Mass Alex: Mass Effect - Part 09

@shivoa: I don't think I've ever met somebody I disagree with so thoroughly on what makes a good story.

*Bad* stories force a moral down your throat, good stories simply tell a compelling story and let the audience make up their minds. This incessant moralizing where every facet of culture has to reinforce positive moral positions is tiresome.

I don't need the game screaming at me "HEY! HEY! RACISM'S BAD! SEE?" at every opportunity, I already know that. And Sheppard has the option to be a conduit for those beliefs of mine if I so choose - or to be a somewhat less savoury character if I so choose.

Further, if games perpetuate racism by including racist characters that don't necessarily get what's coming to them, then GTA has been perpetuating violence by allowing people to steal cars and kill people with minimal consequences for years; which is plainly nonsense.

You know in what kinds of stories the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and there's always clear sign posting about which characters the audience should emulate? Stories for children. Adults are mature enough to handle, and enjoy, stories about characters and even protagonists who are perhaps worse people than they are irl.

You're right, no games need to permit a certain choice, but most RPG designers endeavor to permit the player as much freedom within the confines of the game world and internal consistency as possible. Part of that is allowing you to play the bad guy, and in this world that means varying levels of comfort with space-racism.

I love this feature so far but the Mako stuff is tough to watch. As much as I love the first game, I'm looking forward to getting to ME2

The podcast Vinny was reaching for is "Welcome to Night Vale" and it's fantastic.

Wrex definitely listens to Last Podcast on the Left, though.

Or (from the Mass Effect wiki): "If you are pursuing a romance, that squad member will dance with you if you stand on the dance floor and talk to him or her several times."

Anyone who can watch these awful Mako side missions and then say that ME 2 is somehow a step down from this game is smoking angel dust.

I get and appreciate that Alex wants to experience all of this game but I wish they would just focus on the story missions. Those are the good parts of this game.

Agreed.

I'd say if the put-down didn't match her uniform, that's more of a scripting issue than the writing itself being "bad writing".

But also on @lemmox's point, the worlds of ME aren't perfect and we wouldn't expect the people to be either. Funnily enough, for those that thought Miranda was oversexualized, that same put-down seems to be the game acknowledging it.

Agreed - I'm glad opinions like this are out there because at the time, it felt like fewer people shared this.

Some still relent that ME 2 had better combat, but I preferred the ME 1 combat 'experience' overall. Some thoughts:

• Skills being on independent cooldowns meant being able to use them more often and in combination (more fun, more experimentation) -- if this was OP, I'd rather them keep the system, but refine it to be more fair without requiring global cooldown

• Liked the 'overheating' mechanic and wish they kept it or refined it (if too OP) in ME 2 instead of scrapping it. Scavenging for heatsinks did not add value to combat IMO

• Because there were more weapons/add-ons with interesting effects, the planets also felt more useful (as areas to obtain them)

Nice skyboxes.

I prefer ME1 for the gameplay. The free roaming stuff is the next best thing to No Man's Sky. The Mako is a lot of fun to drive and jump around in.

@tetra4: Wow. You and I obviously have very different ideas about what constitutes a better game. I only recently played 1 for the first time, after being a huge fan of ME from 2 onwards, and at literally no point during my playthrough did I think, 'This is better than 2 or even 3'. I would love to know what you think is better about ME1?

Mass Effect has the best sound design / soundtrack of last generation right? It has to be #1. I can't think of anything that comes close.

Up until a week ago, my only experience with the ME franchise was attempting to play ME2 (on PC) shortly after it came out. I almost immediately bounced off of it. This GB series got me to go back and try ME1, and I finished it a couple nights ago. Overall I was pretty happy with it, and it made me wonder if perhaps my tastes in gaming had changed since I last tried ME2.

Loaded up ME2 last night and nope, I can totally see why I bounced off of it back then, and I'm now debating doing the same again.

The control implementation is a pretty textbook example of zero-shits-given PC ports of a ~decade ago. Mouse input is probably the worst I've seen among similar AAA releases, which requires manual editing of the cfg to remove acceleration and set anything other than the low/medium/high "camera" sensitivity (all of which are far too high, even if you're only using a 400dpi mouse.)

Then there's the decision to lump a bunch of interactions into a single context-sensitive 'action' button, which makes the moment to moment combat and character control feel more linear and less consequential. Where ME1 gave you a duck button which allowed you to move/peak/duck/aim/shoot as you please, ME2 seems all-in with the cover mechanic which forces you into pretty robotic cover/shoot/cover/shoot sequences.

If the opening story were compelling, I'd be willing to tolerate the combat, but from the outset I don't feel like I have any reason to like or trust these new partners or mystery man that are telling me what to do. If I were able to actually roleplay my character the way I had in ME1, he probably would have shot them all in the first 5 minutes.

Of course ME2 is by miles and miles and miles and miles better than both ME1 or ME3.

What world are you guys living on?

@hughj:

ME2 is meant to be played with a controller. Bioware was on meth when they put out the PC version with no controller support but there's a fan made mod out there to fix that.

@eccentrix:

I don't understand why people hate the Mako. I thought it was one of the most fun parts of the game in 07.

They must've been because ME1 is a delight to play with keyboard & mouse. I recall commanding my squadmates to focus fire on an enemy target, barraging them with Biotics (manually), and swapping weapons with ease.

This is my fave way to play and so I also wish Alex would manually command squadmates and individually level up their talents. That said, he ought to play as he wishes. :)

And yup, I also recall ME2 favouring controller and combining cover/peek/vault/etc into one button. Remember how you were forced to duck behind cover in order to vault over it?

And yup, not being able to duck manually (and separately) reduces ME2's gunplay even further into generic-cover-shooter territory.

I'm sorry but while this may have made sense on controller, I too, was disappointed when I could not decouple these controls on a keyboard. We can excuse that the ME1 PC port came out after console launch (and etc) but this is part of why ME1 stands the test of time a bit better on PC.

And @hughj, if you're pondering whether to bounce, I know ME2 put me off playing ME3 altogether. I'm not even sure whether to reconsider.

I understand why the GB crew doing engage with comments, this is pathetic.

@insidergamer said:

Assuming ME3 is along the same lines of ME2, what about ME:A? I would far far rather have a game that's janky and unrefined if it gives me back systems (combat, character progression, inventory) that feel more granular, and less funneled and prescriptive.

So far, the games that ME2 reminds me most of are actually the old Rebel Assault quasi-interactive FMV games. The overall cadence seems to be cutscene->combat->cutscene, where the choices in the cutscene dialogue are mostly cosmetic, and the combat-related systems don't seem to have enough sleight-of-hand complexity to make me feel like I'm playing a video game rather than watching the developer's play-through.

Well Andromeda certainly doesn't do any of those things (in the manner you're hoping for anyway). Combat is decent, but nothing like ME1. More like a natural progression from ME2 & 3. Rest of the game is just completely uninspiring bollocks.

People are silly, especially in comments sections.

Does anyone know if he turned on auto leveling for his team mates? I have not seen him level them up in a couple of episodes. It is so infuriating!

@nerdware: he has auto-leveling for squadmates on, yeah.

Anyways these poor guys probably have enough trouble keeping all these names straight when the game doesn't straight up typo them...

Alex! You're singing of the Star Trek Enterprise intro in small quips is AMAZING! Makes me laugh, every time. Love the references.

Also, continuing to love this series, thanks!

I knew I recognized Elanos Haliat's voice; Gary Anthony Williams!

You can absolutely dance on the Citadel, you just need to walk further towards the back of the dance floor. I am disappointed in you, Mr. Mass Alex!

Preach

100% agree

It's funny, I've always liked 1 and 2 almost equally, but for different reasons. It felt to me like BioWare improved on most of the parts I found lacking of the first game (the kinda bland squadmates, the cumbersome inventory system, the awkward gunplay, and the technical issues/lack of polish), but wasn't quite as strong on some of the parts that I loved from the first game (the intriguing main plot and the sense of exploration, in particular).

I'm playing through 2 again (I had started a trilogy playthrough last year before Andromeda came out, and got back into it thanks to this series), and at the moment I would give 2 the edge. I enjoy the gameplay more (with the caveat that I typically prefer shooter gameplay over RPG gameplay), I love the varied cast of characters, and the loyalty missions are some of my favorite moments from the whole trilogy.

Particularly Tali's loyalty mission. Best Paragon interrupt in any of the games.

With this discussion here, I'm really curious to see what Alex's reaction to 2 will be. My guess is he'll like it more, due to the gameplay being better with the controller and it overall being a more polished experience, but we'll see! I do think 1 has a definite charm to it, as evidenced by those who prefer it over 2, and he may really connect with that.

That being said, I'm really enjoying this series, and I'm so glad you guys started doing it! It caused me to both get a year of premium membership and to get back into the Mass Effect trilogy and remind me why I love the series so much in the first place.

If Alex had stayed idle a little bit longer on the dance floor, Shepard would dance.

It's pretty funny how Vinny keeps trying to steer Alex to use his powers more and Alex just ignores it all and shoots dudes because that's all that's needed.

On the ME1 vs 2 debate here, i think both games are excellent and it's really not crazy to like one above the other. ME2 naturally is a more refined game as most sequels tend to be, but the overall story & direction of ME1 is stronger i think. Being able to explore planets and skyrim around in a dune buggy is also something that i'd like to do in a space opera game. Especially when the dune buggy can hop around & fall from rediculous heights.

Just played ME1 on the collection and one of the few changes they made aside from better UI is they made Elanos Heliat into a Turian. Always thought it made no sense that he was a human considering the history in the game