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Mass Alex

Mass Alex: Mass Effect - Part 14

Shep Shep rides the lonely space plains in her Mako just trying to make things right in a lonely universe.

There are billions of stories in the universe, so why not play the best one?

Oct. 30 2018

Cast: Vinny, Alex

Posted by: Vinny

In This Episode:

Mass Effect

88 Comments

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Humanity

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I'm loving this high-energy, nearly manic Alex.

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bill_mcneal

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@superjoe: ....and now I have that song stuck in my head

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knuckleberry

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@alex i just watched the first hellraiser yesterday, the daughter totally tries to destroy the puzzle box in a fire but it gets carried away by a demon.

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frytup

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There's a bunch of dead space (no pun intended) from 1:28:21 to the end.

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Calvinball

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@effache said:

Does anyone have the footage of the drone following the race car they were talking about? Sounds really neat and I can't find it (I think) on google.

Loading Video...

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numberThirtyOne

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Edited By numberThirtyOne

This is the correct way to play Mass Effect. There's so much busywork in each of the games, but that's when you do movie talk! Next time there's a pile of planetary surveys to get through, it can be woodworking talk or something. I just muted the game and listened to podcasts during these parts when I played.

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Noobmannnn

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"Fuck the Shadow Broker. Fuck that motherfucker." - Alex

;)

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jackelbeaver

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Clearing up the turn in quest for Citadel:The Fan involves talking to the guy, leaving the citadel, and then talking to him a third time. The payoff is good, especially down the line, but it's really easy to miss the final stretch of his quest in this game.

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Kebrel

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I love these random exploring episodes, this is why ME1 is my personal favorite. Also listen to @jackelbeaverthat quest has some great hooks for later in the series.

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Tennmuerti

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as all ways (best vehicle in videogames):

No Caption Provided

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Kosikutioner

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Hey! Alex, you should try running over Colossus in the Mako. It’s very goofy fun to hit them and then shoot it while it’s down.

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Genji-Gloves

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"Its Raining Geth!"

Loving this series, also listening to Alex I really must get round to watching The Void as it sounds like my kind of horror.

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alex

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Hi everyone. Some people seem very anxious for me to get to Virmire. I am too! But I wanted to make sure I did all the mission cleanup I could do before heading there. Next week we go to the Citadel and do the last handful of side missions. After that, we're heading straight to Virmire. Just wanted to get that out there so people aren't stressing about it next week.

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cyberspacecat

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@alex: We're excited, but by all means take your time, it's just as fun to listen to you two talk about horror films and other weird stuff, exploring barren planets with the Mako is kind of the prime place to do that.

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DavidShade

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I think/hope/assume part of the point of a series like this is to look at the evolution of the games as the series moves forward. I think playing the "bad" parts of ME1 is important for something of this nature if only because we get to see how that's addressed moving forward. The ME series always felt pretty decent about being adaptive game to game and changing the worst parts.

I'll also note that the game that killed the franchise is the one that though it would be a good idea to bring driving around in a stupid truck back.

Sure- shit talk Thresher Maws NOW. You'll change your tune buddy,

I can never tell when Vinnie is slow-rolling Alex or just forgetting stuff. Then I also remember most people thought once or twice was enough for these games.

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HeartbreakRidge

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I like the plot and characters of ME1 but the mechanics and inventory management make this feel like eating your vegetables so you can get to the dessert of ME2/3. Onward!

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goddammitraf

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Edited By goddammitraf

honestly so many of these episodes would be great as podcasts. so much mako.

Also please how do we tell alex to use his abilities in battle more often?? Diversity of weapons and abilities makes it easy and way more fun to play (and watch!)

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Afroofdoom

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All these side missions sure aren't gonna take care of themselves. Godspeed Commander Shep Shep!

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hostyl1

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The quarian homeworld totally still exists. A lot of quarian culture is an expy of Jewish diaspora stuff, down to a lot of toasts and blessings revolving around seeing the homeland again someday.

Interesting. I immediately felt that the Quarians were representative of Roma/Romani culture, particularly the nomadic part. They rapidly became my favorite of the alien species, probably because Tali is just a fantastic character.

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SSJReeko

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Edited By SSJReeko

A heads up regarding Garrus's looping "thank you" dialog, I just played the game and there's actually more to that conversation, but at least one of the dialog options end it early. That's where I believe it acknowledges your choice in his mission, as well as establishes what he plans to do after Saren. I can't remember if you can access the second half of that talk now or if it only opens after more mission worlds, but there's def more to that looping conversation that it doesn't really communicate to you.

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kingyo

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Alex and Vinny on especially great form this week, really enjoyed this one even if it was more of the side stuff. Though I am finding it kind of fascinating from a design point, like Vinny said, it does feel like a real bridge between old bioware and new bioware for better and worse (yay stats, boo quest text pop ups ect.)

@hostyl1 said:
@platzkart said:

The quarian homeworld totally still exists. A lot of quarian culture is an expy of Jewish diaspora stuff, down to a lot of toasts and blessings revolving around seeing the homeland again someday.

Interesting. I immediately felt that the Quarians were representative of Roma/Romani culture, particularly the nomadic part. They rapidly became my favorite of the alien species, probably because Tali is just a fantastic character.

I agree, so I suspect like lots of things in sci-fi it is drawing from a few different references. Also completely agree Tali rules as a character.

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Raven10

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While some of this sidequest stuff can be a bit dull to watch, I think it is very important to do it all to get the full effect of the series as it goes on. So many of those little choices and actions matter in ways you don't expect. It also makes the end game a lot easier. Of course I'm also one of those people who did a "perfect" run where I killed everything using Shepard and not the Mako in order to get to level 50 in a single playthrough so I might just be crazy.

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KnockingNick

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I always knew Tali was a big time sensuality...ok, I'll leave.

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cornbredx

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Edited By cornbredx

I am sorry, but Alex your opinion of the Hellraiser films is so crazy to me. Yes the first 2 Hellraiser are the "best" for whatever that is worth. Much like the first and 7th Nightmare on Elm Street films, they are the most earnest of the Hellraiser films. The third and fourth Hellraiser films (the fourth is about the legacy of the cube itself and why it summons the Cenabites so, in my opinion, it's the slowest- and the backstory behind the cube is stupid) are bad films but for various reasons they are still entirely watchable and fun films.

After that were the direct to video films. Hellraiser Inferno is awesome. It's completely different, but to suggest it's a skippable movie is ludicrous. It's so crazy if you enjoy the Hellraiser films you should watch it. The main character reminds me a lot of Max Payne, too, which was always a plus to me. Hellseeker, the sixth film, is very similar to Inferno but has the return of the original girl in some small way (very very small way but interesting) and stars Dean Winters. These two are both really cool because they are one kind of film and then turn into Hellraiser films over the course of the movie. The twists are completely predictable via the title (because they're Hellraiser movies, you know how it's gonna end), but they're still such fun and clever films it's so insane to me to suggest they are skippable. Don't skip these two movies.

The ones after those two (Deader and Hellworld plus that reboot) you can skip. They became trash at that point. Hellworld is about an MMO so... ya. They got really stupid and less clever at that point. But people should see Hellbound (5) and Hellseeker (6) if they like Hellraiser movies in general. They are really fun films.

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kerse

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I wouldn't worry about getting through the story too fast, some of the side stuff is pretty good (how could you ever forget Wrex saying "the monkey dropped the module"). And I kinda like listening to you guys talk while doing shit in the mako. Its like a mini podcast.

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Edited By LeraA

Cool, thanks for the new episode! Also, I love all the side quests you are doing. I'm glad you are taking your time.

After watching and hearing @alex say he'd do some inventory management later, I wanted to mention how I always do it: go down to the lockers in the bottom floor area, right next to Ashley. You can open each character's inventory screen and equip everyone with the best stuff you have. Take care of getting everyone prepared with the up-to-date equipment all at once. Then go over to the store guy and sell or turn stuff to omni gel. Then you are cleaned out, everyone is well-equipped, and no more warnings.

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Geralt

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I was just thinking that this week episode is kinda boring...and then the Geth drop...

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CurrySpiced

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I'm so glad Alex is exploring, if he wasn't we may have never gotten Geth raining down on the Mako.

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jarp12

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I just wanted to call attention to Vinny’s Nickelodeon’s “Doug” reference “ooh eee ohh, Killer tofu.”

That is all.

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cyberspacecat

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Edited By cyberspacecat

Aw, no Mass Effect this week?
Never mind, saw one announced hours later <3

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Max_Cherry

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Alex is the geth Will Rogers.

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Ponyexpress

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Really enjoyed the energy in this one.

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gbrading

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Edited By gbrading

It was great when the Geth Colossus dropped right on top of the Mako. I remember thinking the Geth base side mission was too drawn out for a relatively minor reward.

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Edited By Undeadpool

Based on a ton of people getting angry about changes in Mass Effect 2, I'd say Vinny's sarcastic comment about people loving the awful inventory management wasn't ENTIRELY off...

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@jarp12 said:

Jarp12

I just wanted to call attention to Vinny’s Nickelodeon’s “Doug” reference “ooh eee ohh, Killer tofu.”

That is all.

I'm so glad someone else caught that! I haven't heard that song/episode in over 20 years, but instantly knew what Vinny was referencing! so good. (@ ~15:00)

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jarp12

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@allaniceman:

AllanIceman

@jarp12 said:

Jarp12

I just wanted to call attention to Vinny’s Nickelodeon’s “Doug” reference “ooh eee ohh, Killer tofu.”

That is all.

I'm so glad someone else caught that! I haven't heard that song/episode in over 20 years, but instantly knew what Vinny was referencing! so good. (@ ~15:00)

Cheers!

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I had Wrexham and Garis everything I left the Normandy. Watching this series has really made me want to go back to Dragon Age: Origins so bad.