the cast well enough to say who would be best where.

 

Quote

I still don't like the way Shepard controls, like she's floating above the ground while her legs move underneath her

I must say, while I'm sure it was noted at the time, by todays standards especially the crouch-walk looks very silly, especially when sidestepping around beneath low cover.

[Floshenbarnical]

This is undoubtedly the best game in the series. Oh my god.

 

Also I appear to have completely broken the game with this build - I'm playing as an infiltrator as usual and I bought the Widow as soon as I could and almost always run Squad Cryo ammo for it and bring Garrus and Liara with me everywhere. Liara's Singularity now essentially has no cooldown whatsoever so you I just spam it on groups of unshielded enemies and then detonate it with Flare, blowing everyone to bits. Garrus and Liara use their cryo ammo to snap-freeze everyone I haven't managed to one-shot with my Widow, and then Garrus blows them into frozen bits with his Concussive Blast. My Widow one-shots anything with a headshot, which with cryo ammo is hysterical because their heads freeze and shatter like glass. I don't even carry a sidearm anymore. Shields, Barriers, Armor are all completely covered with this setup, we're untouchable. And this is on Hardcore. I might have to up the difficulty to Insanity tbh.

 

Last night a Cerberus shuttled pulled up overhead and we had the whole unit inside dead before the shuttle door had finished opening - Garrus overloaded their shields at the same time Liara hit them with a singularity, then Garrus froze them with a quick burst from his N7 assault rifle while they were floating and I blew them all to bits with Flare. So empowering, and so good to have The Gang back together after the hiatus in ME2.

[therearerules]

On 11/07/2022 at 14:17, Floshenbarnical said:

 

What's this? I rinsed ME1&2 but only played ME3 once due to life circumstances. I didn't have internet at the time so didn't do any of the DLC.

Love that you're enjoying 3 so much. One thing I want to say which I was grateful for being told, and definitely maximised enjoyment, was to leave the second part of the Citadel dlc until the end, right before the point of no return.

[Floshenbarnical]

30 minutes ago, therearerules said:

Love that you're enjoying 3 so much. One thing I want to say which I was grateful for being told, and definitely maximised enjoyment, was to leave the second part of the Citadel dlc until the end, right before the point of no return.

 

Thanks. Will do. I've read a few non-spoiler advice threads about what to do soon and what to leave until later. So far I haven't been accepting any Priority missions until I've done literally everything else that's available.

 

The Omega DLC is pretty awesome, I have to say. I didn't really enjoy Aria "I am very badass" T'Loak in ME2 - she felt a bit on-the-nose and derivative - but ME3 brought me around. The Eezo mines were a fantastic set-piece. Loved every second of it. And who could possibly forget the finale on Tuchanka, with Wrex yelling at you to hurry while you scream back "There's a REAPER IN THE WAY!" His advice at the beginning of that section, before you're attacked by SIX BRUTES at once: "Don't get hit by the big red laser!" In the words of John McClane: "Thanks for the advice."

[Thor]

Don't stop posting @Floshenbarnical, I'm loving reading your posts in here.

[Alex W.]

Spoiler

I still don’t like the Mass Effect 3 ending. I thought the backlash was stupid at the time and after completing the game thought they’d missed the point entirely, but also that the finale fundamentally doesn’t work and the extended cut spent a lot of money not actually fixing any of its problems.

 

Okay, so it’s a mystery box, which means that thematically it kind of comes out of left field, but it’s also thematically incongruent. There two emotional high points and one great call-back which are literally about the danger of paternalistic top-down technological solutions, and one of them [i]is about solving the challenge of mechanical and organic life co-coexisting[/i]. To have this mandatory choice of techno-pocalypses put in front of you is this cruel irony, but if you have Shepard howl in anguish about this twice consecutively, it kicks you out to the cheaply produced bonus ending in a way that suggests they fundamentally didn’t grasp what their story was saying.

 

That it’s so poorly dramatised - literally three buttons for different outcomes and a new character telling you what they do - kind of gets lost.

 

It’s been intended as, and subsequently spun as, a purposefully ambiguous and thought provoking finale but it’s extremely direct and conclusive. A basic thematic conflict underpinning the franchise has been resolved forever by space magic and we have entered a new golden age. How much more narratively and thematically interesting would it have been to do the simple direct resolution to the story - beat the Reapers - and leave all those other conflicts in flux? Without their minders, can organic and machine lift maintain their truce, and find a deeper harmony? Can the Krogans and the rest of civilisation coexist without an atrocity to keep in one side in line? 

 

The rest of the game’s storytelling is occasionally wonky in ways that speak to a reliance on bad old sci fi tropes. Cerberus’ the plot is another mystery box, and their faceless troops are less narratively compelling than either the various human factions of the earlier games or the Reapers. You have the War Story which as usual tends to be used as a background substitute for dramatic tension rather than an intensifier and creator of dramatic events itself. But for the most part the ending’s problems are as self-contained as its narrative.

 

[Kevvy Metal]

4 hours ago, Alex W. said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I still don’t like the Mass Effect 3 ending. I thought the backlash was stupid at the time and after completing the game thought they’d missed the point entirely, but also that the finale fundamentally doesn’t work and the extended cut spent a lot of money not actually fixing any of its problems.

 

Okay, so it’s a mystery box, which means that thematically it kind of comes out of left field, but it’s also thematically incongruent. There two emotional high points and one great call-back which are literally about the danger of paternalistic top-down technological solutions, and one of them [i]is about solving the challenge of mechanical and organic life co-coexisting[/i]. To have this mandatory choice of techno-pocalypses put in front of you is this cruel irony, but if you have Shepard howl in anguish about this twice consecutively, it kicks you out to the cheaply produced bonus ending in a way that suggests they fundamentally didn’t grasp what their story was saying.

 

That it’s so poorly dramatised - literally three buttons for different outcomes and a new character telling you what they do - kind of gets lost.

 

It’s been intended as, and subsequently spun as, a purposefully ambiguous and thought provoking finale but it’s extremely direct and conclusive. A basic thematic conflict underpinning the franchise has been resolved forever by space magic and we have entered a new golden age. How much more narratively and thematically interesting would it have been to do the simple direct resolution to the story - beat the Reapers - and leave all those other conflicts in flux? Without their minders, can organic and machine lift maintain their truce, and find a deeper harmony? Can the Krogans and the rest of civilisation coexist without an atrocity to keep in one side in line? 

 

The rest of the game’s storytelling is occasionally wonky in ways that speak to a reliance on bad old sci fi tropes. Cerberus’ the plot is another mystery box, and their faceless troops are less narratively compelling than either the various human factions of the earlier games or the Reapers. You have the War Story which as usual tends to be used as a background substitute for dramatic tension rather than an intensifier and creator of dramatic events itself. But for the most part the ending’s problems are as self-contained as its narrative.

 

nah. 

[Alex W.]

[Floshenbarnical]

I had an evil clone???? I guess that must have been DLC. I really did just cane the priority missions last time around. Never bumped into Jacob or Jack before either. Or Miranda. Or thane. Bad Floshen

[Thor]

In ME3 you have to have bumped into Thane ... unless he died in ME2 and you carried that save over.

[Spacehost]

27 minutes ago, Thor said:

In ME3 you have to have bumped into Thane ... unless he died in ME2 and you carried that save over.

I don’t see how Thane could die in ME2, unless you sent him down the vents.

[Thor]

Just now, Spacehost said:

I don’t see how Thane could die in ME2, unless you sent him down the vents.

Oooh, he can. He can die in the vents as you have said, but he can also die in the final push of the biotic bubble sections if you don't use Samara or Jack. On my very first playthrough I used Miranda, and Thane got taken by the collector swarm. Stupid cerberus bosh'tet! 😒

[Wiper]

What can I say, he's a dude with a proclivity for sneaking his way through air ducts and hacking his way past defences. If Casey Hudson thinks all that should be overridden by "lol lizard can't breathe in vent", then that's his problem.

 

What I'm saying is, Thane canonically dies in the mission.

 

(unless you have the Kasumi DLC, in which case the weeb gets to show off instead)

[Floshenbarnical]

41 minutes ago, Wiper said:

What can I say, he's a dude with a proclivity for sneaking his way through air ducts and hacking his way past defences. If Casey Hudson thinks all that should be overridden by "lol lizard can't breathe in vent", then that's his problem.

 

What I'm saying is, Thane canonically dies in the mission.

 

(unless you have the Kasumi DLC, in which case the weeb gets to show off instead)

 

Kasumi Goto is Japanese and therefore is not a weeb

 

1 hour ago, Thor said:

In ME3 you have to have bumped into Thane ... unless he died in ME2 and you carried that save over.

 

He is missable - you have to walk up to him in the hospital and talk to him. Same with Ashley in the hospital - if you don't visit her all three available times while she's at Huerta then it affects the outcome of the unsuccessful Cerberus coup. That happened in my playthrough from years ago. And the Salarian councillor died in my previous play, as Thane was not there to protect him.

 

I fucked up and had Wrex accompany me to the casino - I wanted to bring Ashley so I could see her in a tight dress but accidentally selected Wrex, which turned out to be the best choice ever because I now have a clip of him dancing.

[Wiper]

3 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

 

Kasumi Goto is Japanese and therefore is not a weeb

 

Kasumi Goto says she's Japanese; I choose to believe she's precisely as Japanese as Marvel's Akira Yoshida.

[Floshenbarnical]

34 minutes ago, Wiper said:

 

Kasumi Goto says she's Japanese; I choose to believe she's precisely as Japanese as Marvel's Akira Yoshida.

well she’s played by kym hoy, an Asian-American VA so I’m willing to take her word for it

 

omg what am I talking about, I’m such a neckbeard when it comes to mass effect 

[Talvalin]

4 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

well she’s played by kym hoy, an Asian-American VA so I’m willing to take her word for it

 

omg what am I talking about, I’m such a neckbeard when it comes to mass effect 

 

So, a Japanese character being played by a non-Japanese person?

[Floshenbarnical]

14 hours ago, Talvalin said:

 

So, a Japanese character being played by a non-Japanese person?

 

Look I'll concede that it's a cheesy caricature now leave me alone

 

Successfully brokered peace between the Geth and the Quarians. Hackett was like 😮 

 

RIP Legion

[Floshenbarnical]

Ok I have literally every quest/ fetch quest wrapped up including all the Armax Arsenal Arena quests. Fuck me the party DLC is cheesy. At least you get an pre-heat-sink-retrofit Lancer out of it. And also Miranda dancing I guess.

 

I can't believe it's almost over. Now I just have to go give Kai Leng a righteous fisting and we can kick out these stupid robots for good. Sad times

 

Then I'll obviously NG+

[Thor]

9 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

Fuck me the party DLC is amazing 

Ftfy. 

[Floshenbarnical]

The nightmare is finally over. Convinced TIM to blow his entire brain out, and then killed all the Reapers. Shame about EDI & the Geth, but I wanted to see my friends again. A short gasp of breath concludes the story.

[Thor]

I always go for Control. But I have a feeling the destroy ending will be canon for future games. 

[Wiper]

The correct ending is always going to be Now Joker's Hat Has Circuitry Running Through It For Some Reason.

 

(I mean, the actual correct ending is obviously the Fuck This, I Guess We're All Dead Then ending, but I've not reached the end of the game since they patched that one in, so)

[Spacehost]

The correct ending is that the Reapers leave but say, “robots and biologicals? fuck about and find out lol, eat shit” and blow up all the relays. Then everyone looks at each other awkwardly since the entire military of the galaxy is stuck outside Planet Mon-Kai without enough food, everyone already borderline hates each other, and you’ve got a setting ripe for absolute chaos.