Good on you Patrick. What is the point of going into a suicide mission if you know exactly what decisions to make from a strategy guide. What is the point of any of your decisions made in the ME universe if your just going to load a save back up when things don't go your way.

I lost Legion and Zaeed Massani. It turned out to pay off quite a bit with the Geth story line in ME3. I'm not really spoiling anything but I kept talking to a representation of Legion, (Hologram is what the game called it.) but the Geth just kept saying. "We are not Legion." A lot of subtext in our conversations that just implied, "He's dead and gone forever." Ha Ha. Finally my Shep just said. "Well you are today!" When I was sick of his crap.

The point is making bad decisions is fun in a ME universe. It's what adds to the world. Those highs and lows emotionally pulls you in even deeper making up your own ME story. Thanks for reflecting that Patrick.

This isnt news...

Same happened with me and Mordin. Felt sad not to see him in ME3 due to him biting it in 2

@WrathOfBanja: At least Patrick is giving us some content.

@BoG said:

@RetroVirus said:

@BoG: Too bad they revealed in Shadow Broker that she has a benign tumor preventing her from conceiving children.

I didn't play Shadow Broker, and therefore this is NOT canon in my Shepardverse. I reserve the right to take these sort of creative liberties.

I believe that from now on we should all refer to it as "The Shepardverse".

I too lost Miranda. She died holding the line. I also lost Legion. He took a rocket to the face while trying to close that door. Whenever i get to ME3, i'm just going to start without carrying my ME2 save over, because it doesn't really matter anyway.

Never had an issue keeping everyone alive in the suicide mission. I played everyone to their strengths and I realized from the first Mass Effect that taking the middle road dialogue is not the way to go. You better be ballin hard renegade or paladin or why even bother. It's one of my biggest grips with their dialogue system, it doesn't go grey enough.

Didn't like Miranda, she's just a Mary Sue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

Thank god everyone survived my playthrough, first try, no restarts, and no FAQs.

I just didn't realize how much I'd miss a virtual mass of pixels branded Miranda.

It feels terribly strange to write about a digital character like this--shameful, even.

Is the stigma of gaming so profound that a prominent and intelligent writer for a prominent and intelligent gaming site needs to qualify an expression of emotional attachment with an admission of shame?

Would you feel compelled to apologize over the bond to a fictional character in a novel (i.e. consonants and vowels on paper) or a movie character (i.e. chemicals on celluloid)?

When discussing novels or movies, we seldom break the fourth wall and bring the medium into the conversation unless the discussion is technical. Our beloved industry suffers enough stigma in the general press-- let's not bring that stigma into the hallowed halls of our community.

As for the article: +10 points for embracing the consequences of the game and living with those consequences. Too many --including myself!-- circumvent real consequence by abusing the save/load wormhole. That takes courage, and I salute you for it.

(But -10 points for your pixel shame.. that takes courage to overcome, too!)

@GirnBlanston: One thing to note is you start at level 1 instead of what you had in ME2, little to none paragon or renegade bar filled up, and it's a little cash/carry over gear.

I find it hilarious that people actually feel attached to Mass Effect's characters, particularly because they look and act in such a plastic non-realistic manner (especially when compared to characters in other games). It's true: throw in some nerdy sci fi tropes and you can convince the stereotypical rpg nerd gamer that even dog shit tastes like skittles.

I got through it with all squad folk, couldn't imagine it otherwise. I'd say the characters with the coolest ME3 appearances outside of your squad (though some seemed awful to begin with) are Miranda, Thane, and Legion. They all have roles that I can't imagine replaced by some random dude.

Maybe I'm just one lucky dude, or perhaps I understood character's abilities well enough to give them the correct assignment on the suicide mission, but every single person survived for me. I'm glad they did too because it has consistently been a treat to run into them again so far in ME3.

And seriously, there isn't any shame in having a connection to video game character. I've been genuinely sad at the loss of some of my crew so far. What that tells me is that the game developers have done a good enough job that I developed a connection in the first place.

I let as many people as possible die in the suicide mission, as I still think my Shepard should end up alone and lost in everything that happened by the end of the story.

It's too bad that I have zero interest in Mass Effect 3. = /

if Miranda dies in ME2 who says hello to you in the beginning of ME3 ?

I lost Miranda, Kasumi and Legion in my first ME2 character...I wasn't too attached to either so it didn't matter. However, I could see how it might change the overall tone of ME3.

After completing ME3, however, my entire idea of Mass Effect is remarkably darker and less a "yay, we did it." I hope BioWare puts some dlc or another game in the same universe that sort of eases the idea of lost lovable characters. I don't mind losing characters, I hate losing characters that you emotionally invest in.

I can't stand Miranda. She has this unlikeable attitude of superiority despite having a painfully dull personality and a weird mishappen face.

@Subjugation said:

Maybe I'm just one lucky dude, or perhaps I understood character's abilities well enough to give them the correct assignment on the suicide mission, but every single person survived for me. I'm glad they did too because it has consistently been a treat to run into them again so far in ME3.

And seriously, there isn't any shame in having a connection to video game character. I've been genuinely sad at the loss of some of my crew so far. What that tells me is that the game developers have done a good enough job that I developed a connection in the first place.

I think you're right about understanding the ability of the characters is a key to them surviving. Mordin Solus wasn't an important part of my part, but I was pretty upset that I did lose him on the mission. I didn't pick him to lead any of my teams, so when I got to the point where I understood I made the 'right' decisions and at the very end he died, I was pretty irritated it because at that point it felt totally random.

So I do disagree with Patrick where it should be random, because I'd find it way more effective if the character died based on the decisions you made, like in ME1 where you had to choose Kaiden or Ashley.

Almost feel like I'm losing out on the experience with my everyone surviving.

@cyraxible: Could you explain why you found Miranda so appealing? I fail to see how anyone could find her appealing...

In Mass Effect 2 I think I just killed off all the characters I was not using :).

I find it hilarious that people actually feel attached to Mass Effect's characters, particularly because they look and act in such a plastic non-realistic manner (especially when compared to characters in other games). It's true: throw in some nerdy sci fi tropes and you can convince the stereotypical rpg nerd gamer that even dog shit tastes like skittles.

@Shiro2809: Honestly at the time I was a fan of the tv show Chuck and since Yvonne Strahovski is the voice and face of Miranda I guess it just felt familiar. I was much more interested in the Illusive Man and Cerberus and Miranda was a window into that organization.

I guess I should mention I do like Garrus but I forgot about him because he wasn't a new addition in 2.

@JBrosk89 said:

I lost Miranda, Kasumi and Legion in my first ME2 character...I wasn't too attached to either so it didn't matter. However, I could see how it might change the overall tone of ME3.

After completing ME3, however, my entire idea of Mass Effect is remarkably darker and less a "yay, we did it." I hope BioWare puts some dlc or another game in the same universe that sort of eases the idea of lost lovable characters. I don't mind losing characters, I hate losing characters that you emotionally invest in.

Especially when their lose serves no purpose and makes the entire narrative pointless as a result.

On the suicide mission I lost Mordin, Thane, Kelly, and my entire crew. Oh, and I chose Morinth over Samara, which I instantly regretted. But like Patrick I won't replay ME2 to save these people. It still tugs at me that I lost them, and that's pretty powerful for a game.

@kelbear said:

Didn't like Miranda, she's just a Mary Sue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

This works in theory (her being "perfect"), but definitely not in practice. Vanilla Mary Sue is loved by all and better at everything than her companions (Lieutenant MS was like 15 years old, then Spock and Kirk both fell in love with her). Bioware circumvented this somewhat by making Miranda kind of a bitch (which I love), but they dropped the ball with her shitty past storyline, though.

Also, I thought she sucked in combat. I would take just about any other character except for Jacob out in the field over her. Yvonne is great, but Miranda is just kind of a flat character. Making her a MS would be an upgrade.

Didn't have this problem....because my save didn't import.

I still don't understand how people playing paragon manage to loos crew members in ME2, I've never lost any ever on any of the 4 play through's I did. Doesn't take a genius to work out that if you do the loyalty mission, get the upgrades the person offers and pay attention to who you assign said collector base duties to (cause you know... you'd totally trust Miranda to look after a party of people trying to get back to the ship...) then everything will turn out just peachy.

@RsistncE said:

I find it hilarious that people actually feel attached to Mass Effect's characters, particularly because they look and act in such a plastic non-realistic manner (especially when compared to characters in other games). It's true: throw in some nerdy sci fi tropes and you can convince the stereotypical rpg nerd gamer that even dog shit tastes like skittles.

You're super cool and everyone wants to be just like you! I'm sure you'd love to name some of these medium defining characters from these other games...or perhaps you're afraid of being shit on?

I'm working hard in my Mass Effect 2 game to make sure everyone makes it out alive.

I liked Miranda's personality - sex appeal is an obvious part of her design but I think she deserves more credit than a lot of haters give her. In fact I very much enjoyed most of the ME2 characters - maybe the only one that didn't much click with me was pre-loyalty Jacob. And Kelly, because she was just there to feed my fish.

I did lose Mordin during my suicide mission. I was so sad that I started a New Game+ and did it right the next time. I think ME3 tied up most characters' storylines convincingly enough, though I really wanted to see more Kasumi and Zaeed content.

Jack, Jacob and Samara died my first run of ME2.

awesome article , had to come over from comicvine !!

@phrosnite said:

Miranda sucks anyway. I dont know why people like her.

because boobs?

@Xeiphyer: I never said that it's impossible to find emotional resonance with characters in media, I said that the characters (and their visual depictions) in the Mass Effect games were laughably plastic when compared to characters in other games. I was trying to say that the characters in Mass Effect were pretty shit when talking about how real they felt.

@Peanut: lol mad Mass Effect nerd. I don't need to name those games, you should know perfectly well what they are, after all, most of them pioneered character animation techniques.

I dont understand how people can have some of their crew members die during the suicide mission, if you did every misssion and upgraded everything its impossible for them to die, i easily had everyone survive on all my playthroughs.

Everyone survived the suicide mission on my one and only play through (until I finish ME3 and start all over again). Reading this article and some of the responses just reinforces my bewilderment of what it would be like to NOT have certain characters alive in ME3. Just in the first 10 hours I have run into several characters which has added to the importance of the mission, to keep all those people still alive. In fact, one mission I just played finally gave me my first death and it really hit me pretty hard with the feeling that this trilogy really is coming to an end. And after that mission was over, I really wonder what it would be like if that character had NOT made it to ME3 in the first place as they played a pretty major role...

I'm really glad Patrick took the time to talk about this because I really think that the way these things are handled in the ME games is truly fascinating. And even with some of the shortcomings and missteps ME3 has taken, I am really enjoying my experience.

I love the permanence of the decisions you made in ME2 and in ME1, however, the fact that most of the characters that survived the suicide mission

is a bit of a let down. Is there something I've done to make this happen? or does it happen regardless of your actions?

Also on the topic of Miranda: DAT ASS!

This shit is like the 5th season of the Wire.

Nobody I wanted to die died (EXCEPT THAT ONE ASSHOLE ON THE COUNCIL) and the few people I wanted to live... Died. WAH!!! change the ending.

I lost Mordin in the final mission of Mass Effect 2 because I had failed to remember one line back days (of play time) beforehand where the character mentioned his difficulty in "holding the line" in a military situation. I considered continuing through with the save intact, as I really enjoyed the idea of making my decisions count, rather than trying to game the system, but in the end I decided to restart the mission and save him. If I could play the game through in one sitting, and I didn't have a real life to distract me, I might have been able to remember he wasn't good on the front lines.

There still is a part of me that wishes I didn't save him--not because I dislike the character, but because forgetfulness isn't a good enough excuse to go back and restart the mission, even if that's the only reason I have for doing so. Real people forget things, and real people die because of that forgetfulness. Why then should a video game story be different?

If anybody but Mordin had died I would have left it as is too. Couldn't do that to Mordin.

@BrockNRolla said:

@heatDrive88 said:

@Clonedzero said:

this is not your damn blog patrick wtf

It's called an editorial, just like the same pieces of writing that Jeff or Ryan or Brad write that ever so seldom show up here. Just because Patrick also writes the news, doesn't mean his role is diminished to only writing news.

I'll give you that it all shows up under their "news" section which can be misleading, but almost anyone can tell you that their news is purposely written with an editorial slant anyways.

I think it's overly deceptive. Especially given the overall lack of content this week.

"Overly deceptive" ? - Sir, you need to chill out. Especially as i'm only 3 pages into these comments and you've made 3 whiney posts. I wonder how many you'll make by the end?

Only person I lost was Thane.

And fuck it, I fucking replayed it. The game really made it seem like the ability to get through a narrow tube (an ability seemingly exclusive to Thane) was more important than computer-y abilites (inherent to almost every character in the game, what with the setting and all).

Other than that, yeah, I'd say stick to your losses. I am really curious how Patrick's ME3 is gonna go without Tali or Miranda. They are larger players than a lot of the ME2 squad.

In my opinion, Miranda is the weakest female character in the series. Ashley is developed better and more attention is focused on her anyway.

The biggest problem with Mass Effect is, regardless to who dies in your previous game, not a lot changes, if anything at all. The Kaidan/Ashley mess from the first ME personifies this. It's literally just a swap of the same exact scenario between them in Mass Effect 3.

Only like 2 people lived when i played my good character. Evil everyone lived. (Also was sad when i first played it)

@phrosnite: because she has an interesting back story and she's just as good as other characters if you bother to flesh her out.

Not sure how people made such bad decisions in the last part of the game. If Miranda took a bullet to the head then that means she was put in charge of the strike team guarding the door...seriously...why would you do that anyway?

It's nice to read a...

SPOILERS

bit about a good ME game.

@Korwin said:

I still don't understand how people playing paragon manage to loos crew members in ME2, I've never lost any ever on any of the 4 play through's I did. Doesn't take a genius to work out that if you do the loyalty mission, get the upgrades the person offers and pay attention to who you assign said collector base duties to (cause you know... you'd totally trust Miranda to look after a party of people trying to get back to the ship...) then everything will turn out just peachy.

If you do the proper assignments but DON'T do the loyalty missions, would those characters fit for the roles still die?

I only played through once (did the loyalty missions and everyone survived) but it seems odd that loyalty missions would affect characters doing things they're just good at.

For example, loyalty mission or not, being a friggin robot, Legion is perfect for crawling through that hazardous vent.

@Sev_X1: @Sev_X1 said:

I dont understand how people can have some of their crew members die during the suicide mission, if you did every misssion and upgraded everything its impossible for them to die, i easily had everyone survive on all my playthroughs.

Not true - I'd maxed out everything, but some characters aren't up to the job.