Mass Alex: Mass Effect 3 - Part 13

it felt like a month since the last She shep adventures

check on the fish

Been looking forward to this all week. Granted its only Wednesday.

Have they done Leviathan yet?

They really need to talk to Cortez

I've been waiting my entire life!

@vinny Visiting Anderson's apartment will start the Citadel DLC so you should wait to do that for when you are ready.

(Vinny you should read that 😉)

Again, pay attention to your surroundings. (56:16)

As with the Jack Academy mission, you activated something right in front of you and then turned your back on it and didn't acknowledge it, only to be were very confused as if you never activated anything as it went on.

@gkhan: Agreed on all counts! Also, TALK TO CORTEZ!

Not sure why but Alex seems to be a little gun shy on the scanning. He’ll go get the quest item but leave out other stuff that can be collected for war assets. It shows up top the percentage of things discovered in each system.

@gkhan: I actually disagree about doing any of the Citadel DLC content until the absolute last minute if not after they've beaten the game. I absolutely love that DLC, but the main story is so mad cap and silly that it strains the bounds of canon, imho. I find it to be a perfect send-off to the series and cooldown after the heavy ending, it feels like a fun lost episode or something. And all the activities you do with your crew leading up to the party can be done in one sitting and help contribute to that vibe. Personally I think Alex and Vinny should do the entire DLC as a big party livestream once they've finished the game, but that's just me.

@flstyle: If Alex needs to divide his attention between the game and making fun, insightful commentary, I'd will always prefer he err on the side of the commentary.

@sharkosaur: I can see your point with the tone shift being jarring in the midst of the story but the problem is after game does not line up with the ending at all. Also if they save for playing through in one chunk at the end chances are high that they will miss out on a bunch of content. All character interactions are not available from the start, you get emails about meeting up as you do missions. I think it’s best to start after Horizon, you’ll have all characters by then and can dip in and out until the end. The party should be the last thing done before the point of no return as the morning after scene boarding Normandy is a great send off.

The tonal dissonance of the Citadel DLC is why I rank Shadow Broker slightly higher than it even though Citadel has more content and fanservice by several orders of magnitude.

I can't offer any solutions to that though since it is technically the send-off to the trilogy and it fulfils that purpose just about perfectly

Agree with everyone to not do the Shore leave stuff right now... you'll be missing stuff if you start it now.

It may be the peak dissonance of "The galaxy is on fire, but let's have a party!", but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it and find it a great coda to the series.

I think maybe start the mission chain after the next Priority stuff and save the party until right before the Point of No Return (tm) maybe works best timeline wise.?

@sharkosaur: I agree, mostly because the tone is very different than the rest of the game, Citadel should be left for the end of the series. I think the DLC was built as a send off to the entire franchise, not just the last game, it has a sense of celebration and one last hurrah with characters that the team (and the player) cared about a lot. As such, it has the structure of an OVA or a christmas special, in that none of it feels canon.

There are chances that not all content will be available for Alex, since decisions from here to the end could affect who shows up, at which point I think the best would be to get reactions to videos of the missing content, like they did at the end of Beast in the East.

8.8 lol

The Citadel DLC is best saved for right before the point of no return. For numerous reasons.

@hermes: Citadel content unlocks gradually though, if held till after ending and done in one sitting I’m pretty sure they will miss a chunk of due to not having any missions to break it up. After Horizon is best start imo, all characters will be free up most likely and interactions will have time to be able to unlock gradually up to the point of no return.

Yeah the Citadel DLC I think is best done post game, even if it canonically takes place before the end. The tonal whiplash is strong, and it's best meant to be played as a goodbye to the Mass Effect trilogy.

I always tell my peeps to play Citadel post game. Do the party last. Love or hate the actual ending, Citadel is such a positive way to leave that universe and those characters. Treat it as this weird little self indulgent celebration of everything Mass Effect. It's so damn good. Maybe I should say...

...The best.

@lucidquasar: Going from the strip to the apartment will actually cycle in new interactions and emails with characters like doing a mission would.

Please don’t play the Citadel DLC after the ending.

@crunchynipple: even still, I have a hard time seeing Alex going back and forth to areas just to trigger more of the Citiadel content post game, it’s just not how he plays. Starting towards the back half and finishing with the party just before embarking on the point of no return allows it to unfold naturally is the way it feels it was designed, it’s also a welcome tone shift too before the big climax imo, and if some find it jarring I say a small price to pay to ensure they get the full experience.

“An actual working shower, the faucets in the womens bathroom are rubbish by the way “ Shepard has the only working shower on the Normandy and everyone else is washing themselves in the sink !!!!

Also Shepard has an actual working aquarium and everyone else is washing themselves in the sink !!!!

Mad respect guys, this intro still makes me crack up.

I was panicking for Alex when Shep went rogue and horny. It was pretty clear that playing chess meant PLAYING CHESS!!

what's the deal with alex asking vinny to look up where he's supposed to be going every time he gets a new quest? what's the harm in exploring? weird change from the me2 videos

The Alex-Joker sync at 14:05 made me laugh too hard.

Alex accidentally wandering into romantic situations then narrowly escaping is the best. Mass Effect is so horny, and assumes the player is too, under all circumstances.

Alex is really going to be screwed if he doesn't start paying attention to the War Assets. I played a Ton of the mini-game app just to get myself up, and I doubt that's an option anymore.

@csl316: In fairness the Traynor romance option is pretty poor signalling for a game series that traditionally structures its dialogue option as 'top = paragon/bottom = renegade'. They already fixed it with the romance iconography signposting since Dragon Age II though, so I can only assume there had to be some sort of limitation during development that they wouldn't implement it for Mass Effect 3 (time, engine, budget, etc.)

Also see: Patrick Weeke's incredible twitter thread explaining why the Thane romance dialogue option was Shepard being immediately thirsty after he talks about his dead wife

I played this game for the first time using a mod which automatically started the Citadel DLC after the end credits -- I can't imagine it making sense any other way. It's also a really high note to end on. I wish they'd just installed that mod, cuz now my personal, perfect canon is in jeopardy.

They nerfed the War Asset stuff after people complained about having to play the multiplayer (which is sad, since it's by far the best part of the game). You only need 3100 to max it out now and he's already over 1800. The DLC also added points to make it even easier (Leviathan gives 620 alone). It shouldn't be a problem. Hell, completing a few multiplayer matches would almost have him there already. It'd be great to have an episode trying that out (it's still pretty active), but I don't suppose that's on the cards. It'd also be pointless to do it until near the end anyway, as your readiness decays over time.

Did Alex ever visit Jack on the citadel ? I think usually when you have one off missions with past party members you’ll be able to visit them after.

Can you re-balance the audio going forward? It's hard to hear the game voices unless I blow out my speakers with your audio.

Another thing: I know you're all excited about going to the Citadel, but you should maybe go "Talk to the Quarians" soon! There might be... a certain quarian someone... waiting there. That mission doesn't involve an act break or anything, so you wont miss out on stuff. You should check it out!

Seeing all this again Garus has much more personality than Liara does in this game.

Perfect comic timing on that siren in the background when Shepshep mentioned taking a shower.

@zoofame: See now THIS is beyond nitpicking and one of the BIGGEST FUCKING THINGS that pissed me off about ME3.

I thought I put forth quite the effort to have my male Shep to be

1: Heterosexual

2: monogamous

I spent all the time in the world building and finally consummating my relationship with Tali. ME 2 showed me that for Tali and I it wasn't just that we wanted to bump uglies - we loved one another and that sex, especially for a species as different in biology and as frail as hers, was a sign that we wanted to be together for life.

But fuck that! Here comes ME3 and its like I'm playing a shitty dating sim - everyone wants my dick.

And then there's the

And the way that these people come out of the woodwork and out of nowhere just go "can I have sum fuk"....Like look at the options Alex has at Traynor's line.... what? When? how? Huh? The entire ship knows he's with Liara, its canon...

Alex, I won't say any more than this, but tread very carefully when dealing with the Quarians and Geth.

@seventytwotransformations said:

Not yet, he got the message from her so she'll be at the Citadel next time he's there.

Does anyone hear that humming sound? Hmmm maybe it's just me....

The banshees are probably the hardest common enemy in the game IMO. Every encounter with them is nerve-racking on higher difficulties and the visual and audio design of them makes them feel like they're an enemy out of a horror game. It's like someone from Bioware infiltrated Visceral and stole the assets from a Dead Space game.

I don't remember exactly how 'not having Samara' impacts this mission. I think it's similar enough but without the Paragon decision at the end and you don't get the Samara War Asset. I know that not saving Morinth isn't a big deal and doesn't affect this mission at all. If you save Morinth, then one of the later banshees you fight will have the name 'Morinth' above her health bar. It's kind of an anti-climactic way to find one of your squadmates, but getting her in the first place requires having a pretty high paragon/renegade in ME2 that it's almost like she's a secret character anyway.