@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.

@rebgav said:

You may have lost out on Miranda's dialog but her most prominent features are still around.

Tell me that camel-toe is 'shopped.

This was a good read. I also ascribed to the 'one playthrough only' philosophy where Mass Effect was concerned, since the game is all about my choices, I wanted to make them and stick with them, no re-playing if it didn't all go to plan, no consulting guides and faqs to get the best ending. I guess I got pretty lucky, losing only Zaeed, Ashley, and Legion throughout the first two games. Then ME3 went all Harry Potter on me and a lot more people randomly died but still, by the end of it (awful ending aside), I felt like it had been my own unique Mass Effect adventure, and that's the one thing I'll always remember most fondly about the series.

oh im sorry, i thought patrick was "the news guy". not the "blog post guy" my bad. i just sorta expected the news guy to, you know, report news, and theres plenty of news to be reported, but isntead! hey! lets read a blogpost from patrick! yay!

geesh and people wonder why i havent subbed.

Sucks when girls run out of dialogue.
 
I have no time at all for Miranda, so you can have mine if you like.

I wish I could say I played through the suicide mission only once but I didn't. I felt absolutely cheated by their seemingly arbitrary outcomes and my favorite character in the entire game paid the price. I think it came down to choosing a biotic in which there are multiple choices that should get the job done based on how they have laid out these characters earlier on in the game. I sent Miranda as my biotic specialist, which over the course of the game it is beaten into you how she has been designed before birth to be the creme of the crop in every aspect of her being including her biotic abilities. Apparently though that wasn't the case. Because of that, and because they made no justification as to why my particular choice failed over the other I felt okay to re-do it.

Got everyone through on the first go, but I'd probably have gone back just in case I'd lost anyone. I do have a save from my Insanity run where I think Jack and Tali bought it, might boot that up again sometime.

I'd heard things about the suicide mission, and so, on my first run-through (which was on Insanity xd), made sure I wrapped everything up before passing the point of no return. No one was lost.

Legion died on my Mass Effect 2 save :( That made the Quarian/Geth war in Mass Effect 3 quite difficult..

that's so sad:( i remained my relationship with Miranda throughout mass effect 3, can't image my mass effect world without her.

it's kind of cool to have a game make you care so much about a virtual character. and judging bye the comments here a lot of people have different opinions about them as well.

I think I lose one dude, that lizard looking guy.. I think thats it? I had that same mentality too, one run and a legit run that I would take with me to the next game no matter who lived or died.

It's always weird to me when people talk about the characters they lost on their first attempt at the Suicide Mission. I remember the first time I did it, I was nervous every time I picked a character for a task, I was afraid I was sending each of them to their death, but at the same time I didn't have any outside information so I always thought to myself "There's no way they would let EVERYONE die is there?"

I knew my crew as I had talked to each of them as much as I could and made my decisions based on what I knew about them, making sure I picked each person I thought would do the job best. In the end, everyone survived, which seems to be an uncommon outcome with people I've talked to since in my discussion with friends about ME3 they are always mentioning the crew mates they lost on the suicide mission.

I'll never know that sense of loss because I did it right the first time, so I know of at least one ideal way to survive it. I've done a later run where I intentionally got several of my crew killed but it's not quite the same, since I did it on purpose to see what happens. It's strange that I feel kind of disappointed by this when I should be pumped I was an awesome leader and got my team out in one piece. Although I guess I kind of am.

@BrockNRolla said:

@rudyarr said:

@Clonedzero said:

this is not your damn blog patrick wtf

don't be a douchebag. Don't read it then

I kept waiting to read some type of "News." Instead, it was just a blog post, which, correct me if I'm wrong, are a thing you can do on this site. Sorry to say, but this doesn't constitute an article Patrick. It's cool to write something up like this, but calling it an "article" is deceptive.

ar·ti·cle

(ärt-kl)n.1. An individual thing or element of a class; a particular object or item: an article of clothing; articles of food.

2. A particular section or item of a series in a written document, as in a contract, constitution, or treaty.

3.A nonfictional literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication, as of a newspaper or magazine.

Know what words mean before accusing people of dishonesty.

I always find it bemusing when I hear that people had squad mates that died. Don't you just need to upgrade the ship and have everyones loyalty and then put them in charge of the right jobs?

The first time I played I got everyone through, mostly because of dumb luck and my habit of running around with Mordin and Grunt. I decided to play through the first two games again before playing the third and I'm debating on whether killing some squadmates off to make a more interesting story. The question is if I can do it without feeling like I'm doing in on purpose.

I'm in the exact same place. I LOVED Kasumi and thought she was one of the most well-written characters in the game, but I lost her in the suicide mission. Which is weirdly heart-wrenching, but also something I've very deliberately chosen to live with.

Like, I straight up don't get people who couldn't be happy unless their whole squad survived. I think doing that misses the point. And if you look at the "Suicide Mission Flowchart" that ME2 fans came up with to determine who lives and who dies, you'll notice that it's pretty much completely inscrutable. Which is great! Real death is pretty much inscrutable too. That system is way more interesting and more realistic than "loyal = lives, unloyal = dies," but if you remember, there were people (Brad among them) who were frustrated by how out-of-their-control the whole thing felt for them. They found themselves asking "Why? Why did Mordin have to die?" Which, appropriately, is probably roughly like how you'd react a real friend of yours passed away who was that good at singing.

So, Patrick: I feel you, dude. I'm a little bummed that a video game character I liked is permanently and consequentially dead, and I think that's fucking awesome. At the very least, I think doing into ME3 with a "perfect save" would be boring as hell.

My roommate and I came up with a rule. You get two untouchables and everyone else was fair game. Mine was Garrus and Mordin, his was Garrus and Tali. I lost Zaeed, he lost Mordin and Grunt.

I broke up with her in 3. She cried and I and I feel kind of bad about it. At least she isn't dead though.

@dezvous said:

I wish I could say I played through the suicide mission only once but I didn't. I felt absolutely cheated by their seemingly arbitrary outcomes and my favorite character in the entire game paid the price. I think it came down to choosing a biotic in which there are multiple choices that should get the job done based on how they have laid out these characters earlier on in the game. I sent Miranda as my biotic specialist, which over the course of the game it is beaten into you how she has been designed before birth to be the creme of the crop in every aspect of her being including her biotic abilities. Apparently though that wasn't the case. Because of that, and because they made no justification as to why my particular choice failed over the other I felt okay to re-do it.

That sounds fantastic. Shephard beleived that she could do it, that due to her being designed to be flawless, she would be able to handle the task at hand. Well, when the push comes to shove, it turns out Miranda isn't quite as good as she told herself she was.

This is great. I'd go so far to say it was deliberate. You picked her thinking that she should be able to do it, despite having two other powerful biotics with you. Her death there is an "oh shit" moment in a suicide mission. She was wrong and she paid the price for it. Suicide mission, man.

It's the terrible way games have drilled into us that we need a perfect ending that means people are replaying the suicide mission. I lost Jack and Mordin, and now they don't show up in my ME3, but fuck it's awesome, because they died because of calls that Shephard felt were right at the time. Nothing about doing a perfect run of ME2 sounds interesting to me.

Since I romanced Jack, Miranda decided to be a bitch about their confrontation, and not having full paragon, was unable to side with Jack, but take Miranda down lightly. I realized since she was acting this way, and ostensibly, being a total bitch to a girl who was tortured and abused by [Miranda's] parent company for years, I didn't want to keep her around. Unfortunately, she took Mordin down with her. 
 
I hate that bitch.

@Clonedzero said:

oh im sorry, i thought patrick was "the news guy". not the "blog post guy" my bad. i just sorta expected the news guy to, you know, report news, and theres plenty of news to be reported, but isntead! hey! lets read a blogpost from patrick! yay!

geesh and people wonder why i havent subbed.

I'd like to think that Giant Bomb allow all their employees a degree of creative freedom. Why can't a reporter write very personal and opinionated editorials on a site that has individuality and personality at it's core? This is not a new phenomenon.

A very well written piece here. I lost Thane and had to go back just to save him, after telling myself over and over again that he was gone, I couldn't accept it. I feel like I've cheated myself now and know that if I see him in ME3 it just won't be the same.

@RoboRobb: because ass & boobs

Great article. And it's worth mentioning that despite the fact many of us take issue with some aspects of the Mass Effect franchise, the team at BioWare did an exceptional job developing a gaming universe we clearly care about. Once Brad gets his Shepard off that damn flash drive record a spoiler cast!

@thebigJ_A said:

@BrockNRolla said:

@rudyarr said:

@Clonedzero said:

this is not your damn blog patrick wtf

don't be a douchebag. Don't read it then

I kept waiting to read some type of "News." Instead, it was just a blog post, which, correct me if I'm wrong, are a thing you can do on this site. Sorry to say, but this doesn't constitute an article Patrick. It's cool to write something up like this, but calling it an "article" is deceptive.

ar·ti·cle

(ärt-kl)n.1. An individual thing or element of a class; a particular object or item: an article of clothing; articles of food.

2. A particular section or item of a series in a written document, as in a contract, constitution, or treaty.

3.A nonfictional literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication, as of a newspaper or magazine.

Know what words mean before accusing people of dishonesty.

How did I know someone would pull out a dictionary and pretend like that was important?

If you click on the "News" tab of the website, you get all the "Articles." If you look on this first page, everything that pops up will be an announcement, recent event, or interview. While there are 3,966 results on the site, and I don't want to check through all of them, the first 10 pages of article listings have nothing remotely comparing to what this "article" contained. Ergo, it is deceptive to call a random musing an "Article" given the history of this site.

I lost nobody in the suicide mission. It was shit, losing someone would have created more drama but that's not the way it played out :(

How the hell do you even manage to lose anyone? Seems harder to do that than to have everyone survive.

The only person I lost was Kelly Chambers and I honestly didn't know she could be saved, so all my "Shepard guilt" dreams were extremely barren other than her lone voice.

And how can you lose Tali? Miranda I can understand, but Tali's a full-on character in 3. Are you short an engineer character, or is she replaced by her sister Sali in the game?

Talking about yourself in the third person there is super weird, Patrick.

I lost Mordin my first play though and immediately paused and reloaded. Not happening on my watch. I probably should have let it happen though. Would have given it more weight. But I knew these guys would be back for 3 and I wanted them to be there. If that mission was the end of the trilogy I would have just let it ride out since I would have had no chance of seeing them again anyway. I like the way the characters can live or die in 3 a lot more. Some many variables, some you have no control of anymore.

Also that third person stuff. Never do that again. I know I mentioned it being weird already but seriously. Seriously.

@Nottle: Mordin could die for semi-random reasons if you didn't have him escort the crew back. I had to replay the mission to fix that.

I didn't lose anyone my first time through and somehow all these people talking about their gut-wrenching emotional torment when THEY did makes me feel bad about being a good Shepard.

What.

Screw the Miranda haters, she was sooo much more interesting than generic ass Ashley. Im just disappointed that the ME2 characters don't have much to do in ME3

I honestly forget who died on my first ME2 game; either mordin or thane I forget

That's how I felt about my playthrough. A one time deal. However when I loaded up 3 I discovered that my clear save wasn't there. I replayed the end of ME2 and tried to replicate the deaths of Tali, Jack and Thane as had originally happened but could only get Tali to die.

I was kind of glad that it worked out that way because I really enjoyed Thane and his arc in 3 was something that I would have regretted not seeing

I'm guilty of reloading my save to keep Mordin alive. It didn't help that the suicide mission was bound to the "No Man Gets Left Behind" achievement either.

@Tiwi said:

@RoboRobb said:

@phrosnite said:

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

because boobs?

No... because ass.

No, because boobs AND ass!

@BrockNRolla said:

@thebigJ_A said:

@BrockNRolla said:

@rudyarr said:

@Clonedzero said:

this is not your damn blog patrick wtf

don't be a douchebag. Don't read it then

I kept waiting to read some type of "News." Instead, it was just a blog post, which, correct me if I'm wrong, are a thing you can do on this site. Sorry to say, but this doesn't constitute an article Patrick. It's cool to write something up like this, but calling it an "article" is deceptive.

ar·ti·cle

(ärt-kl)n.1. An individual thing or element of a class; a particular object or item: an article of clothing; articles of food.

2. A particular section or item of a series in a written document, as in a contract, constitution, or treaty.

3.A nonfictional literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication, as of a newspaper or magazine.

Know what words mean before accusing people of dishonesty.

How did I know someone would pull out a dictionary and pretend like that was important?

If you click on the "News" tab of the website, you get all the "Articles." If you look on this first page, everything that pops up will be an announcement, recent event, or interview. While there are 3,966 results on the site, and I don't want to check through all of them, the first 10 pages of article listings have nothing remotely comparing to what this "article" contained. Ergo, it is deceptive to call a random musing an "Article" given the history of this site.

Oh my fucking tits stop wasting your life getting pedantic about a video game website and go paint some trees or something what is wrong with you fucking people.

oh im sorry, i thought patrick was "the news guy". not the "blog post guy" my bad. i just sorta expected the news guy to, you know, report news, and theres plenty of news to be reported, but isntead! hey! lets read a blogpost from patrick! yay!

geesh and people wonder why i havent subbed.

I find it insane that anyone could actually miss Miranda, she was easily the worst of the core characters in ME2.

Hated that bitch.

My issue with Mass Effect 2's deaths is they had little impact. Oh didn't upgrade your ship with an utterly pointless item at the time? Someone dies. Hell, several people can die as soon as you start the final mission. There's no BIG "holy shit" moment it's just "oh yep, another one died, great...reload".

The suicide mission as a concept was broken from the start. Bioware probably worried that everyone would be incredibly angry at having characters die at the end, so they undercut the whole thing by letting you know from the get-go 'everyone is going to die unless you actually play the whole game'. And even that's a flawed premise; in order to get a more "interesting" ending, as Patrick puts it, you have to deliberately not play certain parts of the game. And the whole choosing how to use your crew thing at the end was so awkwardly telegraphed, it was almost impossible not to see how you were 'supposed' to do it, especially because they made sure you knew beforehand that it could result in character deaths. Bioware wanted to do something gutsy, but didn't actually have the guts to follow through with it.

@Japanese_Prawn: thats all well and good, im not against opinion pieces and the such. its just patrick is the NEWS GUY. theres alot of news. i see no news articles. then i see patrick writing a very bloggy article? i love giant bomb, its just a shame when i'm forced to go to other sites because patrick is too busy writing about how miranda died in his ME2 playthrough instead of covering the news like he's supposed to.

Your ME3 playthrough will be significantly diminished without Tali. Personally, I lost a squadmate in the suicide mission and restarted it. I didn't want to miss out on any content in ME3. Which, in retrospect, would've happened if I didn't redo the mission.

I find myself really attached to Miranda and Garrus. I regard Garrus as a serious OG in my party and he goes with me on most missions. Good Article, Patrick

Miranda annoyed me to no end. She was such a thinly veiled sex doll. Hated her almost as much as I hate Jessica Chobot's bulldog-faced visage being in Mass Effect 3.

@Master_Funk said:

Screw the Miranda haters, she was sooo much more interesting than generic ass Ashley. Im just disappointed that the ME2 characters don't have much to do in ME3

Agreed, Ashley was a space racist in the first game so I never really liked her.

Wow, Miranda and Tali were dead for you? I wonder how ME3 plays out with those characters dead because they are pretty major players in ME3's story.

I had the intention of making the suicide mission a one time deal too... Added a lot of gravitas to every decision I made in the game and especially in that mission. Fortunately, I ended up with a "all survive" result almost by chance, but I totally agree with Patrick choice.

Right there with you, Patrick. I never reload saves in these kinds of games, unless it's just out of curiosity to see what could have happened, but I will immediately reload my original choice save after messing around. However, because I didn't read any guides online, or really anything before going into the Mass Effect 2 final fight, I didn't even realize that decisions I took could get people killed. I just assumed that because I upgraded everything on the ship, and did all the loyalty missions, that there wouldn't be a problem. When I finished the game the first time, I did so with Mordin getting killed somehow. After realizing that this was possible, and the dumb decision that I made earlier on when forming teams, I replayed that save and saved everyone on my second try.

Do a feel a tad guilty for reloading the save? Sure. But I also didn't focus much on my saves because I trusted in what I thought was a given game mechanic, which was dumb. I've learned now that I really do need to play the ME series as if I was really there calling the shots, because I've learned that practically anything can happen. Unfortunately, due to the usual ME corrupted save issues, I have to replay ME2 (after importing my save from ME1) so that I can import my character to ME3. I'm actually making slightly different decisions this time around, stuff that I didn't do on my initial playthrough. Oh well.

Good for you, Patrick. I followed the same thinking as you. I also lost Miranda, but it just felt like it would be wrong to go back and get the best ending, especially knowing that the story wasn't complete. If ME2 were the end of the story, I might have considered it, but it just felt like these were the consequences I had to live with to the end of the series.

When I finished ME2, I really wanted to play it again, but I didn't want to tarnish the experience until it was complete. When I'm done with ME3, I might play the whole series again, but I know it won't be as compelling as this first, incredible experience has been.

I like the Miranda character, she's pretty cold at first, only concerned with her mission, but as you learn more about her you see why she turned out this way and it really makes you feel for her. I haven't finished ME2, but I can easily see why people would have an affection toward her. The character interactions are probably the only thing driving me through ME2, if only the combat was good.