Videogames: Who Are You Buying This For?

[Rhom]

1) I don't know where it'd be, but yes, the Broker has a different line for every character.

2) After the IFF there's a timer. I forget the exact mechanics, but I think its that you can do one mission afterwards before hitting the endgame and have no ill effects, if you do two missions Kelly dies, three to X missions and various random crew members also die, more than X and the doctor is the only survivor.

But the doctor will always survive, and the rest of the mission isn't affected no matter how many die. So if you want to see how Legion interacts with other missions, you can hold off on doing them until after the IFF mission and then bring him along. I'd recommend doing it in an alternate save though, otherwise you're a heartless bastard to all those people who looked up to you.

3) If they die, they're done for the series. No post-game DLC, and they won't be in ME3. For most of them, this isn't a huge issue (unless you really liked the character), because there are other characters that replace them in the plot. However, Garrus and Tali are party members in ME3, and they aren't replaced, so you miss out on a big chunk of the game if they die. Miranda is reasonably important as well.

Also, anyone who's dead won't be in ME3's Citadel DLC, and that'd be a real shame.

Thanks... I will apply my Google Fu. I had hoped it would be on the Mass Effect Wiki, but alas it was not to be.

[Clueless Northman]

Garrus may have the best scene (well, one of them) in ME3, so definitely don't lose him.

Enjoying a break at his favorite spot? :D

You won't have a clue WTF is going on for the first half of the game but it is still brilliant.

That indeed is very Malazanesque.

[Muttering Bill]

All these posts lead me to believe that I should really get around to playing Mass Effect. Is it really that good?

I thought it was terrible. Interesting enough story, but lousy pacing. Combat sucked too; it wanted to be a cover shooter but couldn't pull it off. Upgrade system was bad. Mako missions were worst of all.

Supposedly 2 and 3 are better. :dunno:

[Rhom]

I thought it was terrible. Interesting enough story, but lousy pacing. Combat sucked too; it wanted to be a cover shooter but couldn't pull it off. Upgrade system was bad. Mako missions were worst of all.

Supposedly 2 and 3 are better. :dunno:

Oh definitely. (Well... speaking of two at least.)

[Jabronius Maximus]

I thought it was terrible. Interesting enough story, but lousy pacing. Combat sucked too; it wanted to be a cover shooter but couldn't pull it off. Upgrade system was bad. Mako missions were worst of all.

Supposedly 2 and 3 are better. :dunno:

I picked up the entire trilogy in one bundle for PS3 last year. I've really enjoyed the first two games.

Mixed signals :S

Anyway the bundle is like $30 on Origin, so I might as well give it a shot. I had to cancel an upcoming trip, but the holidays remain. Now I know what I'll be doing in that time (aside from the World Cup)!

[Inigima]

I think Dragon Age and KOTOR suck. I enjoyed Jade Empire as a strictly b-grade game, but many people don't like it at all. I think Mass Effect is tremendous. That said, I don't care about the shooty portions. If you're after a mechanically tight shooter, look elsewhere. Mass Effect shines for its world-building (okay, universe-building) and its dialogue.

It's very, very hard to create, from nothing, a vibrant space setting and set a grand space opera in it. I think they knocked it out of the park.

[Muttering Bill]

Mixed signals :S

Hey, if it's cheap, then you might as well try it. Most people tend to enjoy them. And I'm not really a big fan of shooters to begin with.

I did like Dragon Age Origins, but it took me a couple of tries to get into. It wasn't great though. I never played DA2, and I most likely won't bother with the new one.

Despite DAO, I've learned not to bother with Bioware games. Them and Rockstar.

[balefired-ed]

World of Ruin now, have Sabin, visited Terra.

The first time I tried this game I did the port on the PS and couldn't get past the graphics and not being able to use the joysticks for movement, but I absolutely love it on my ipad.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Couldn't get into Mass Effect. The combat put me off and I just felt that there was too much (slow) running around and too much talking. :dunno: To each his own I guess.

[Werthead]

It's very, very hard to create, from nothing, a vibrant space setting and set a grand space opera in it.

I agree, and the Mass Effect universe is certainly fun. However, it is very, very derivative. I mean, it is really just Babylon 5 (especially how the races are organised and work together, and the Asari=Minbari and Krogan=Narn parallels are fairly strong) mashed into BSG (the whole AI vs organics and repeating cycle of destruction angle), and neither of those franchises basked in the glow of orginality either.

I'm also bemused that it's possible for anyone to like ME and not KotOR. ME1 is very derivative in terms of story structure from KotOR (to the occasional point of stupidity) but half the length, not as well-written and lacking the key narrative surprise of KotOR which recasts the entire story in a different light. KotOR also has much better combat, as it's actual RPG combat rather than ME's ham-fisted cover shooting. And no Mako sections. And HK-47.

[Jon AS]

You'd have missed KotOR, which is easily BioWare's second-best-game after BG2 and certainly a hell of a lot better than NWN, and Jade Empire, which is absolutely enormous amounts of fun (even beyond the very random scene where John Cleese seems to be taking the piss out of WarCraft).

I don't recall anything Warcraft related about that. I thought it was just John Cleese being John Cleese.

One question though, is there anywhere that I can see all the dialogue options from Shadow Broker? For example, I had Kasumi with me and before I killed him the Broker thanked me for bringing Miss Kasumi with me because of the value of her grey box. Was curious if he had something to say about everyone. :dunno:

. They aren't that interesting. Their dossiers on the computer are more fun.

ETA: Okay, another question... also after the Suicide Mission I was going back and finishing conversation strings with other characters. Spent a lot of time talking to Legion. I was under the impression that the IFF mission was sort of the "Unofficial Point of No return" for the game. So how have people brought Legion on other missions with them? Does your crew die to the Collectors if you don't go straight there? Is there no effect?

If you linger too long (read: leave the Normandy two or three times) people start to die. IIRC first step is half the crew, then only Chakwas survives.

[Ziggy Targdust]

Wait, there's a way to save the whole crew?

[Jon AS]

Wait, there's a way to save the whole crew?

Yes. As mentioned: do the Suicide Mission quickly enough after the abduction (i.e. do Legion's loyalty mission but don't go on a shopping spree on Ilium or anything) and assign the correct people to the various tasks during the mission. Short summary: only assign tasks to loyal crewmembers; Legion/Tali/Kasumi for the vent; Garrus/Miranda/Jacob as b-team leaders; anybody as escort for the crew; Samara or Jack for the biotic bubble; leave all the physically toughest characters behind to hold the line; only take loyal crewmembers to the final fight.

[Shryke]

I agree, and the Mass Effect universe is certainly fun. However, it is very, very derivative. I mean, it is really just Babylon 5 (especially how the races are organised and work together, and the Asari=Minbari and Krogan=Narn parallels are fairly strong) mashed into BSG (the whole AI vs organics and repeating cycle of destruction angle), and neither of those franchises basked in the glow of orginality either.

I'm also bemused that it's possible for anyone to like ME and not KotOR. ME1 is very derivative in terms of story structure from KotOR (to the occasional point of stupidity) but half the length, not as well-written and lacking the key narrative surprise of KotOR which recasts the entire story in a different light. KotOR also has much better combat, as it's actual RPG combat rather than ME's ham-fisted cover shooting. And no Mako sections. And HK-47.

I don't particularly care if it's derivative as long as it's good. And ME's setting is really good.

The story varies alot depending on the part you are in. The character work is strong, as always, and some of the storylines really work but others just aren't that good. Overall it's good considering it's a video game.

And the combat is one of the highlights in ME2 and ME3 and much better then KOTORs.

[MerenthaClone]

Yes. As mentioned: do the Suicide Mission quickly enough after the abduction (i.e. do Legion's loyalty mission but don't go on a shopping spree on Ilium or anything) and assign the correct people to the various tasks during the mission. Short summary: only assign tasks to loyal crewmembers; Legion/Tali/Kasumi for the vent; Garrus/Miranda/Jacob as b-team leaders; anybody as escort for the crew; Samara or Jack for the biotic bubble; leave all the physically toughest characters behind to hold the line; only take loyal crewmembers to the final fight.

As an addendum, sending Mordin back with the crew helps your characters hold the line. While simply having Zaeed (I think that Zaeed is tough enough that, if left alone and loyal, he will actually survive that section) helps bolster the defense a lot, Mordin does not. He's both really weak and the first to die in that segment if your total defense is low, so send him back safe with the crew and you'll be fine. If you don't do that, don't have everyone's loyalty, and then take some combination of Garrus, Zaeed, and iirc Grunt with you to the final fight, he could die.

Basically, do everyone's loyalty mission before the IFF, get Legion, do Legion's loyalty mission, then hit the final mission and make good choices there and you'll be fine.

edit: I love the ME series, my bitching about ME3's plot aside. Their setting is still really good and the gameplay did improve with each, imo. ME2 remains the highlight of the series, but they've all got strengths.

[Shryke]

As an addendum, sending Mordin back with the crew helps your characters hold the line. While simply having Zaeed (I think that Zaeed is tough enough that, if left alone and loyal, he will actually survive that section) helps bolster the defense a lot, Mordin does not. He's both really weak and the first to die in that segment if your total defense is low, so send him back safe with the crew and you'll be fine. If you don't do that, don't have everyone's loyalty, and then take some combination of Garrus, Zaeed, and iirc Grunt with you to the final fight, he could die.

Basically, do everyone's loyalty mission before the IFF, get Legion, do Legion's loyalty mission, then hit the final mission and make good choices there and you'll be fine.

edit: I love the ME series, my bitching about ME3's plot aside. Their setting is still really good and the gameplay did improve with each, imo. ME2 remains the highlight of the series, but they've all got strengths.

I blew through the Suicide Mission with no causalities on the first try without looking anything up. I never understood why anyone had issues.

As long as you do every side mission and make the obvious choices, you are golden.

[MerenthaClone]

I blew through the Suicide Mission with no causalities on the first try without looking anything up. I never understood why anyone had issues.

As long as you do every side mission and make the obvious choices, you are golden.

Yeah, this will save you a lot of the time. I don't know either, apparently a lot of people sent Thane into the steam vents to hack the whatsit, because even though the entire briefing focused on the hacking, somehow they only heard "vents" and went "hey! Thane sneaks in vents! I'll send him! so RIP Thane". I mean, I don't know, maybe pick the robot from the race of robot hackers with the class name "infiltrator". That'd be good. Or the person who can literally hack robotic enemies. She's probably good at hacking things too.

The only other thing might be not getting the "loyalty" thing. Rather than loyalty, it should have been "focus". Most of the missions revolve around clearing up something in their past so they can concentrate on the task at hand, which might have clued people into the "seriously don't use nonloyal people" aspect of that. Or Miranda trolling people when she says "theoretically anyone could do it" about the bubble, since, well, she can't. I still didn't believe her and opted for the genetically engineered super-psychic though, because...why wouldn't I? Actually, I can't remember whether I did that or went with the disciplined psychic warrior monk from the race of psychic warriors the first time. Either way...

The only time I could see someone dying through really no fault of their own is with Mordin at hold the line. If you don't have Zaeed at all and send either Grunt or Garrus with the crew, you cannot take Grunt or Garrus with you to the final fight or Mordin dies. edit: Actually, no, that's not true. If you do that, you also have to take Mordin, Jack, or Tali with you, iirc. The defense segment is the most opaque, imo, because it isn't quite clear what you're actually doing. Grunt, for instance, can easily be brought with you to kill the final boss because while he's tough, he's not exactly the best at defensive fighting. Garrus, on the other hand, is a no-brainer to leave behind given how you met him, but most people aren't thinking about that and are instead thinking about the best team to bring to a big fight.

[Ziggy Targdust]

Sooo I just got my ps4 hooked up and ...... No youtube app!?!?!?! Someone should have warned me about this.

Edit: you have to go to youtube through the browser......yuck!

[Jabronius Maximus]

Sooo I just got my ps4 hooked up and ...... No youtube app!?!?!?! Someone should have warned me about this.

Edit: you have to go to youtube through the browser......yuck!

Do you go to YouTube.com/TV? That one's fairly functional (it's the same as the ps3 youtube app). Put it to full screen mode, and you won't notice the browser at all.

[Ziggy Targdust]

Do you go to YouTube.com/TV? That one's fairly functional (it's the same as the ps3 youtube app). Put it to full screen mode, and you won't notice the browser at all.

Yeh that's what I did, I've just become so app lazy that extra step really has me whining and moaning