Mass Alex: Mass Effect - Part 04

I don't know if this has been brought up, but there's a little trick to Mako combat that will help you gain levels faster.

If you use the Mako's weapons to whittle down the enemy's health and then GET OUT to deliver the killing blow with your squad, the XP you gain will be much, much higher.

It's a bit tedious and often dangerous against bigger enemies and snipers, but I find it very worth the effort.

Also, the audio was fine. Go watch Waypoint content if you want baby-soft audio.

(Love you, Waypoint, but turn that shit UP.)

I am absolutely loving Alex’s positivity and willingness to accept feedback so far in this series. It seems like he is making a real effort to just learn, have fun, and enjoy the game for what it is. Great job! Keep up the good work!

HOW LONG WAS VINNY KEEPING 'SPACEBOOK' IN HIS BACK POCKET??

@comradesolar:

Np. I have noticed that the audio is quite different from time to time for all GB content.

@boots33: There is nothing soft about a baby's audio.

Combat in ME1 is pretty great if you play it as an RPG and not a shooter.

It's real-time with pause combat like Baldur's Gate or more recently Pillars Of Eternity.

Pause the combat, move your party and stack up attacks. The more tactical you get with it the more rewarding it becomes.

Also @alex Vanguard's are really good in close quarters. Put points/upgrades in to shotguns and shields/health and enjoy the carnage provided by Lift (biotic power) + a shotgun with explosive ammo.

Yeah I think the audio issue could be there's a compressor/limiter on their vocals with the gain way too high. That's maybe why it sounds oversaturated but at a consistent volume? My two cents.

I reached out to Vinny about the audio, and he said he would look into it (which I appreciate greatly). I know he's a busy guy, so I can wait for as long as it takes. My hearing impairment kicks in hard and I can't understand what they are saying for most of the bit I watched. I'm thinking it's not enough peaks and valleys for me to pick up on... same reason I can't understand whispering and I avoid conversations in crowded rooms.

@quint: I actually missed this as the series became more actiony. There's something innately fun about setting up your squad to occupy an enemy while you flank him.

Started playing Me2 after picking up the dlc for sale and man is that a good fucking game. Tonally it’s very different than the first one but it’s real good

Ps.ALWAYS BE SAVING :)

When I think back to this game I really did only remember the cool story moments. I completely forgot the laborious, annoying combat missions (even aside from the lifeless planets to explore). Those Mako-required missions are endless and not fun at all, and some of the combat scenarios are straight up bullshit. I was sad they stripped out some of the loot and more RPG-lite elements of this game, but man did they make some huge leaps in combat and mission design.

Friendly FYI:

Their mics ain't "hot" but they are very compressed so most of the signal from their mics is as squashed as modern heavy metal.

It both sounds unnatural since human voices have natural dynamics that intense compression removes and unpleasant to the ear since a lot of unpleasant frequencies are boosted, resulting in many "compression artefacts".

Some compression is fine and often a good idea but it sounds like somehow some setting on their compressor got set to "brick wall" and it was missed before rendering the video.

If they have the unedited source audio left they can do a new render and reupload this episode but if that audio ain't available this is what we have. You can't put toothpaste back into the tube and audio can't be unbrickwalled.

Either way I love this series and all the GB fam so no offense is meant by this. It's just a bit of audio info.

@broodlord: you think they don't know that?

Thanks

@psykodoughboy: It was an FYI to all our sibling commenters saying the mics are hot.

The GB-crew most assuredly know this, likely better than me. I'll make sure to be excessively clear about the intention of my comments in the future, duder.

I really appreciate that Alex skims through most of the planet descriptions. Because that's not something I ever did

Yeah, saving over the same slot every time is making me a bit nervous. I'm replaying the game and have at least 50 saves, always overwriting the oldest at the bottom.

I know that GBEast usually has bad and rough overly-compressed audio but, oh boy, this has to be the roughest audio they ever had. It's a shame, I love this new series, but I'm not sure if I can go through this whole episode...

spacebook..... not myspace.... really Vinny?

Only at 1:06, so...

But in case this hasn't already been mentioned, when in the Mako and you want to save, just get out of the Mako.

The radar when in the Mako is much bigger, so the game thinks you are in a combat much more.

Guys, MEDIGEL! REPAIR! UNITY!!!! Tough fights go faster when you patch up! Otherwise super happy to see this, I don’t have time to play through all three again myself but I have the same love of the series as Vinny.

(By which I mean, thanks for doing this GBE team, just want to see you enjoy it!)

Man I LOVE MASS EFFECT LORE

That first Maw attack was pretty brutal.

"What have we learned"

just finished watchin Project B.E.A.S.T, glad alex still kickin ass and learnin lessons

I forgot just HOW MUCH Liara's voice actor changed the performance across all three games. Very weird/cool hearing the "wide-eyed, naive" voice come back.

this so much this, i noticed on GB West they had some sort of setting auto set when they got the new equipment and a lot of the audio sounded bad, or way too loud compared to the game.

Man I really don't understand why people like Talia so much, I found her extremely annoying.

I died so many times fighting the Krogan Battlemaster.

Good stuff, Alex.

I always wanted to play this damn game for its story and aesthetic, but it is so mechanically wonky that I couldn't get into it. Thankfully, Alex is on the sticks and taking care of biz.

Thanks, @alex !

SHEPARD.

Hell yes, Liara. My favorite character

Aww man youre supposed to disconnect from the council every time, its the funniest way for that to play out haha

"are you calling in just to cut us off again?"

"Yooou know it!"

Does he even know he has grenades? I always forgot because they are mapped to the back button.

However imperfect Mass Effect 1 was it's still my favorite Mass Effect game. I probably didn't use the powers as much as I should have but I liked the options the inventory gave you to upgrade and change armor especially when you had a certain team (think it was mostly Liara and Garrus) so you wouldn't have to worry about sharing armor and weapons between teammates.

Also I know we all forget stuff but Vinny's "tips" seem to be pretty hit and miss regarding stuff like omni-gel and the skill points.

Looking forward to Alex hopefully getting the hang of it and I think he can switch classes in Mass Effect 2 to something that suits his playstyle better. Vanguard can be a tough class especially in tough/boss battles (think I've commented that before).

@cosmokramer: just you