Mass Alex: Mass Effect - Part 02

The opening to these videos make me gasp.

it's been long enough that i don't remember a LOT about the sidequests and hell most of the main quest in ME or 2, but i'm glad i can watch em again with GB

Man I miss RPG Bioware. I liked the combat in ME3 a lot, but I desperately missed all of these side quests and interactions. I guess by the 3rd game in the trilogy the world-building aspect isn't as needed, but MAN watching this has made me want to get back in myself.

Alex, never stop fucking with Avina.

So excited about this series, love how Alex and Vinny are playing this.

@robaota: word. I hope it goes BI-Weekly. This thing could technically go over a year with E3, GOYT and life before even touching mass effect 2.

I'm ready for more Mass Alexx.

are you playing the dlc??

I dunno. Mass Effect 1 is, like, 30 hours or something, depending on how many sidequests you do? Something like that anyway. With two hours per episode, it's like 15-20 episodes to finish it.

Still though: YES PLEASE GO BIWEEKLY (meaning two per week!). MASS EFFECT FUCKING RULES.

Spaaaaaaaaace.

Edit: Vinny dropping the first "I should go" hit my brain like some kind of ASMR. I'm truly back in Mass Effect now.

'Avina' totally sounds like a dietary supplement.

WOOOHHOOOO!!!next episode!GO GB!

The biggest disappointment with this series is that we are only getting one hit per week. I have a feeling this series is gonna be LONG

yes and yes and voted yes

Alex wanting to be friends with the Keepers sure is something with me knowing where things go in the later games.

EDIT: ALEX GETS THAT KAIDAN SUCKS!!!!!

I enjoyed the length of this episode. It felt like a lot happened and it made me feel like having an Episode a week won´t feel like such a painful wait.

Mass Effect 1 was the only one I played, and I only made it maybe a third of the way through the game. The citadel stuff in the beginning, with all the interesting races and their history was my favorite part.

Loving this series so far! Appreciate that Alex is diving headlong into the lore and conversations that made ME1 so good.

God, I forgot about the Consort. And so did BioWare, thankfully. The parts of Mass Effect where they leaned into the shittier tropes of sci-fi are the absolute lamest. The volus were the first time I ever noticed that "very short and physically weak species obsessed with money" was maybe a bad look!

The morality meters (paragon/renegade) are separate in ME1 and ME2 and don't affect each other. It changed into a single bar in ME3.

The whole min-maxing aspect of it is indeed stupid so it's a good thing there's a very easy glitch on Noveria where you can easily max out either or both bars to make all options available. I think there was one in ME2 too but can't rememeber off the top of my head as ME2 felt more generous with morality points and I didn't really need to glitch it in my recent playthrough.

Walking around the Citadel for the first time and just learning about the different alien races was maybe the most memorable part of the entire trilogy for me. So many cool designs.

If Alex likes the Elcor now, I can't wait to see his response in ME2 when he encounters a certain Elcor play...

I got called into a private meeting with the Asari Consort and all I got was this lousy sidequest

You can avoid the long elevators around the Citadel by using the transport terminals to get around instead. The elevators are hard coded to be a certain length to fit the conversations that happen in them, the loading screen triggered by the transport terminals don't have this issue.

Also the Normandy elevator doesn't have this problem either, and will finish almost instantly, since it doesn't have a hard coded duration due to no conversations taking place in it. They fixed that one.

Please tell me Alex eventually looks in the journal tab at some point, I’m dying.

best game ever (and 2)

That's it. I'm buying the trilogy again on PC. I'll just get used to playing with keyboard and mouse.

It's a cool series they are doing. I just wish they didn't feel they had to have some kind of action sequences in every episode. The heart of Mass Effect is building relationships with others and learning about the universe. That is definitely why it's so captivating after all these years so I guess the audience would understand if multiple episodes were just Shep Shep talking to other folks.

@robaota: Bi-daily**

And to think, I was kind of bummed when it was going to be "just" Alex and Vinny. Now, I'm thinking of this more like a "chill with Alex and Vinny" segment, and I am OKAY WITH THAT. Plus, it helps they're playing one of the best series to ever grace video games. I really hope Alex does the side mission set on Earth's moon. A personal favorite of mine.

Of all my gripes about ME:A, the strongest was how boring the new alien species were.

Man, I really don't know if I can handle Shep Shep's hair. That bun is so tight that I start getting stressed out in every conversation.

oh man that Citadel music

I absolutely love the enthusiasm here. It gives me Metal Gear Scanlon vibes. Vinny is soooo giddy at being able to show someone Mass Effect for the first time (the way Dan was with MGS) and Alex is eagerly gobbling up all of the dialog options and the rich lore with an audible grin. These are my favorite kinds of features.

I do sorta wish folks would stop whinging about the title of this series. We're all in agreement that it sucks but it really doesn't matter and the comments just bring down the discussion. Besides, the dopiness of such an unimaginative and clunky name feels very Alex to me, and I mean that with all the love in the Citadel.

The Elcor and Hanar are my favorite alien races in the Mass Effect series

I am not sure about some of the textures. Especially faces. Looks weird at moment. But at the same time - I never mod my games and like them vanilla

That is a fucking amazing intro.

RIP Richard Leroy Jenkins @alex@vinny

If you guys are up for it and have the time I would love a short podcast of codex talk after Alex spends some time with it. I wanna hear some of his thoughts on the "minutia" it goes into about the early events that led humans into the wider galaxy.

Edit: To keep inline with the very good naming convention, call it All Systems Alex.

Alex having to choose between Kaiden or Ashley, with Vinny "hmm-ing" in the background.

@seventytwotransformations said:

Aiden might be boring, but Ashley fucking suuucks.

Great episode and @alex please take all the time you need when talking to people in the game and reading stuff it's so great to have someone who takes their time with it all.

Not a bad word about Dan, but i think his playthrough would be somewhat diffrent than your's :)

Can't wait for the next episode of Mass Alex.

Another lovely episode. Replayed the whole trilogy last year and, after being a ME1 die-hard, I came around to thinking ME2 shades it. The atmosphere in ME1 is unsurpassed (that big, wide, spooky galaxy) but the storytelling in ME2 in sidequests and companion quests is AMAZING. The DLC is phenomenal, too. Sure, the main storyline is a bit choppy compared to the first's clean, standard sci-fi hero story, but I love the Cerberus and dirtbag galaxy aspects of the second game. Even the switch from that cold blue palette to the sinister reds and yellows.

As for the third game? Hmm. Felt to me like they tried to give people all the things they missed from ME1 and lost all the texture and fun of 2. Plus, the ongoing war stuff made any sort of exploration or sidequesting feel weird. Also, those Godawful dream sequences.

Anyhow. I LOVE the Mass Effect series and this is brilliant.

I really like this feature. Please do all three games. And the DLC!

Mass Effect 1 rules.

@cyberspacecat: I like her because she "sucks." She carries the weight of her name and has to work through not only the prejudice that comes with it and the internalized shame, but also the way her family history has warped her mindset.

I'm Commander Shepherd and this is my favourite series on Giantbomb.

That blue lady sure knows how to advertise her goods, and that slow walk while the camera focus on her rear, sure seems like I have seen it before on a cutscene from either DA:O or DA:II.

I picked up Mass effect but had to put it down because i don't really like the gameplay, so I'm mostly watching this show to both learn the story and make slight comparisons with Dragon Age game, which I have played to completion

This series rules. Please take all the time you want for lore and info dump stuff. The worldbuilding is one fo the greatest thing in the games.

This is great, thank you!

Would love to see more than one episode of this series per week. Really enjoying Alex and Vinny's co-commentary.

@alex don't be afraid of stopping, staring, looking and...taking in...some of the scenery, you totally missed the huge evil ship doing a cool thing in episode one, and you also whizzed right by the perfect view they set up for you inside the Citadel!