I love how all the planets in ME1 function like their own little movies. The political intrigue of Noveria followed by an Aliens-style bug hunt; the Lovecraftian mind-control dread of Feros; the ancient exploration of the Liara dig site, etc. It all feels like they could be little Flash Gordon serial eps on their own.
Fun Fact there is in fact another way to save Wrex, but it’s nearly impossible to stumble into for a first-time player, and even most people who’ve played the game multiple times before probably don’t even know that this scenario even exists. So for background in order for the game to function you need at least 2 squad members to be available at all times. It is impossible to only have one squad member available to be selected in order to start a mission. Also, the mandatory squad members in the game are Ashley, Kaiden, Tali, Liara, and either Wrex or Garrus but not both so it is not mandatory for you to recruit both Garrus and Wrex. If you go and collect Wrex first you can decline Garrus’s attempt to join the crew. If you do that and also decide to collect Liara last and start the Virmire mission before recruiting her, it is IMPOSSIBLE to kill Wrex. In this scenario, you only have 4 squad members to choose from and because Ashley and Kaiden both leave your party during the mission, and the game needs at least 2 squad members to select in order to play a mission, Tali and Wrex are now your ONLY 2 possible choices, so the game defaults to the scenario where Wrex stands down and won’t give you the options to kill him. Most everybody will get to this point of the story with all squad members because a) you’re not going to purposely deprive yourself of game content and b) the game heavily tries to funnel you into collecting Liara before Virmire anyway. But you don’t have to because the way the game is set up as a player you can do the missions in any order. If I had to hazard a guess 99% of players will never encounter this specific scenario because they don’t know this is even a possibility. In fact, I’d also guess that the only way you’d get this scenario is if you stumble into it by chance, or if you’ve specifically been told that it can play out this way. But really this is just a testament to how difficult it must be to make a game like this and the kind of choices of which you need to take into account because everybody plays the game differently.
Fascinating. I've played the game through many times and never knew that was possible, for the reasons you mentioned. In every playthrough, I always do as much as possible, always squeezing as much exp as I can out of what's available, always taking the critical paths last after all other side areas are explored. It never would have occurred to me to beeline Virmire without all the party members
@@megamike15 Shep and Garrus even have special dialogue in ME2 if you did not recruit him in ME1. Instead of Welcoming his/her old friend back, Shepard will sort of look at him with a WTF face and slowly be like "...Garrus Vakarian?!" I always thought that was a neat little detail that very few players would ever experience, so it's cool that BioWare even put it in there at all.
Im not 100% on this but I believe that if you have done his pseudo loyalty mission to recover his family armour I think it lowers the requirement for the speech check somewhat. You definitely get some unique dialogue.
Speaking of influencing in games during conversation, I've never seen it implemented better than in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. As a cyberpunk game, if you opt to implant yourself with the social enhancer, then when you want to influence someone's decisions you will see your HUD update with ALL of the person's bio-information. Psych profiles hacked from public records, pupil dilation, blood pressure, heart rate, body language, etc. And a sort of minigame ensues where you're basically watch their biometric info change in real time as you carry out a full dialogue. So it's not 100% that you'll get them to see things your way but it gives you a full swath of tools to basically try to manipulate them. It's a fascinating take on the process..........and I've never seen it used again. Not in Cyberpunk 2077, Not in Dex, not in ANY other cyberpunk game I've ever played. Not even in this game's own sequel. And that's a shame. It was immersive, unique and realistic.
The conversation with Sovereign on Virmire is one of the most affecting gaming moments in my history. Likewise, it is my favorite "Villain Monologue" with the possible exception of Ozymandias at the end of the Watchmen graphic novels. The sense of scale is Cthulhuesque. The motivation of the Reapers is fantastic. To paraphrase: "Biological life created us, and we are capable of ending all biological life. If we don't cull the galaxy of the beings capable of creating intelligence on our scale, then eventually they will create something less mature than ourselves. Without our oversight, life will create something capable of reducing all that's come before, and all that ever will be, to entropy."
I'm prob not the first to post this but just in case I am, something really funny to do is pick up Liara dead last before going to Ilos and watching her basically have a complete mental breakdown that she's wasted her entire life underground studying the protheans when Shepard just showed up to work one day and figured literally everything out in an afternoon. She loses her mind and yells at you how she wasted her entire life and it's great.
Don't know if you guys were able to get to the Rogue VI side mission on Luna, but thought I would mention it since you guys didn't talk about it. It's a pretty straightforward mission overall but it does have a neat little message at the end if you care to take the time to decode it. But more notably it unlocks the prestige classes for Commander Shepherd. It also has some minor influences on future games if you complete it.
The last segment of this video about good vs good, good vs evil etc is some of the best discussions I've ever heard in yt. Good job guys. I'm going to send over a donation
You touch on a theme that is explored somewhat in Xenosaga (Episode I) - the drug that cures psychopathy and the effects that it may have on a person who reflects on their psychopathic behavior after taking the drug -- this is a plot point in the arc of Andrew Cherenkov, who is a bit of a Ramsus homage. He;s a character who undergoes some massive therapy to deal with his psychological difficulties arising from having been bred for war and then deprived of the war that was his entire purpose to fight -- and a big chunk of XS:I is spent exploring the psychic and spiritual ramifications of that experience. I hope one day your podcast will explore this, as there's quite a bit of meat on that bone.
The frustrating thing about the Council isn't that they don't believe Shepard. That's understandable because Shepard isn't offering up any proof, just words. They don't know what the Conduit even is, and at that point neither does Shepard, or anyone but Saren. The problem is that they know Saren has this new amazing "ship" (Sovereign) and aren't AT ALL CONCERNED OR CURIOUS ABOUT IT. It's a known unknown vessel/weapon, which has proven capable of space travel, FTL, and annihilating other spacecraft and artillery, coming out of several encounters seemingly unfazed. It's also the * largest * "ship" now known to them. (Like, * c'mon *, guys!) I can buy that the Council wouldn't believe the machine gods coming back, because it sounds kind of mythological and Shepard's bad at arguments, but them not even raising an eyebrow at this massive new threat right in their face (figuratively speaking) is ridiculous. They ought to be asking what it is, who built it, where it came from, if there are more like it, what its defensive and offensive capabilities have proven to be, where did Saren get it, etc. But they don't do any of that. And you can't prompt them talking/thinking about it either! It doesn't seem to enter Shepard's mind to point this obvious thing to them! Worse, Shepard and the crew have audiologs (as proven in a conversation on the Normandy post-lockdown with Liara/Ashley) that act as evidence of Sovereign's existence and Saren's motivations, etc. (There's still the problem of audio files being flimsy as evidence due to obvious falsifying possibilities, but if we're already running with the logic that these bozos are willing to accept that kind of thing as enough proof to remove Saren - their darling special agent - from the Spectres, this ought to be more than sufficient proof for them, considering they'd be way longer (Sovereign's speech, anyone?) than what Tali presented to them regarding Saren.)
To me it was always a hugely missed opportunity that Shepard can't just AGREE with Wrex to smuggle out a sample of Saren's research without telling the Salarians. I know it was just cloning and not true breeding, but it would have gone a long way to improve the Krogan's situation and it doesn't seem very much like most versions of Shepard to not even consider it. It was probably just too difficult to code yet another choice (taking/not taking Genophage research) on top of an already complicated choice (killing/saving Wrex). Incidentally, I always leave Ashley do die on Virmire because she killed Wrex without my say-so on my very first playthrough and I'm still salty about it (didn't have enough Persuade points and didn't do armor quest). NO ONE will ever convince me her racism didn't play a role in that. And yes, Wrex dying as easily as he did is a WTF moment for sure. Shields + Krogan regen = death by pistol whip does not compute. I think they may have wanted it to be a boss fight or something, but decided against it for whatever reason.
I always leave Noveria for last of the initial big 3 missions. Feros is number 2 for me. Feels like a self contained episode in the series. First playthrough I did of Virmire, Wrex died like a dog by my hand. Bummed me out, but it never happens again. Sovereign scene is amazing. This may be messed up, but every time I replay these games, I always make the same choices now. The ones that make sense to me, from a dramatic point of view. So . . . I have my FemShep begin romancing Kaiden, and have him stay behind to activate the bomb. Messed up, but it adds to what I think FemShep should be; faces countless tragedies but pushes on. That's why she romances Thane in ME2!
How do you get the paragon or renegade points required for jeong by doing feros early? I've never succeeded with that speech check without literally maximum charm or intimidate points and I use the noveria glitch to get paragon or renegade up that high
@@212mochaman Hmm, I don't think I did the first time around. My subsequent play through's build on the last, new game plus like. I can't remember how Feros initially went cause this was back in 2007! I'm an old man :(
The ME caveman flashback and TNG dream reminds me of the Adventure Time episode called Puhoy, where Finn lives an entire other life and returns forever changed by the experience. It's a surprisingly deep and sad episode for only being 10 minutes long. Anyway. Great podcast as usual! Looking forward to the finale 😋
Rick and Morty also has an episode like this where Morty plays a virtual life simulator where he grows up, has kids and dies an old man; tho while it's portrayed as traumatic for him, it's played for laughs.
Each background has a tie-in to one sidequest in the game. IIRC the quests are always present, you just get different dialogue and options based on your background. I think the intent was that the antagonist in the War Hero tie-in sidequest was going to be a Batarian but they didn't have a model created for them yet so he's just a generic human model.
He was supposed to be Turian, not Batarian, one of the things that was fixed in the Legendary edition. (edit) I believe it is that the psych profile (hero/survivor/ruthless) missions are always present but can play out slightly differently whereas the origin profiles (spacer/colonist/Earthborn) each have 1 mission that won't show up in the other's.
You can also convince him to stay and continue funding feros with intimidate. You don't have to be maxed out in your morality, but you do need to be extremely high in either charm or intimidate
the "Don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes" thing comes from the revolutionary war - one of the commanders was so low on ammunition he instructed his soldiers only to fire in extremely close range.
It could also be (because there are still some historians/people who contest who said it) due to the extreme inaccuracy of the weapons of the time. Powder muskets actually didn't hit their intended targets with any real reliability. You'd either want your targets close when shooting en mass or you'd want your marksmen to be REALLY good. Aim small, miss small.
@@samueltheprideofafrikarobi9319 Muskets are horrible guns so it's believable that this might have been the case, or maybe the truth is somewhere between. I only shared the story I had heard before, but thank you for adding to the conversation
Curious how Casen would experience playing a looooong game with a lot of consequential choices - like the recent pathfinder crpgs, wrath of the righteous esp. - the fomo would probably be torture lol
The thing that massively puts me off Ashley is that random comment she makes when you are walking around the Citadel which is some variation of "I can't tell the aliens from the animals". I mean, wow. just wow. Usually just after you've come out of the embassy as well:)
This is why I always save Kaiden. He may be boring, but he also isn't a blatant space racist. It'd be interesting to save Ashley if she got any sort of meaningful growth in the later games, but the one time I tried that, I was incredibly underwhelmed.
The subtle game at play with Ashley and Kaiden is that one starts off hostile and untrusting but can be influenced by a paragon Shep to be better whereas the other can start off open minded but be influenced by renegade Shep to end up hostile and untrusting. Kaiden seems boring because he starts off as a decent dude and has no room for growth (except down but only renegades will see it) whereas Ashley actually gets a character arc which is much more rewarding. We also learn the reason why Ashley started out so prejudiced (her whole family has been victimised since the first contact war) and see a reason to help her grow.
1) I think the Virmire section felt a bit rushed in places. There are a few bits that could have been done better (or clearer). First off there is the Genophage cure, does there need to have been one for this facility to work? There needs to be one for the Wrex conflict but this is essentially a cloning lab where the subjects are created as loyal adults in test tubes, do they need to be 'cured' to do this? It is a completely different process to the natural births of natural Krogan that the phage affects. They are created as slaves loyal to Saren and this is the crux, a genophage cure does not naturally fit there. Secondly is the choice of who to save at the end. The obvious choice is to send the soldier on the distraction team and the tech guy with the bomb (Kaiden is the tech/biotic hybrid class) so having the choice of who to send where is a bit odd when you can still rescue either position anyway. However where it really seems unpolished is that the distraction team is just that - it's a _team,_ whereas the bomb position is just _one_ person (by the time you're aware of the threat). Given the choice of where to send the extraction, rescuing the most people is the obvious choice. The devs added objectives during the initial infiltration which makes it easier on the distraction team and it is these that affects whether any of the Salarians survive (and are found on the Normandy) but this does not actually work in any logical way. It kind of implies that the default position is that you failed to make it easier on them and they all died leaving only Ashley left in need of pickup. From a Paragon/Renegade perspective the decision should have been - Paragon, rescue the full team in need of extraction and trust the person on the bomb to complete the mission for you (save more lives, trust your crew) or - Renegade, leave the team to their deaths while re-securing the bomb site to ensure it goes off (mission first at any cost, lack of trust). The way it worked in the finished game seemed like an unpolished scenario set. If you start a game of ME2 without loading ME1 data (as anyone who first played on PS3 had to) then you make the basic choices during a 3 minute digital comic book recap of ME1 and during even this you see that Ashley is with a team of Salarians while Kaiden is alone making it an easy (paragon) choice, one life or many. As mentioned above I started this series on PS3 so had to start with the second game then the third before it was re-released as the trilogy set and I finally got to play the first game, as a result I played the ending before the beginning so I decided to plan out how to play the full trilogy - 6 playthroughs, one of each skill class, a mix of all origins and psych profiles, both genders (male skewed), a different romance-able female character per class and, relevant to this discussion, an even split on the Virmire survivor (thrice Kaiden and thrice Ashley). I couldn't just go with the same survivor all the time, like Casen, I would not want to miss out on seeing the other side. This also allowed me to play with the romance scenarios across the trilogy. In three of the six playthroughs I would romance Ashley during ME1 but in one of those my Shep would be 'forced' to sacrifice her on Virmire, in the other two she survives but Shep moves on to a new ME2 romance (due to Horizon behaviour) or he stays loyal (despite horizon behaviour) and rekindles with her in ME3). Despite all these branches however I still find it difficult to go with a mostly renegade Shep so I still skew heavily to Paragon (eg - 3X Hero profile to 2X Survivor profile to 1X Ruthless profile). Even with the skewed profile I still can't go Renegade heavy because that means one of the 6 female romance choices (L, A, T, J, M, T) would be getting the short end of the stick. In regards to the Ashley v Kaiden personality preferences there is a subtle game at play that you may well have missed. Kaiden starts open minded but Renegade Shep can influence him to be hostile and untrusting by the end. Whereas Ashley starts hostile and untrusting but a Paragon Shep can influence her to end the game much more enlightened and open minded. Kaiden comes across as boring because he starts as a decent dude and the only way is down (but that route is less likely to be seen) whereas Ashley starts off as kind of a bitch and the only way is up (and more likely to be seen). You see her growth as a character and you also see the reason for why she is prejudiced to begin with. The first contact war ruined her family, not because the Turians killed them but because her grandfather was the only human commander to have surrendered to an invading alien force and as a result his children are militarily ostracised to this day by their own race. Shepard stepping into her life is such a massive turnaround for her that her interest in him is _very_ understandable, he is not only a romance novel cover hero but he gives her the (and helps her get the) respect that has been long denied to her entire family.
I mean people are having to move further inland due to flooding of their homes and such, its just not the USA yet, it is poorer countries that people over here dont care about. As an aside it is easier for one to say there are really good people on both sides, when the most harmful of one side's ides don't directly impact one's community, race, etc as is actually sadly the case. Some people just can't have common ground with each other at which point you gotta look at the base of their ideal and if they involve the belief that certain people simply should be killed off, forced to suffer or altered somehow you may not be able to call them evil, but you certainly can no longer call them good.
I'm following you guys on Twitter so I know what the next game will be, and I'm very, very happy about it! I'll be playing along this time cause it is my favorite in the franchise
Killing Jeong is one of the few renegade (well renegade-ish - Bottom Right option) options that I take in my main playthrough of the game. The guy is a complete corporate shill, absolutely amoral and his crimes are just too great too justify letting him live. Even the paragon option falls into some gray moral territory as it puts the corporation back in control of the colony, and we saw how that turned out. It's a pretty good example of how Paragon isn't always the "right" thing, just the more diplomatic. IMHO.
In regards to the krogan problem, the game presents it as both are at fault for the situation. The citadel used the krogan to fight the rachni because of their high birth rates. The krogan had the numbers to fight the rachni. Afterwards, the citadel granted colonization rights to the krogan for their contribution, but when removed from the harsh environment of their homeworld, they multiply to the point where they start taking over other colonized worlds. They refuse to stop expanding, so the genophage was deployed. The genophage is supposed to maintain a viable, but controllable population. That's why wrex says it's the krogan's fault for their decline, because the original iteration of the genophage didn't account for the krogan continuing to fight each other. This is addressed in the sequels.
Speaking of the last "Good vs Good" debate, can I recommend the Visual Novel Full Metal Daemon Muramasa? Won't spoil anything, but it's main theme overlaps with what you speak about almost perfectly
02:10 nah, thats thermal grizzly liquid metal! 01:36:36 put it this way Sovereign says that per cycle they create 1 reaper per species.... just see the amount of "reaper ships" that exists and it will give you the amount of time this cycle exists
The whole bit about the Krogan and getting rid of the genophage is pretty much the opposite of how I feel about it. Sure, the Citadel/Alliance is responsible for what has happened to the Krogan, but this is ignoring the Krogan's own free will and their own decisions. They were uplifted while still violent and warlike, sure. They were put into a war which I am unironically certain they loved, because everything we see of Krogans in Mass Effect says that they genuinely enjoy fighting. And then after they decided to turn on the people who helped them, who uplifted them, who gave them such advanced technology. And did the Council destroy them? No. They could have! If you can engineer a bioweapon that hugely cuts down on successful births and infect an entire species, you can engineer a bioweapon that just plain _kills_ them. But they didn't. They gave the Krogans another chance, which is frankly one more chance than I would have if they'd turned on me and started trying to murder me and my species after we'd given them so much. And what have the Krogans done with their second chance? Squandered it. They live as mercenaries, bodyguards, bouncers, any kind of profession that offers the chance to shoot and be shot at. They show zero regard for the lives of other Krogans despite knowing that the genophage makes keeping up with so many deaths impossible. They have chosen to continue to be the monsters that they are. We don't see a single Krogan scientist working to try and cure the genophage. No attempts by Krogans to shift their culture, to embrace a less warmongering attitude. Wrex complains bitterly about what's been done to his people yet his people do nothing to try and alter the situation, and continue to act in ways that only prove that the Council was right to do what they did. You bring up the whole "die as a lion or live as a slave" thing, and it's ironic because from my perspective the Krogans are getting the worst of both worlds. Rather than seeing it as "Ah yes, we won't accept Saren's solution because we'd be slaves!" I see it as, the Krogans are choosing not to make the most of their lives, knowing their species is teetering on the edge of extinction. They're choosing to live as slaves to their own violent culture and desires. They'll die out, and they'll leave no glorious legacy behind. The Krogans will kill themselves off, and everyone will just be glad that they're gone, that is the legacy they are creating for themselves.
Sovereign being all we are the have been here since the start of existence and are the end of everything really giving off those Deus We are alpha and omega vibes.
I'm disappointed you guys didn't recognize Ash's depth. Objectively she is no worse than other aliens in the series as they all have their own selfish biases and prejudices it's only Ashley who gets flack for it though.
Great conversation and recap of a game I really love! You guys won me over with that conversation about "good vs good". I was already enjoying the content but that part of the conversation made me think "I want to support these guys". You've got a new subscriber.
Dragon Age: Origins was pretty Awesome. Shame the sequels couldn't keep up the momentum, although unlike many, I did enjoy Dragon Age II on its own merits. Many people felt that Inquisition was a return to form, but I just wasn't feeling it somehow.
@@thejawgz6719 I love all 3 tbh. I prefer them over the Mass Effect trilogy, but I do love mass effect as well. It'd be cool to hear them compare and contrast the two series and compare the ideas of DAO to existing fantasy novels and stuff they've read.
I am a big fan of the series and after listening to episode #1 I had to jump in! I bought the legendary edition to play along with you guys but I got so excited to revisit this long time beloved franchised that I finished the first game and started the second one. To my surprise, this play through made me realize a couple of things: 1) The legendary edition does well to ME1 gameplay, but I still hate the map system. The map that shows in the hud is trash and the fact you had to open the menu every time you need to check location is nonsense. Inventory management should’ve been improved as well. 2) I remembered that ME1 was the one with most RPG elements (not only character progression but gameplay as a whole), but it was a surprise to me, playing ME2 right after finishing the first one, how ME2 changes the formula. In my opinion, it leans too much on the TPS direction (maybe because of Gears of war and all the shooters of that era), losing a lot of personality. Even character progression is simplified to a point where I feel it’s detrimental to the experience. They should’ve improved the first one, not tried to change the game so much. Additionally, in terms of story, I feel ME1 is more concise. ME2 beginning is basically throws away the relationship you had with the characters from the first game and focus much more on recruiting new people. They could’ve focused more on deepen the existing relationships and add just a couple more and make then more relevant. well, this was a revelation to me… I started playing ME again I didn’t expect to like 1 even more and dislike 2 (which seems to be the fan favorite). Hope FF tactics is released on switch so I can play along with you guys again!
Yeah i didn't have to think twice who i'd sacrifice in Virmire. Kaidan is boring but he's also just an inoffensive Chris Redfield dude who gets the job done. Wish i didn't romance him but Liara though lol. Ashley is awful and i had to laugh out loud when the game literally made her say "It's not racism but..." after saying xenophobic as shit stuff. And appearently she doesn't get better if you let her life? Like i certainly would've warmed up to her if she had some sort character progression or something (like what you find out about Pressly in ME2 without spoiling too much).
Your definition for unprovoked is a bit weird because wrex is holding you at gunpoint. About choices: I think the biggest flaw of the Mass Effect series is that this game wants to be super replayable but there are some choices that are clearly much better than others and lead to so much better results for the story, and that makes choices lame.
Sad neither of you saved Kaiden. He's a vastly better character than Ash if you get past ME1. He's also tied into the lore of the game in a much better way than Ash in my opinion. I guess he's the best paired with femshep but even with maleshep he develops in an interesting way.
Part of me wants you to cover Mass Effect 3, but part doesn't because *yikes* the writing in ME3 is a trash fire. Not even referring to the ending, so much of that game is terribly written. ME1 feels stilted at times--there are aspects to ME1 that are wonderful, the non-human teammates are great characters (though I'm very 'eh' towards Garrus until ME2), the overall plot is kind of genius...but it gets to a later problem with ME3 that is probably not fit for this video. ME1's twist that reveals that the Sovereign, the main villain, the Reaper, is actually the Ship--and that it's this sort of eldritch entity--is genius. The presentation of Sovereign is also freaking fantastic. You *feel* that you're a speck to him. You *feel* that he doesn't care. He's doing what he's going to do, and Shepard is nothing more than a mote, and it's freaking chilling.
mass effect 3 does have alot of bad parts { alot of it is near the beginning of the game] but i feel there is enough good in there to not make it irredeemable.
I'm currently going through ME3 for the first time, so no spoilers please, but I'm not seeing any trash writing. It's not blowing me away like ME1 but it's at least on level with 2.
My current play through I tried to avoid Ash as a romance by being "professional" eg: neutral and yes, her romance was forced on me. During the finale I opted not to consummate our relationship (which played out a lot cooler than I thought it would). Someone suggested I stick with it through to the other games so I am doing that but I had to force myself to romance her. She is unbearable, a xenophobe and obnoxious.
I fundamentally disagree that Ashley is racist and that she has no personality. She’s a realist who understands the fundamental fact that everyone is interested in their own interests and will step over others to get it. She has a better understanding of politics in the galaxy than anyone else you encounter.
I agree. I think that the "Ashley is a racist" thing gets exaggerated due to story-telling shorthand. Think about coughing. In real life, a cough could mean anything from a life-threatening illness to a minor cold to the air being a little dry. In story-telling, you don't show a cough unless it means something serious. If you have a cough in a story, you are a few steps away from dead. The same thing happens with Ashley. She makes a few comments that could be taken as racist, and because of our understanding of story-telling, that means that her entire personality is racist, because otherwise, why make those comments? In reality, those comments are not that out of line. The "you may love your dog, but you will sacrifice it to get away from a bear because it isn't human" line is not referring to how humans treat the alien races - it is a political statement about how the alien races view humans. The other citadel races are not going to care about things happening to human colonies in the same way that they are going to care about their own colonies. And that is a perfectly reasonable observation - it was just said in such a way that makes people think "hmm...she may be racist" Same with the "I can't tell the aliens from the animals" line. In a universe of possibilities, how are you supposed to tell at the first glance whether something is sentient? That was Ashley's first time at the Citadel. She has never seen so many alien species in one place. Not everyone living there is "life as we know it". There are sentient plants. The keepers seem like they should be sentient, but they do not interact with people in any way. If an alien were to visit Earth and see someone playing in their yard with their dog, they may think that the dog is a sentient life form the same as you are. Again, it was said in a way that may come off as offensive, but it does make sense in context. However, story-telling being what it is, we understand a few statements like that to be shorthand for "this person is a racist", and I'm not so sure that is really the case.
You seriously took to a workshop one of the most overrated series which are so stupid, so boring and so boring, I thought you would start analyzing PLANESCAPE: TORMENT BECAUSE THIS GAME DESERVES ALL THE PRAISES
I love how all the planets in ME1 function like their own little movies. The political intrigue of Noveria followed by an Aliens-style bug hunt; the Lovecraftian mind-control dread of Feros; the ancient exploration of the Liara dig site, etc. It all feels like they could be little Flash Gordon serial eps on their own.
Fun Fact there is in fact another way to save Wrex, but it’s nearly impossible to stumble into for a first-time player, and even most people who’ve played the game multiple times before probably don’t even know that this scenario even exists. So for background in order for the game to function you need at least 2 squad members to be available at all times. It is impossible to only have one squad member available to be selected in order to start a mission. Also, the mandatory squad members in the game are Ashley, Kaiden, Tali, Liara, and either Wrex or Garrus but not both so it is not mandatory for you to recruit both Garrus and Wrex. If you go and collect Wrex first you can decline Garrus’s attempt to join the crew. If you do that and also decide to collect Liara last and start the Virmire mission before recruiting her, it is IMPOSSIBLE to kill Wrex. In this scenario, you only have 4 squad members to choose from and because Ashley and Kaiden both leave your party during the mission, and the game needs at least 2 squad members to select in order to play a mission, Tali and Wrex are now your ONLY 2 possible choices, so the game defaults to the scenario where Wrex stands down and won’t give you the options to kill him.
Most everybody will get to this point of the story with all squad members because a) you’re not going to purposely deprive yourself of game content and b) the game heavily tries to funnel you into collecting Liara before Virmire anyway. But you don’t have to because the way the game is set up as a player you can do the missions in any order. If I had to hazard a guess 99% of players will never encounter this specific scenario because they don’t know this is even a possibility. In fact, I’d also guess that the only way you’d get this scenario is if you stumble into it by chance, or if you’ve specifically been told that it can play out this way. But really this is just a testament to how difficult it must be to make a game like this and the kind of choices of which you need to take into account because everybody plays the game differently.
Fascinating. I've played the game through many times and never knew that was possible, for the reasons you mentioned. In every playthrough, I always do as much as possible, always squeezing as much exp as I can out of what's available, always taking the critical paths last after all other side areas are explored. It never would have occurred to me to beeline Virmire without all the party members
the big issue i see here is it requires me not taking my buddy garrus.
@@megamike15 Shep and Garrus even have special dialogue in ME2 if you did not recruit him in ME1. Instead of Welcoming his/her old friend back, Shepard will sort of look at him with a WTF face and slowly be like "...Garrus Vakarian?!" I always thought that was a neat little detail that very few players would ever experience, so it's cool that BioWare even put it in there at all.
Im not 100% on this but I believe that if you have done his pseudo loyalty mission to recover his family armour I think it lowers the requirement for the speech check somewhat. You definitely get some unique dialogue.
Speaking of influencing in games during conversation, I've never seen it implemented better than in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. As a cyberpunk game, if you opt to implant yourself with the social enhancer, then when you want to influence someone's decisions you will see your HUD update with ALL of the person's bio-information. Psych profiles hacked from public records, pupil dilation, blood pressure, heart rate, body language, etc. And a sort of minigame ensues where you're basically watch their biometric info change in real time as you carry out a full dialogue. So it's not 100% that you'll get them to see things your way but it gives you a full swath of tools to basically try to manipulate them. It's a fascinating take on the process..........and I've never seen it used again. Not in Cyberpunk 2077, Not in Dex, not in ANY other cyberpunk game I've ever played. Not even in this game's own sequel. And that's a shame. It was immersive, unique and realistic.
The social enhancer is in Mankind Divided. It’s absolutely necessary for the bigger conversations in the game.
The conversation with Sovereign on Virmire is one of the most affecting gaming moments in my history. Likewise, it is my favorite "Villain Monologue" with the possible exception of Ozymandias at the end of the Watchmen graphic novels. The sense of scale is Cthulhuesque. The motivation of the Reapers is fantastic. To paraphrase: "Biological life created us, and we are capable of ending all biological life. If we don't cull the galaxy of the beings capable of creating intelligence on our scale, then eventually they will create something less mature than ourselves. Without our oversight, life will create something capable of reducing all that's come before, and all that ever will be, to entropy."
Aweman I know what I'll be listening to after work I look forward to this every week just wish it dropped on my days off.
I'm prob not the first to post this but just in case I am, something really funny to do is pick up Liara dead last before going to Ilos and watching her basically have a complete mental breakdown that she's wasted her entire life underground studying the protheans when Shepard just showed up to work one day and figured literally everything out in an afternoon. She loses her mind and yells at you how she wasted her entire life and it's great.
“The Inner Light” was the first thing I thought of when you encounter the artifact.
Yeah me too.
That's a beautiful episode of TNG btw.
Don't know if you guys were able to get to the Rogue VI side mission on Luna, but thought I would mention it since you guys didn't talk about it. It's a pretty straightforward mission overall but it does have a neat little message at the end if you care to take the time to decode it. But more notably it unlocks the prestige classes for Commander Shepherd. It also has some minor influences on future games if you complete it.
It's a pretty cool Easter egg for something else mentioned in Mass Effect 3. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Is it my TV or is the contrast darker, in comparison with past episodes?
I noticed that too. Still visible, but definitely darker.
First thing I noticed when I hit play. The contrast is quite a bit off here.
each camera angle is different
The last segment of this video about good vs good, good vs evil etc is some of the best discussions I've ever heard in yt. Good job guys. I'm going to send over a donation
You touch on a theme that is explored somewhat in Xenosaga (Episode I) - the drug that cures psychopathy and the effects that it may have on a person who reflects on their psychopathic behavior after taking the drug -- this is a plot point in the arc of Andrew Cherenkov, who is a bit of a Ramsus homage. He;s a character who undergoes some massive therapy to deal with his psychological difficulties arising from having been bred for war and then deprived of the war that was his entire purpose to fight -- and a big chunk of XS:I is spent exploring the psychic and spiritual ramifications of that experience. I hope one day your podcast will explore this, as there's quite a bit of meat on that bone.
I'm hoping that they do the Xenosaga trilogy one day as it's basically Monolith Soft's second attempt at Xenogears style storytelling.
@@infinitedreamer9359 couldn't agree more. xenosaga is underloved and misunderstood series as well, it would benefit from some critical attention
Great Episode guys as always. I love what you did with the video color grading, looks like mass effect :P!
The frustrating thing about the Council isn't that they don't believe Shepard. That's understandable because Shepard isn't offering up any proof, just words. They don't know what the Conduit even is, and at that point neither does Shepard, or anyone but Saren. The problem is that they know Saren has this new amazing "ship" (Sovereign) and aren't AT ALL CONCERNED OR CURIOUS ABOUT IT. It's a known unknown vessel/weapon, which has proven capable of space travel, FTL, and annihilating other spacecraft and artillery, coming out of several encounters seemingly unfazed. It's also the * largest * "ship" now known to them. (Like, * c'mon *, guys!)
I can buy that the Council wouldn't believe the machine gods coming back, because it sounds kind of mythological and Shepard's bad at arguments, but them not even raising an eyebrow at this massive new threat right in their face (figuratively speaking) is ridiculous. They ought to be asking what it is, who built it, where it came from, if there are more like it, what its defensive and offensive capabilities have proven to be, where did Saren get it, etc. But they don't do any of that. And you can't prompt them talking/thinking about it either! It doesn't seem to enter Shepard's mind to point this obvious thing to them!
Worse, Shepard and the crew have audiologs (as proven in a conversation on the Normandy post-lockdown with Liara/Ashley) that act as evidence of Sovereign's existence and Saren's motivations, etc. (There's still the problem of audio files being flimsy as evidence due to obvious falsifying possibilities, but if we're already running with the logic that these bozos are willing to accept that kind of thing as enough proof to remove Saren - their darling special agent - from the Spectres, this ought to be more than sufficient proof for them, considering they'd be way longer (Sovereign's speech, anyone?) than what Tali presented to them regarding Saren.)
To me it was always a hugely missed opportunity that Shepard can't just AGREE with Wrex to smuggle out a sample of Saren's research without telling the Salarians. I know it was just cloning and not true breeding, but it would have gone a long way to improve the Krogan's situation and it doesn't seem very much like most versions of Shepard to not even consider it. It was probably just too difficult to code yet another choice (taking/not taking Genophage research) on top of an already complicated choice (killing/saving Wrex).
Incidentally, I always leave Ashley do die on Virmire because she killed Wrex without my say-so on my very first playthrough and I'm still salty about it (didn't have enough Persuade points and didn't do armor quest). NO ONE will ever convince me her racism didn't play a role in that.
And yes, Wrex dying as easily as he did is a WTF moment for sure. Shields + Krogan regen = death by pistol whip does not compute. I think they may have wanted it to be a boss fight or something, but decided against it for whatever reason.
I always leave Noveria for last of the initial big 3 missions. Feros is number 2 for me. Feels like a self contained episode in the series. First playthrough I did of Virmire, Wrex died like a dog by my hand. Bummed me out, but it never happens again. Sovereign scene is amazing.
This may be messed up, but every time I replay these games, I always make the same choices now. The ones that make sense to me, from a dramatic point of view. So . . . I have my FemShep begin romancing Kaiden, and have him stay behind to activate the bomb. Messed up, but it adds to what I think FemShep should be; faces countless tragedies but pushes on.
That's why she romances Thane in ME2!
How do you get the paragon or renegade points required for jeong by doing feros early? I've never succeeded with that speech check without literally maximum charm or intimidate points and I use the noveria glitch to get paragon or renegade up that high
@@212mochaman Hmm, I don't think I did the first time around. My subsequent play through's build on the last, new game plus like. I can't remember how Feros initially went cause this was back in 2007! I'm an old man :(
I used to listen to the galaxy map music while studying.
The ME caveman flashback and TNG dream reminds me of the Adventure Time episode called Puhoy, where Finn lives an entire other life and returns forever changed by the experience. It's a surprisingly deep and sad episode for only being 10 minutes long.
Anyway. Great podcast as usual! Looking forward to the finale 😋
Rick and Morty also has an episode like this where Morty plays a virtual life simulator where he grows up, has kids and dies an old man; tho while it's portrayed as traumatic for him, it's played for laughs.
@@Aogami20 Oh that sounds interesting. I haven't watched much of that show. Sounds like I need to take a look into it
Also, in Firefly, it's reavers, not reapers.
Each background has a tie-in to one sidequest in the game. IIRC the quests are always present, you just get different dialogue and options based on your background.
I think the intent was that the antagonist in the War Hero tie-in sidequest was going to be a Batarian but they didn't have a model created for them yet so he's just a generic human model.
He was supposed to be Turian, not Batarian, one of the things that was fixed in the Legendary edition.
(edit) I believe it is that the psych profile (hero/survivor/ruthless) missions are always present but can play out slightly differently whereas the origin profiles (spacer/colonist/Earthborn) each have 1 mission that won't show up in the other's.
each back ground gets a unique side quest. with the colonist's being my personal favorite.
You can also convince him to stay and continue funding feros with intimidate. You don't have to be maxed out in your morality, but you do need to be extremely high in either charm or intimidate
the "Don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes" thing comes from the revolutionary war - one of the commanders was so low on ammunition he instructed his soldiers only to fire in extremely close range.
It could also be (because there are still some historians/people who contest who said it) due to the extreme inaccuracy of the weapons of the time. Powder muskets actually didn't hit their intended targets with any real reliability. You'd either want your targets close when shooting en mass or you'd want your marksmen to be REALLY good.
Aim small, miss small.
@@samueltheprideofafrikarobi9319 Muskets are horrible guns so it's believable that this might have been the case, or maybe the truth is somewhere between. I only shared the story I had heard before, but thank you for adding to the conversation
@@Aogami20 I agree with you completely. The truth is somewhere in there. LOL.
Curious how Casen would experience playing a looooong game with a lot of consequential choices - like the recent pathfinder crpgs, wrath of the righteous esp. - the fomo would probably be torture lol
The thing that massively puts me off Ashley is that random comment she makes when you are walking around the Citadel which is some variation of "I can't tell the aliens from the animals". I mean, wow. just wow. Usually just after you've come out of the embassy as well:)
Yeah, that line was always her worst in my opinion. Did the same for me: really makes me look at her and go, "Eww."
This is why I always save Kaiden. He may be boring, but he also isn't a blatant space racist. It'd be interesting to save Ashley if she got any sort of meaningful growth in the later games, but the one time I tried that, I was incredibly underwhelmed.
The subtle game at play with Ashley and Kaiden is that one starts off hostile and untrusting but can be influenced by a paragon Shep to be better whereas the other can start off open minded but be influenced by renegade Shep to end up hostile and untrusting. Kaiden seems boring because he starts off as a decent dude and has no room for growth (except down but only renegades will see it) whereas Ashley actually gets a character arc which is much more rewarding. We also learn the reason why Ashley started out so prejudiced (her whole family has been victimised since the first contact war) and see a reason to help her grow.
thats a bug. it's supposed to only happen around keepers.
thats why i killed her on the bomb mission
Love the coverage of mass effect
1) I think the Virmire section felt a bit rushed in places. There are a few bits that could have been done better (or clearer). First off there is the Genophage cure, does there need to have been one for this facility to work? There needs to be one for the Wrex conflict but this is essentially a cloning lab where the subjects are created as loyal adults in test tubes, do they need to be 'cured' to do this? It is a completely different process to the natural births of natural Krogan that the phage affects. They are created as slaves loyal to Saren and this is the crux, a genophage cure does not naturally fit there.
Secondly is the choice of who to save at the end. The obvious choice is to send the soldier on the distraction team and the tech guy with the bomb (Kaiden is the tech/biotic hybrid class) so having the choice of who to send where is a bit odd when you can still rescue either position anyway. However where it really seems unpolished is that the distraction team is just that - it's a _team,_ whereas the bomb position is just _one_ person (by the time you're aware of the threat).
Given the choice of where to send the extraction, rescuing the most people is the obvious choice. The devs added objectives during the initial infiltration which makes it easier on the distraction team and it is these that affects whether any of the Salarians survive (and are found on the Normandy) but this does not actually work in any logical way. It kind of implies that the default position is that you failed to make it easier on them and they all died leaving only Ashley left in need of pickup. From a Paragon/Renegade perspective the decision should have been - Paragon, rescue the full team in need of extraction and trust the person on the bomb to complete the mission for you (save more lives, trust your crew) or - Renegade, leave the team to their deaths while re-securing the bomb site to ensure it goes off (mission first at any cost, lack of trust). The way it worked in the finished game seemed like an unpolished scenario set.
If you start a game of ME2 without loading ME1 data (as anyone who first played on PS3 had to) then you make the basic choices during a 3 minute digital comic book recap of ME1 and during even this you see that Ashley is with a team of Salarians while Kaiden is alone making it an easy (paragon) choice, one life or many.
As mentioned above I started this series on PS3 so had to start with the second game then the third before it was re-released as the trilogy set and I finally got to play the first game, as a result I played the ending before the beginning so I decided to plan out how to play the full trilogy - 6 playthroughs, one of each skill class, a mix of all origins and psych profiles, both genders (male skewed), a different romance-able female character per class and, relevant to this discussion, an even split on the Virmire survivor (thrice Kaiden and thrice Ashley).
I couldn't just go with the same survivor all the time, like Casen, I would not want to miss out on seeing the other side. This also allowed me to play with the romance scenarios across the trilogy. In three of the six playthroughs I would romance Ashley during ME1 but in one of those my Shep would be 'forced' to sacrifice her on Virmire, in the other two she survives but Shep moves on to a new ME2 romance (due to Horizon behaviour) or he stays loyal (despite horizon behaviour) and rekindles with her in ME3). Despite all these branches however I still find it difficult to go with a mostly renegade Shep so I still skew heavily to Paragon (eg - 3X Hero profile to 2X Survivor profile to 1X Ruthless profile). Even with the skewed profile I still can't go Renegade heavy because that means one of the 6 female romance choices (L, A, T, J, M, T) would be getting the short end of the stick.
In regards to the Ashley v Kaiden personality preferences there is a subtle game at play that you may well have missed. Kaiden starts open minded but Renegade Shep can influence him to be hostile and untrusting by the end. Whereas Ashley starts hostile and untrusting but a Paragon Shep can influence her to end the game much more enlightened and open minded. Kaiden comes across as boring because he starts as a decent dude and the only way is down (but that route is less likely to be seen) whereas Ashley starts off as kind of a bitch and the only way is up (and more likely to be seen). You see her growth as a character and you also see the reason for why she is prejudiced to begin with. The first contact war ruined her family, not because the Turians killed them but because her grandfather was the only human commander to have surrendered to an invading alien force and as a result his children are militarily ostracised to this day by their own race. Shepard stepping into her life is such a massive turnaround for her that her interest in him is _very_ understandable, he is not only a romance novel cover hero but he gives her the (and helps her get the) respect that has been long denied to her entire family.
Nice lighting. I like it, looks good on my phone, much warmer.
I mean people are having to move further inland due to flooding of their homes and such, its just not the USA yet, it is poorer countries that people over here dont care about.
As an aside it is easier for one to say there are really good people on both sides, when the most harmful of one side's ides don't directly impact one's community, race, etc as is actually sadly the case. Some people just can't have common ground with each other at which point you gotta look at the base of their ideal and if they involve the belief that certain people simply should be killed off, forced to suffer or altered somehow you may not be able to call them evil, but you certainly can no longer call them good.
I'm following you guys on Twitter so I know what the next game will be, and I'm very, very happy about it! I'll be playing along this time cause it is my favorite in the franchise
Killing Jeong is one of the few renegade (well renegade-ish - Bottom Right option) options that I take in my main playthrough of the game. The guy is a complete corporate shill, absolutely amoral and his crimes are just too great too justify letting him live. Even the paragon option falls into some gray moral territory as it puts the corporation back in control of the colony, and we saw how that turned out. It's a pretty good example of how Paragon isn't always the "right" thing, just the more diplomatic. IMHO.
In regards to the krogan problem, the game presents it as both are at fault for the situation. The citadel used the krogan to fight the rachni because of their high birth rates. The krogan had the numbers to fight the rachni. Afterwards, the citadel granted colonization rights to the krogan for their contribution, but when removed from the harsh environment of their homeworld, they multiply to the point where they start taking over other colonized worlds. They refuse to stop expanding, so the genophage was deployed. The genophage is supposed to maintain a viable, but controllable population. That's why wrex says it's the krogan's fault for their decline, because the original iteration of the genophage didn't account for the krogan continuing to fight each other. This is addressed in the sequels.
Speaking of the last "Good vs Good" debate, can I recommend the Visual Novel Full Metal Daemon Muramasa? Won't spoil anything, but it's main theme overlaps with what you speak about almost perfectly
Always thought The First Contact War wouldve been a great spinoff game.
02:10 nah, thats thermal grizzly liquid metal!
01:36:36 put it this way Sovereign says that per cycle they create 1 reaper per species.... just see the amount of "reaper ships" that exists and it will give you the amount of time this cycle exists
The whole bit about the Krogan and getting rid of the genophage is pretty much the opposite of how I feel about it. Sure, the Citadel/Alliance is responsible for what has happened to the Krogan, but this is ignoring the Krogan's own free will and their own decisions. They were uplifted while still violent and warlike, sure. They were put into a war which I am unironically certain they loved, because everything we see of Krogans in Mass Effect says that they genuinely enjoy fighting. And then after they decided to turn on the people who helped them, who uplifted them, who gave them such advanced technology. And did the Council destroy them? No. They could have! If you can engineer a bioweapon that hugely cuts down on successful births and infect an entire species, you can engineer a bioweapon that just plain _kills_ them. But they didn't. They gave the Krogans another chance, which is frankly one more chance than I would have if they'd turned on me and started trying to murder me and my species after we'd given them so much.
And what have the Krogans done with their second chance? Squandered it. They live as mercenaries, bodyguards, bouncers, any kind of profession that offers the chance to shoot and be shot at. They show zero regard for the lives of other Krogans despite knowing that the genophage makes keeping up with so many deaths impossible. They have chosen to continue to be the monsters that they are. We don't see a single Krogan scientist working to try and cure the genophage. No attempts by Krogans to shift their culture, to embrace a less warmongering attitude. Wrex complains bitterly about what's been done to his people yet his people do nothing to try and alter the situation, and continue to act in ways that only prove that the Council was right to do what they did.
You bring up the whole "die as a lion or live as a slave" thing, and it's ironic because from my perspective the Krogans are getting the worst of both worlds. Rather than seeing it as "Ah yes, we won't accept Saren's solution because we'd be slaves!" I see it as, the Krogans are choosing not to make the most of their lives, knowing their species is teetering on the edge of extinction. They're choosing to live as slaves to their own violent culture and desires. They'll die out, and they'll leave no glorious legacy behind. The Krogans will kill themselves off, and everyone will just be glad that they're gone, that is the legacy they are creating for themselves.
If you ever wanted to do a game in one episode, Fear Effect would be cool. There are more fans of that game out there than you think.
That is Israel Putnam at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Sovereign being all we are the have been here since the start of existence and are the end of everything really giving off those Deus We are alpha and omega vibes.
I'm disappointed you guys didn't recognize Ash's depth. Objectively she is no worse than other aliens in the series as they all have their own selfish biases and prejudices it's only Ashley who gets flack for it though.
Great conversation and recap of a game I really love! You guys won me over with that conversation about "good vs good". I was already enjoying the content but that part of the conversation made me think "I want to support these guys". You've got a new subscriber.
the discussion at the end reminded me a lot of nier replicant lol
Any chance we could see you guys tackle Dragon Age one of these days?
Dragon Age: Origins was pretty Awesome. Shame the sequels couldn't keep up the momentum, although unlike many, I did enjoy Dragon Age II on its own merits. Many people felt that Inquisition was a return to form, but I just wasn't feeling it somehow.
@@thejawgz6719 I love all 3 tbh. I prefer them over the Mass Effect trilogy, but I do love mass effect as well. It'd be cool to hear them compare and contrast the two series and compare the ideas of DAO to existing fantasy novels and stuff they've read.
I am a big fan of the series and after listening to episode #1 I had to jump in! I bought the legendary edition to play along with you guys but I got so excited to revisit this long time beloved franchised that I finished the first game and started the second one. To my surprise, this play through made me realize a couple
of things:
1) The legendary edition does well to ME1 gameplay, but I still hate the map system. The map that shows in the hud is trash and the fact you had to open the menu every time you need to check location is nonsense. Inventory management should’ve been improved as well.
2) I remembered that ME1 was the one with most RPG elements (not only character progression but gameplay as a whole), but it was a surprise to me, playing ME2 right after finishing the first one, how ME2 changes the formula. In my opinion, it leans too much on the TPS direction (maybe because of Gears of war and all the shooters of that era), losing a lot of personality. Even character progression is simplified to a point where I feel it’s detrimental to the experience. They should’ve improved the first one, not tried to change the game so much. Additionally, in terms of story, I feel ME1 is more concise. ME2 beginning is basically throws away the relationship you had with the characters from the first game and focus much more on recruiting new people. They could’ve focused more on deepen the existing relationships and add just a couple more and make then more relevant.
well, this was a revelation to me… I started playing ME again I didn’t expect to like 1 even more and dislike 2 (which seems to be the fan favorite).
Hope FF tactics is released on switch so I can play along with you guys again!
Mike. How do I find your personal channel. Iook for "Mike Brown" but I cannot find your channel
I'm here.
@@michaelcoraybrown Thanks!
After seeing Ashley be a raging bigot and then kill Wrex, I made FOR SURE she died in every run I ever did.
I leave Ashley behind and kaiden is a better character in the 3rd game plus I romance liara since I love her character journey in the series
Yeah i didn't have to think twice who i'd sacrifice in Virmire.
Kaidan is boring but he's also just an inoffensive Chris Redfield dude who gets the job done. Wish i didn't romance him but Liara though lol.
Ashley is awful and i had to laugh out loud when the game literally made her say "It's not racism but..." after saying xenophobic as shit stuff. And appearently she doesn't get better if you let her life? Like i certainly would've warmed up to her if she had some sort character progression or something (like what you find out about Pressly in ME2 without spoiling too much).
Hey guys, guess what the ME games are all about? Yep, killing god. Crazy, mechanical, AI god.
goes to show that it's a thing in all rpgs not just those made in japan.
Notice how the turians look exactly like ultron from avengers 2?
I should say, notice how ultron from AV2 looks exactly like the turians?
Your definition for unprovoked is a bit weird because wrex is holding you at gunpoint.
About choices:
I think the biggest flaw of the Mass Effect series is that this game wants to be super replayable but there are some choices that are clearly much better than others and lead to so much better results for the story, and that makes choices lame.
Sad neither of you saved Kaiden. He's a vastly better character than Ash if you get past ME1. He's also tied into the lore of the game in a much better way than Ash in my opinion. I guess he's the best paired with femshep but even with maleshep he develops in an interesting way.
Part of me wants you to cover Mass Effect 3, but part doesn't because *yikes* the writing in ME3 is a trash fire. Not even referring to the ending, so much of that game is terribly written.
ME1 feels stilted at times--there are aspects to ME1 that are wonderful, the non-human teammates are great characters (though I'm very 'eh' towards Garrus until ME2), the overall plot is kind of genius...but it gets to a later problem with ME3 that is probably not fit for this video.
ME1's twist that reveals that the Sovereign, the main villain, the Reaper, is actually the Ship--and that it's this sort of eldritch entity--is genius. The presentation of Sovereign is also freaking fantastic. You *feel* that you're a speck to him. You *feel* that he doesn't care. He's doing what he's going to do, and Shepard is nothing more than a mote, and it's freaking chilling.
mass effect 3 does have alot of bad parts { alot of it is near the beginning of the game] but i feel there is enough good in there to not make it irredeemable.
I'm currently going through ME3 for the first time, so no spoilers please, but I'm not seeing any trash writing.
It's not blowing me away like ME1 but it's at least on level with 2.
My current play through I tried to avoid Ash as a romance by being "professional" eg: neutral and yes, her romance was forced on me. During the finale I opted not to consummate our relationship (which played out a lot cooler than I thought it would). Someone suggested I stick with it through to the other games so I am doing that but I had to force myself to romance her. She is unbearable, a xenophobe and obnoxious.
I know Garrus is, but what is Ashley?
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I fundamentally disagree that Ashley is racist and that she has no personality. She’s a realist who understands the fundamental fact that everyone is interested in their own interests and will step over others to get it. She has a better understanding of politics in the galaxy than anyone else you encounter.
I agree. I think that the "Ashley is a racist" thing gets exaggerated due to story-telling shorthand. Think about coughing. In real life, a cough could mean anything from a life-threatening illness to a minor cold to the air being a little dry. In story-telling, you don't show a cough unless it means something serious. If you have a cough in a story, you are a few steps away from dead.
The same thing happens with Ashley. She makes a few comments that could be taken as racist, and because of our understanding of story-telling, that means that her entire personality is racist, because otherwise, why make those comments?
In reality, those comments are not that out of line. The "you may love your dog, but you will sacrifice it to get away from a bear because it isn't human" line is not referring to how humans treat the alien races - it is a political statement about how the alien races view humans. The other citadel races are not going to care about things happening to human colonies in the same way that they are going to care about their own colonies. And that is a perfectly reasonable observation - it was just said in such a way that makes people think "hmm...she may be racist"
Same with the "I can't tell the aliens from the animals" line. In a universe of possibilities, how are you supposed to tell at the first glance whether something is sentient? That was Ashley's first time at the Citadel. She has never seen so many alien species in one place. Not everyone living there is "life as we know it". There are sentient plants. The keepers seem like they should be sentient, but they do not interact with people in any way. If an alien were to visit Earth and see someone playing in their yard with their dog, they may think that the dog is a sentient life form the same as you are. Again, it was said in a way that may come off as offensive, but it does make sense in context.
However, story-telling being what it is, we understand a few statements like that to be shorthand for "this person is a racist", and I'm not so sure that is really the case.
You seriously took to a workshop one of the most overrated series which are so stupid, so boring and so boring, I thought you would start analyzing PLANESCAPE: TORMENT BECAUSE THIS GAME DESERVES ALL THE PRAISES
No climate prediction has ever been right, keep your political beliefs out of video games.
you say that with a series that is very political.