Edit: the Quarians were slavers to they just built theirs :P
Nah. AIs aren't people. Just because your toaster is can learn how you like your toast toasted doesn't mean you set it free.
Beat the game. Random thoughts + spoilers:
Is there a way to "fuck up"? Sure felt like I got the "best" ending, and I'm not sure how I "earned" that. Guess there might not be multiple endings, but even ME1 had stuff that felt like impactful decisions.
Are there opportunities to play through again and be a "space asshole"? Renegade didn't really seem like a thing.
Cause of Death: Pathfinder
A LOT of the voices sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. At the end, what's-her-face vas Hyperion sounded super familiar, as did the Australian dude. But "oh, hey, who might I know in this cast list?" is a stupid game. (Except for Yuri Lowenthal, whom I recognized.)
The romances didn't seem as ... I don't know, as "whatever" as implied? Maybe more fluid, I guess, though they were still hard gated behind story missions which meant everybody you flirt with early game comes at you ready to exchange vows at basically the same time.
Also, no awkward sex talk from Lexi? Come on, that would have been great!
looooots of good shit in this game. I played for like 90 hours, 95% complete, but I also played a bunch of multiplayer. Pretty gosh darn happy with this game.
I always thought that a true AI would basically be like a person. Most of the time I see AI used (like in this series) it basically a really smart computer program with a personality.
Edit: the Quarians were slavers to they just built theirs :P
Nah. AIs aren't people. Just because your toaster is can learn how you like your toast toasted doesn't mean you set it free.
Beat the game. Random thoughts + spoilers:
Is there a way to "fuck up"? Sure felt like I got the "best" ending, and I'm not sure how I "earned" that. Guess there might not be multiple endings, but even ME1 had stuff that felt like impactful decisions.
Are there opportunities to play through again and be a "space asshole"? Renegade didn't really seem like a thing.
Cause of Death: Pathfinder
A LOT of the voices sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. At the end, what's-her-face vas Hyperion sounded super familiar, as did the Australian dude. But "oh, hey, who might I know in this cast list?" is a stupid game. (Except for Yuri Lowenthal, whom I recognized.)
The romances didn't seem as ... I don't know, as "whatever" as implied? Maybe more fluid, I guess, though they were still hard gated behind story missions which meant everybody you flirt with early game comes at you ready to exchange vows at basically the same time.
Also, no awkward sex talk from Lexi? Come on, that would have been great!
looooots of good shit in this game. I played for like 90 hours, 95% complete, but I also played a bunch of multiplayer. Pretty gosh darn happy with this game.
I always thought that a true AI would basically be like a person. Most of the time I see AI used (like in this series) it basically a really smart computer program with a personality.
It really really depends on what we create it to be capable of doing. There's actually a term for what could theoretically happen and it would be way beyond anything portrayed by the comparatively inoffensive Hollywood portrayals of intelligent robots.
From what I've read the closest thing to a "bad" ending is that Captain Dunn will die during the unscheduled landing of the Hyperion. This can happen if you do not find the Asari/Salarian/Turian arks. I'm not sure if you have to rescue all three to get all three pathfinders but that would be my guess. Otherwise the variables amount to who shows up to help.
I was going to mention this once more people had finished the game and could click on spoiler tags, but one of my favorite things about ME:A is that Bioware seems to have learned some lessons about how difficult/annoying it is to juggle major narrative branches. I'm really happy you can't kill any of your teammates in this game. Or decide whether or not to wipe out what remains of an entire race. I would much rather the decisions be on a personal level in the first game.
From what I've read the closest thing to a "bad" ending is that Captain Dunn will die during the unscheduled landing of the Hyperion. This can happen if you do not find the Asari/Salarian/Turian arks. I'm not sure if you have to rescue all three to get all three pathfinders but that would be my guess. Otherwise the variables amount to who shows up to help.
What happens depends on a few things.
story spoilers obviously fair warning your fault from here on hurr durr
You do have to find all three arks, but you have to put the pathfinders in a position to help you. The Salarian pathfinders will help you regardless, but for the Turian ark you have to convince Avitus to accept the role of pathfinder and encourage him, and for the Asari ark you have to either keep Sarissa as pathfinder and not publicly expose her, or pass the pathfinder role over to Vederia.
If you don't have all three of the other pathfinders handy, Dunn will die.
From what I've read the closest thing to a "bad" ending is that Captain Dunn will die during the unscheduled landing of the Hyperion. This can happen if you do not find the Asari/Salarian/Turian arks. I'm not sure if you have to rescue all three to get all three pathfinders but that would be my guess. Otherwise the variables amount to who shows up to help.
I was going to mention this once more people had finished the game and could click on spoiler tags, but one of my favorite things about ME:A is that Bioware seems to have learned some lessons about how difficult/annoying it is to juggle major narrative branches. I'm really happy you can't kill any of your teammates in this game. Or decide whether or not to wipe out what remains of an entire race. I would much rather the decisions be on a personal level in the first game.
oh, how annoying
I rescued all three arks, but the Turian dude was like, "Yo I don't want to be a pathfinder." And I already had every planet at 100% so like... OK. That's fine dude! We really don't need you!
And my Captain Dunn died.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I totally outed Sarissa but told them they should keep her and Dunn lived for me.
Re: Ending
Yeah but she's still their Pathfinder. Barely-able-to-keep-it-together-after-getting-lots-of-lectures lady wasn't their Pathfinder and so Sarissa was able to keep that shit together.
0
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited April 2017
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
Man, finally riding around with Liam and Vetra. I thought this stuff was going to be pent up sexual tension ala Miranda and Jack, but it's just nasty barbs from the bad push-up posture king trying to be the fetch queen in Andromeda. Prolly brought a burn book with him too.
Liam is pretty much the worst henchperson character in the entire franchise.
I've come to realize that the way I feel about PeeBee is the way all you dudes feel about Liam. Well, except my hate doesn't run as deep, I guess. I just dislike her a little, she's no where near as terrible a character as Jacob or Miranda.
The comparison being: they both do stupid shit basically constantly, but at least Liam has the excuse of at least trying to help. And a lot of his ideas actually do help. PeeBee's excuse is neurosis and bowing her will to Darth Girlfriend. Everything about PeeBee is me, me, me, while Liam is about strengthening the colonies, learning more about those around him, and helping people.
Like people forget, I guess, that PeeBee is just as nasty to Vetra in the Nomad.
From what I've read the closest thing to a "bad" ending is that Captain Dunn will die during the unscheduled landing of the Hyperion. This can happen if you do not find the Asari/Salarian/Turian arks. I'm not sure if you have to rescue all three to get all three pathfinders but that would be my guess. Otherwise the variables amount to who shows up to help.
I was going to mention this once more people had finished the game and could click on spoiler tags, but one of my favorite things about ME:A is that Bioware seems to have learned some lessons about how difficult/annoying it is to juggle major narrative branches. I'm really happy you can't kill any of your teammates in this game. Or decide whether or not to wipe out what remains of an entire race. I would much rather the decisions be on a personal level in the first game.
oh, how annoying
I rescued all three arks, but the Turian dude was like, "Yo I don't want to be a pathfinder." And I already had every planet at 100% so like... OK. That's fine dude! We really don't need you!
And my Captain Dunn died.
That's great.
In my ending I think Avitus did the least, too. He might've shot down some Kett ships (I wasn't sure if that with Avitus or Kandros. I know, terrible human). But then when we're inside the control structure he radios in that he'd be more than happy to help but we had things under control and his unit would just get in the way.
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
I didn't get one at all with
Suvi. But there was implied shenanigans in the Nexus tech lab. SCIENCE!!!
+1
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
The Jaal romance is great all the way through, but one of the fun parts is that you get letters
...from his mom. This is probably the last one I'll get:
Dear Jaal mom:
1) Piranha with a plasma-seeking mod and a bio converter, no question.
2) My homeworld is like Aya but less pretty.
3) Uh, here let me forward you some extranet videos, they should cover it.
I'm actually less sure it worked, now, because I was in another game with someone using it earlier and it wasn't rendering the explosions for me. So it seems they may have thought ahead there.
And yet more random thoughts, semi-spoilery regarding other MW races:
If the krogan could somehow use 600+ years in stasis to help fight the genophage, I wonder if the quarians could do the same so they don't need their suits anymore. I'd rather not deal with "no one knows what we look like because somehow pictures and paintings don't exist in space, and also fully transparent masks aren't a technology they have" again.
On the subject of quarians, I'm very interested to see whether or not their pathfinder has a SAM. And if so, how the writers justify it. I love that AI is not illegal in Andromeda, but I would still think it would be a tough sell to get the Quarians on board with relying on one.
Also this might be a stretch believability-wise, but I would not be unhappy if the emergency the Quarians are warning of is that their ark contains a number of Geth stowaways.
Spoilers for various Andromedan species:
I imagine that, with the knowledge that they are also an artificially created species, the Angara would feel sympathetic toward the Geth. If the Jardaan had tried to kill them when they became self-aware, they likely would have responded exactly the way the Geth did.
The Kett, on the other hand, would despise the Geth, just for being immune to exaltation. I thought for a second that they might even offer an alliance with the Quarians to get rid of them, but on reflection, I doubt it. There's only one type of "alliance" the Kett are interested in, and I doubt the Quarians would go for it, even if it would cure their broken immune systems.
I'm actually less sure it worked, now, because I was in another game with someone using it earlier and it wasn't rendering the explosions for me. So it seems they may have thought ahead there.
And yet more random thoughts, semi-spoilery regarding other MW races:
If the krogan could somehow use 600+ years in stasis to help fight the genophage, I wonder if the quarians could do the same so they don't need their suits anymore. I'd rather not deal with "no one knows what we look like because somehow pictures and paintings don't exist in space, and also fully transparent masks aren't a technology they have" again.
On the subject of quarians, I'm very interested to see whether or not their pathfinder has a SAM. And if so, how the writers justify it. I love that AI is not illegal in Andromeda, but I would still think it would be a tough sell to get the Quarians on board with relying on one.
Also this might be a stretch believability-wise, but I would not be unhappy if the emergency the Quarians are warning of is that their ark contains a number of Geth stowaways.
Spoilers for various Andromedan species:
I imagine that, with the knowledge that they are also an artificially created species, the Angara would feel sympathetic toward the Geth. If the Jardaan had tried to kill them when they became self-aware, they likely would have responded exactly the way the Geth did.
The Kett, on the other hand, would despise the Geth, just for being immune to exaltation. I thought for a second that they might even offer an alliance with the Quarians to get rid of them, but on reflection, I doubt it. There's only one type of "alliance" the Kett are interested in, and I doubt the Quarians would go for it, even if it would cure their broken immune systems.
Man, finally riding around with Liam and Vetra. I thought this stuff was going to be pent up sexual tension ala Miranda and Jack, but it's just nasty barbs from the bad push-up posture king trying to be the fetch queen in Andromeda. Prolly brought a burn book with him too.
Liam is pretty much the worst henchperson character in the entire franchise.
I've come to realize that the way I feel about PeeBee is the way all you dudes feel about Liam. Well, except my hate doesn't run as deep, I guess. I just dislike her a little, she's no where near as terrible a character as Jacob or Miranda.
The comparison being: they both do stupid shit basically constantly, but at least Liam has the excuse of at least trying to help. And a lot of his ideas actually do help. PeeBee's excuse is neurosis and bowing her will to Darth Girlfriend. Everything about PeeBee is me, me, me, while Liam is about strengthening the colonies, learning more about those around him, and helping people.
I like both Liam and PeeBee, but...
...their comparative stupid isn't nearly the same. PeeBee's research is/will be super-valuable to the Initiative, and she put Ryder + 1 in danger because she's OCD about her science. Liam put the entire Nexus and therefore the whole Initiative in danger because it hurt his feelings that some Angarans kept calling him "outsider".
And Liam was way meaner to Vetra than PeeBee. PeeBee makes remarks about Vetra being an overbearing big-sis/space mom. Liam practically accuses her of being a criminal. Worse, Liam's Nomad chats with Vetra just shows his utter lack of awareness about what's going on. His whole self-declared purpose as part of the Pathfinder team is to figure out how to cut through red tape, mistrust, and racial prejudice in order to get things done. It totally flies over his head that Vetra's doing exactly that already. He can't see the utility of Vetra's frontier capitalism because of his cop eyes.
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
Its not
But not every romance scene seems to involve sex.
For example: Suvi and Sara shared a moment and then started making out as the camera panned away like in old movies. No nudity, no explicit sex.
I'm actually less sure it worked, now, because I was in another game with someone using it earlier and it wasn't rendering the explosions for me. So it seems they may have thought ahead there.
And yet more random thoughts, semi-spoilery regarding other MW races:
If the krogan could somehow use 600+ years in stasis to help fight the genophage, I wonder if the quarians could do the same so they don't need their suits anymore. I'd rather not deal with "no one knows what we look like because somehow pictures and paintings don't exist in space, and also fully transparent masks aren't a technology they have" again.
On the subject of quarians, I'm very interested to see whether or not their pathfinder has a SAM. And if so, how the writers justify it. I love that AI is not illegal in Andromeda, but I would still think it would be a tough sell to get the Quarians on board with relying on one.
Also this might be a stretch believability-wise, but I would not be unhappy if the emergency the Quarians are warning of is that their ark contains a number of Geth stowaways.
Spoilers for various Andromedan species:
I imagine that, with the knowledge that they are also an artificially created species, the Angara would feel sympathetic toward the Geth. If the Jardaan had tried to kill them when they became self-aware, they likely would have responded exactly the way the Geth did.
The Kett, on the other hand, would despise the Geth, just for being immune to exaltation. I thought for a second that they might even offer an alliance with the Quarians to get rid of them, but on reflection, I doubt it. There's only one type of "alliance" the Kett are interested in, and I doubt the Quarians would go for it, even if it would cure their broken immune systems.
After 96 hours, I finally beat Andromeda. That game definitely has problems. It needed to cut out the filler, maybe have me do less backtracking across the same few locations for every quest, and refocus those resources elsewhere. I would have appreciated a bit more of Mass Effect 2 when it came to side-quests. But damn did BioWare pull off a great ending and epilogue. I was grinning all the way through them. They made me want more in that universe and with those characters.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
With all of this ending talking and me only being like half-way through the game, I feel like I have to point out that the world at least feels like it has more progression than the others. Your choices don't seem to matter all that much, but the game world at least changes a bit around you and feels more real. Like:
The Nexus being dark and dilapidated and then more and then the dock area filling up with more and more people as you go along. The slow trickle of angaran interaction is also nice. Even the Tann office/Pathfinder lounge. There seems to be much more ambient dialogue and random crew interaction and it's less overtly gated (e.g. in ME2: do a main story mission, cycle through all the crew, repeat; in ME:A: do random stuff, crew moves around and has new interactions and ambient conversations.) Big things are still gated behind loyalty missions and major story arcs, but it feels more vibrant.
The downside to that is when it fails. Like nobody acknowledging the healthy water on Kadara after you activate the vault (you talk to people and do quests and read datapads that all reference the terrible water). Or the change in weather Voeld (the temperature danger is even still there; and the blizzard preventing the kett from murdering everyone has abated but no one seems to care). Eos - as the story's main "settlement" gate - actually has changes.
The space exploration skip option from the patch is also very nice. It could be designed better (and planets could have more, interesting information), but way less time sink.
I like individual Krogans but frankly I don't trust them as a whole. What do you make a species that responds to gaining a boatload of world and a second chance by dropping asteroids and starting a war. Who says they'll learn anything from the Genophage?
You misunderstand. The lesson that Mass Effect has taught us over and over again is that you should always prioritize forging alliances with the strongest and most aggressively violent people, because there's always some new doomsday enemy waiting just around the corner to murder everyone.
Here's a handy sorted list to help you remember who you should make friends with and who you should not.
Strong and Violent (Befriend at All Costs)
Reapers
Leviathans
Kett
Krogan
Rachni
Yawg
Weak and Violent
Turians
Batarians
Vorcha
Drell
Protheans/Collectors
Angara
Humans
Strong and Peaceful
Elcor
Asari
Geth
Weak and Peaceful (Useless)
Salarians
Quarians
Volus
Hanar
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
Its not
But not every romance scene seems to involve sex.
For example: Suvi and Sara shared a moment and then started making out as the camera panned away like in old movies. No nudity, no explicit sex.
Romance spoilers
Vertra's is a lot like that, but a bit more explicit - you kiss, then you two head to a bedroom before the scene ends.
The bit before it is sorta awkward though; Vetra tries to cook you a steak, but burns it to ash and sorta implies it's like super rotten or something. And they just leave that with her saying "You don't need to be nice, I know I must have screwed something up." But there's never any acknowledgement of why that might be, so it's left just sort of implying that Vetra is kinda incompetent about cooking. Which is damned odd; she raised Sid. Vetra would have learned to cook something, and the whole dextro/levo thing isn't brought up outside of one crew message board posting.
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
Its not
But not every romance scene seems to involve sex.
For example: Suvi and Sara shared a moment and then started making out as the camera panned away like in old movies. No nudity, no explicit sex.
Romance spoilers
Vertra's is a lot like that, but a bit more explicit - you kiss, then you two head to a bedroom before the scene ends.
The bit before it is sorta awkward though; Vetra tries to cook you a steak, but burns it to ash and sorta implies it's like super rotten or something. And they just leave that with her saying "You don't need to be nice, I know I must have screwed something up." But there's never any acknowledgement of why that might be, so it's left just sort of implying that Vetra is kinda incompetent about cooking. Which is damned odd; she raised Sid. Vetra would have learned to cook something, and the whole dextro/levo thing isn't brought up outside of one crew message board posting.
Cooking stuff for yourself and a kid sibling, and cooking for your partner is another. I can easily see managing macaroni and cheese, but fucking up on steaks.
Did anyone else make morda the ambassador?
If you think about it it's the only way to make sure the krogan won't fuck up...
Morda is barely better personality-wise than Sloane Kelly, so fuck no, she does not get to be ambassador. The Moshae already has a good handle of the responsibilities involved in the position, and the angara need to be invested here.
Welp, that patch broke the game for me and a whole lot of people, because it fucked with the Visual C++ 2015 library. And EA/Bioware have been largely silent about the issue. Fun. I wanted to play MP today, but that's not going to happen.
I don't know if you're having the same exact issue I had. There seems to be several different things that the patch could have broken, so different people have different issues.
I don't suppose anyone else's game broke after the patch?
Edit:
Found a fix for the problem I was having. Posting it here in case anyone else is having this problem.
The problem I had after the patch is the game wouldn't run, and I'd get a dialogue box popping up saying something about the "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll" being missing.
The fix I found basically boiled down to these steps.
1) Open control panel and uninstall "Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64)"
2) Go to windows update and set to never check for updates.
3) Restart
4) Go to the following link and d/l the version for your PC. In my case it was a "All supported x64-based versions of Windows 8.1", then run/install it.
5) Restart
6) Download/install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64), which you can get here.
7) Restart
8) Startup Andromeda
I tried yesterday, but the installation failed on step 4, so there was nothing I could do.
Also, this has been bugging me about the first planet since I watched it before release:
When Ryder lands, her faceplate gets cracked, so she fixes it with her omni-tool. Makes a reasonable amount of sense that the thing could spray on some sealant, sure. Then at the end, most of the faceplate gets smashed to pieces, and there's a giant hole. Again, makes a reasonable amount of sense that the omni-tool wouldn't be able to replace the thing. However, why establish that the omni-tool can fix small breaks if you're not going to follow that up later, or indeed ever? That's just bad narrative design. If the helmet hadn't broken in the first place, that would have been perfectly acceptable, since that was the only damage from the landing.
FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
edited April 2017
Thoughts on a couple of late game missions:
Liam Loyalty: Seems very under-written, like there was a lot of mission material that was cut. Why are the Eos colonists involved ? August Bradley is Liam's old buddy Augie, what ? Where is this coming from ? Who is the angaran woman upon whom Liam is suddenly so fixated ? Other than that, tho, a nice light-hearted take on the old "destroy the enemy battle cruiser from the inside" sci-fi trope with lots of great Star Wars references.
The First Meridan mission: I say 'First' because it seems clear that many more are to come. So now we are explicitly playing MASS EFFECT: HALO ? We were already halfway there with the nagging computer voice inside my head and the exploration of massive facilities full of inscrutably advanced alien technology that controls the weather; now we've got the racing a massive, evil alien empire to learn the techs' secrets part going, too. Also the alien empire seems to be fighting a civil war. And there's a galaxy-devouring parasite. Come on, people, show a little creativity.
I'm almost to the final mission, but had to give some props for dat sex scene.
Jaal's scene took place near a pool on Aya. Actual nakedness in the pool, no shower underwear you guys. Actual Ryder nips. I assume this is the same across all romances, but Bioware's been weird about this before. See DA:I's sex scenes that hide the nips for most sex scenes except during Sera's. It's such a small thing but it's always so weird to me when they hide that shit that it ends up refreshing when they don't.
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
Its not
But not every romance scene seems to involve sex.
For example: Suvi and Sara shared a moment and then started making out as the camera panned away like in old movies. No nudity, no explicit sex.
Romance spoilers
Vertra's is a lot like that, but a bit more explicit - you kiss, then you two head to a bedroom before the scene ends.
The bit before it is sorta awkward though; Vetra tries to cook you a steak, but burns it to ash and sorta implies it's like super rotten or something. And they just leave that with her saying "You don't need to be nice, I know I must have screwed something up." But there's never any acknowledgement of why that might be, so it's left just sort of implying that Vetra is kinda incompetent about cooking. Which is damned odd; she raised Sid. Vetra would have learned to cook something, and the whole dextro/levo thing isn't brought up outside of one crew message board posting.
She's not gonna step in on kaidan's turf
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Did anyone else make morda the ambassador?
If you think about it it's the only way to make sure the krogan won't fuck up...
I was extremely tempted to choose Morda.
But in the end, I had to choose the Moshae. I'm trying as much as I can to avoid creating a Space Trail of Space Tears.
I absolutely made that choice without reservation. Ending spoilers:
The Nexus council is half terrible. Tann is self-serving and Addison is corrupt as fuck. Any choice they advocated was instantly vetoed. That left the Moshae -
someone not of the Nexus - and Morda, who set up a successful colony before anybody else.
Also, this has been bugging me about the first planet since I watched it before release:
When Ryder lands, her faceplate gets cracked, so she fixes it with her omni-tool. Makes a reasonable amount of sense that the thing could spray on some sealant, sure. Then at the end, most of the faceplate gets smashed to pieces, and there's a giant hole. Again, makes a reasonable amount of sense that the omni-tool wouldn't be able to replace the thing. However, why establish that the omni-tool can fix small breaks if you're not going to follow that up later, or indeed ever? That's just bad narrative design. If the helmet hadn't broken in the first place, that would have been perfectly acceptable, since that was the only damage from the landing.
Well...
I see it as the explanation for why Alec's helmet didn't also shatter. He suffers the exact same fall as the kid but his helmet comes out fine. But once you got cracks in something like glass, even a patch won't fully restore the structural integrity
Also helps show that 1) you can't breathe the air, and 2) Alec is totally going to die by giving you his helmet
The real question is why didn't we ever go back to Habitat 7? Alec turned off the Remnant thing and made the planet habitable. I assumed we were going to find out at the end that Meridian was there or something and have to go back, but nope, never gets another mention.
Also, this has been bugging me about the first planet since I watched it before release:
When Ryder lands, her faceplate gets cracked, so she fixes it with her omni-tool. Makes a reasonable amount of sense that the thing could spray on some sealant, sure. Then at the end, most of the faceplate gets smashed to pieces, and there's a giant hole. Again, makes a reasonable amount of sense that the omni-tool wouldn't be able to replace the thing. However, why establish that the omni-tool can fix small breaks if you're not going to follow that up later, or indeed ever? That's just bad narrative design. If the helmet hadn't broken in the first place, that would have been perfectly acceptable, since that was the only damage from the landing.
Well...
I see it as the explanation for why Alec's helmet didn't also shatter. He suffers the exact same fall as the kid but his helmet comes out fine. But once you got cracks in something like glass, even a patch won't fully restore the structural integrity
Also helps show that 1) you can't breathe the air, and 2) Alec is totally going to die by giving you his helmet
The real question is why didn't we ever go back to Habitat 7? Alec turned off the Remnant thing and made the planet habitable. I assumed we were going to find out at the end that Meridian was there or something and have to go back, but nope, never gets another mention.
Posts
I always thought that a true AI would basically be like a person. Most of the time I see AI used (like in this series) it basically a really smart computer program with a personality.
It really really depends on what we create it to be capable of doing. There's actually a term for what could theoretically happen and it would be way beyond anything portrayed by the comparatively inoffensive Hollywood portrayals of intelligent robots.
I was going to mention this once more people had finished the game and could click on spoiler tags, but one of my favorite things about ME:A is that Bioware seems to have learned some lessons about how difficult/annoying it is to juggle major narrative branches. I'm really happy you can't kill any of your teammates in this game. Or decide whether or not to wipe out what remains of an entire race. I would much rather the decisions be on a personal level in the first game.
What happens depends on a few things.
story spoilers obviously fair warning your fault from here on hurr durr
If you don't have all three of the other pathfinders handy, Dunn will die.
oh, how annoying
And my Captain Dunn died.
ending
Re: Ending
Technical aspects aside, it was pretty romantic, too. An actual good sex scene instead of just an embarrassing one. Kissing on actual lips instead of obscured by heads as they often do when they're being lazy: kisses are sexier when you can see them. They didn't stay on the sex scene long but they made it clear that Jaal was about to/in the process of going down on Ryder, which in itself is something you rarely see in any media outside of porn.
Oh and my favorite part is that it doesn't take place as part of a life or death mission, it happens on it's own. Right on. They're definitely getting better at this.
Also liked that the dialog wheel actually says: "Sex? Yes" and "Sex? No" so that you know exactly what the dialog choices will do with no confusion.
I've come to realize that the way I feel about PeeBee is the way all you dudes feel about Liam. Well, except my hate doesn't run as deep, I guess. I just dislike her a little, she's no where near as terrible a character as Jacob or Miranda.
Like people forget, I guess, that PeeBee is just as nasty to Vetra in the Nomad.
That's great.
I didn't get one at all with
Dear Jaal mom:
1) Piranha with a plasma-seeking mod and a bio converter, no question.
2) My homeworld is like Aya but less pretty.
3) Uh, here let me forward you some extranet videos, they should cover it.
Love,
Ryder
Spoilers for various Andromedan species:
The Kett, on the other hand, would despise the Geth, just for being immune to exaltation. I thought for a second that they might even offer an alliance with the Quarians to get rid of them, but on reflection, I doubt it. There's only one type of "alliance" the Kett are interested in, and I doubt the Quarians would go for it, even if it would cure their broken immune systems.
I like both Liam and PeeBee, but...
And Liam was way meaner to Vetra than PeeBee. PeeBee makes remarks about Vetra being an overbearing big-sis/space mom. Liam practically accuses her of being a criminal. Worse, Liam's Nomad chats with Vetra just shows his utter lack of awareness about what's going on. His whole self-declared purpose as part of the Pathfinder team is to figure out how to cut through red tape, mistrust, and racial prejudice in order to get things done. It totally flies over his head that Vetra's doing exactly that already. He can't see the utility of Vetra's frontier capitalism because of his cop eyes.
Its not
For example: Suvi and Sara shared a moment and then started making out as the camera panned away like in old movies. No nudity, no explicit sex.
If you think about it it's the only way to make sure the krogan won't fuck up...
Oh thank grod, that was driving me nuts. Biotic Ascension is the whole point of the Kineticist.
The downside to that is when it fails. Like nobody acknowledging the healthy water on Kadara after you activate the vault (you talk to people and do quests and read datapads that all reference the terrible water). Or the change in weather Voeld (the temperature danger is even still there; and the blizzard preventing the kett from murdering everyone has abated but no one seems to care). Eos - as the story's main "settlement" gate - actually has changes.
The space exploration skip option from the patch is also very nice. It could be designed better (and planets could have more, interesting information), but way less time sink.
You misunderstand. The lesson that Mass Effect has taught us over and over again is that you should always prioritize forging alliances with the strongest and most aggressively violent people, because there's always some new doomsday enemy waiting just around the corner to murder everyone.
Here's a handy sorted list to help you remember who you should make friends with and who you should not.
Strong and Violent (Befriend at All Costs)
Reapers
Leviathans
Kett
Krogan
Rachni
Yawg
Weak and Violent
Turians
Batarians
Vorcha
Drell
Protheans/Collectors
Angara
Humans
Strong and Peaceful
Elcor
Asari
Geth
Weak and Peaceful (Useless)
Salarians
Quarians
Volus
Hanar
Edit: STG would also heavily disagree on the "weak and peaceful"
Espionage isn't real war. It's sissy war.
Why are the only people on PC hosting Apex
Missions using dialup
Eh.. STG are probably the most dirty official black ops organization the milky way has, that counts for something!
But in the end, I had to choose the Moshae. I'm trying as much as I can to avoid creating a Space Trail of Space Tears.
The bit before it is sorta awkward though; Vetra tries to cook you a steak, but burns it to ash and sorta implies it's like super rotten or something. And they just leave that with her saying "You don't need to be nice, I know I must have screwed something up." But there's never any acknowledgement of why that might be, so it's left just sort of implying that Vetra is kinda incompetent about cooking. Which is damned odd; she raised Sid. Vetra would have learned to cook something, and the whole dextro/levo thing isn't brought up outside of one crew message board posting.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
I tried yesterday, but the installation failed on step 4, so there was nothing I could do.
The First Meridan mission: I say 'First' because it seems clear that many more are to come. So now we are explicitly playing MASS EFFECT: HALO ? We were already halfway there with the nagging computer voice inside my head and the exploration of massive facilities full of inscrutably advanced alien technology that controls the weather; now we've got the racing a massive, evil alien empire to learn the techs' secrets part going, too. Also the alien empire seems to be fighting a civil war. And there's a galaxy-devouring parasite. Come on, people, show a little creativity.
She's not gonna step in on kaidan's turf
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
someone not of the Nexus - and Morda, who set up a successful colony before anybody else.
Morda was literally the best option.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Well...
Also helps show that 1) you can't breathe the air, and 2) Alec is totally going to die by giving you his helmet
The real question is why didn't we ever go back to Habitat 7? Alec turned off the Remnant thing and made the planet habitable. I assumed we were going to find out at the end that Meridian was there or something and have to go back, but nope, never gets another mention.
Habitat 7