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ghostxofxartemis · 3 years ago

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Writing-tag

I’ve been tagged by both @zet-sway and @rosenkow, thank you both dearly! Sorry it took so long to post this.

Tagging: @illusivesoul, @nightmarestudio606, @staff-lieutenant-alenko, @lyrishadow, @bardofheartdive and whoever wants to partake, just tag me so I can see! No obligations! (sorry, this tag was going on like last week, I don’t know who got tagged and who didn’t).

How many works do you have on AO3?

So far 13 (technically more because there is one work that’s a multitude of one shots for John, which has 2 chapters so a that brings it to a true total of 15),

What’s your total AO3 word count?

42,174.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In Order:

1. Midnight Rannoch, M!Shenko

2. Reignite, M!Shepley

3. A Night Out On The Town, ShepShep

4. Addendum: A Collection of Short Stories, M!Shepley (that’s the one-shots mentioned above.)

5. A Night’s Gather, M!Shepley

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! I take the time to read them, especially if they are heart warming comments, and it feels amazing to have my work validated, not going to lie since most of my stuff seems to be uninteresting to most it seems? And I absolutely love to reply back!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t have an angsty ending yet, but Reignite, is angsty throughout the whole thing because it takes place during ME2 and I hurt myself while writing it, and I’m quite proud of that.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Till Death Do Us Part. It is as it sounds my M!Shepley get married post-war.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the strangest one you’ve written?

Nope.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

So far have had nothing but pleasant comments. Seems like people have sticked to “don’t like it, just move on” for now.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No doiiii. Of Course I do!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nah.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

My all time favorite is Shepley. Okay, hear me out before you all start ripping my head off. I started playing Mass Effect in 2007, yes fourteen years ago. There was only ME1 at the time, and if you were playing as BroShep you only had t he choice between Ashley and Liara, and If you were playing FemShep you had Kaidan and Liara (back didn’t I was not a fan of femshep, I seriously only started playing as femshep two or three years ago). I wasn’t a fan of Liara, I found her very pushy and obsessive; I liked Ash, she’s tough, funny, and altogether very similar to me in the tomboy-kind-of-way and so I stuck with her. M!Shenko was not a thing yet. ME2 came along three years later and I wasn’t really a fan of any of the other female crewmates, I chose Miranda but at the time I didn’t like her (She’s grown on me and now I like her).

So Ended Up Loyal To Ashley.

ME3 came along in 2012 and MShenko was now a thing. They became my next Ship, but only recently, and along side with playing as Leah, F!Shenko as well. So there you have it. That is why I am very attached to Shepley.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don’t plan on not finishing any so far? they just might take a while to be posted? If ever because adulting is hard and takes so much time.

What are your writing strengths?

I really don’t know to be honest. I’m still new to this and have a lot to learn/master, and with such little comments to go on from it’s hard to say if anyone is enjoying my stories other than my beta, haha.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Combat! It’s hard to describe the movement, the layout, the actions themselves. But working on it.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I am bilingual, I can easily write French dialogue but choose not too,

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Never posted or shared, but I’m a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, and Xbox had a DND game (I’m talking original xbox here) and I really liked the game so I had written a fanfic mixing the two slightly.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Oof. I have to chose? I’ll pick two.

Reignite this all started with just a prompt too.

Happy Birthday, Shepard.

#writing tag #zet-sway #ghost writes #ghostxofxartemis #fanficcing with friends

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berryshiara · 4 years ago

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Mass Effect Tag!

Tagged by @pip-n-flinx, & @joking611 thanks! :)

@1esk19, @dr-jekyl, @inquartata30 @keelime-art @maskydoolovesmasseffect @maskydoo-main if you have done these, please link me i missed it! <3

I am a fan since: I actually don’t remember when my fangirling began. It started a long time ago, but i wasnt able to play for a very long time because i could not play a shooter with a gamepad. My best friend was the one who suggested i try it with keyboard and mouse probably like 3or 4 years ago, and iv never looked back. :)

Favorite game of the series: Its hard for me to say. I have trouble with things like time, and order. Picking out pieces of a greater whole, i love the story. I love the story arcs. All together it was wonderful. Is wonderful.

Mshep or Fshep?: FemShep forever. I’ve never played as mshep. <I didnt change this from Joking haha. Same.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer? I played earthborn so far. But i dont really have a favorite. Just things i havent thought about yet.

Biotics or Tech? I always went as the infiltrator so it meant no biotics. But in multiplayer I love playing biotics. They are awesome.

Paragon or Renegade? Paragon for the most part, but i have a few renegade points in there too. Someties ya just gotta push the button, or shoot the camera hahahaah.

Favorite class: Infiltrators, i like being sneaky.

Favorite companion: Liara - she has so much growth, i love it.

Least favorite companion: I dont have a least favorite, honestly. I believe they had greater potential that was not used, but thats life. We all have that portential, and as a fanfiction writer and reader of fanfiction you can read some good things out there. Or even write some good things. So its all about perspective.

My squad selection: ME1 is mostly Wrex/Liara. ME2 is Grunt/Mordin. ME3 Liara/James. I get people who usually help where i am weakest. As an infiltraiter i need people who do crowd control and stand in the rain.

Favorite in-game romance: Liara

Favorite NPC: Samantha Traynor - shes super cute. Bray, he gets all the crap but i like him a lot. Aria - she frightens me and fires me up. haha. I love her pirate persona and her banter. And at the end if you play it right shes like you truly are a dangerous person shepard. XD

Favorite Antagonist: General Oleg and Cerberus in general. They are a good theme throughout the series. That drive you to investigate, and right wrongs. I like that a lot. On both counts. When you love to hate something then they did a good job making a bad guy.

Favorite loyalty mission: Aria’s mission to Omega was my favorite. That might not count as a loyalty mission but it is what it is. I liked jacks mission too just saying...

Favorite mission: The Citadel DLC ofc. I loved being dropped out of a fish tank into the seedy backstreets of the citadel until liara comes to find me :3

Favorite DLC: The shadow broker, the omega, and the citadel. But honestly I replayed the Omega DLC a billion times, and still do. :)

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: Destroy. Shepard survives! < again joking says it best.

Favorite weapon: In game it was the black widow and or the executioner, in multiplayer its the Cerberus Harrier hands down.

Favorite place: Omega or Thessia I really wish we got to see more of it.

Favourite Quote: "You truly are a dangerous person, Shepard.” Aria “It has a fare meter!” Liara. XD “I am yours.” Liara (ADDED QUESTON) The thing I like the least about the entire franchise: The “fans” who have nothing but bad things to say... shame on you.

#mass effect #wonderful story #i was never the same #About berry

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theoriginalladya · 4 years ago

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Everything under "General" for Caleb and Kaidan. :)

from this list

ROFL So, I’ve got you hooked on them too??? ;)

Okay, let’s see here ...

1. Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go?

Flip a coin. Technically, you could say Kaidan ‘initiated’ it because he was tasked with bringing Caleb’s belongings off the SSV London to him at the hospital on Arcturus when the ship docked a couple months after Akuze. On the other hand, Caleb is the one who insists on buying him a drink after they leave the hospital and he is heading to catch a shuttle back to Earth to Rio for ICT. So, yeah, six-and-one-half-dozen-of-the-other. They stay in contact after that, but not very often, until they end up on the SR1 together.

As for how it went? There wasn’t a whole lot of time for much to happen: just enough to get a round of drinks and for Caleb to toast to Kaidan’s health, down it and rush off to catch his flight. (okay, maybe they have a FEW minutes to chat :P ) Pretty unremarkable, actually. Like I said, they do stay in touch, run into each other a couple of times in the intervening years, and little by little they get to know one another better. By the time they get to the SR1, they have a decent understanding of the other; grounds to call one another ‘friends’ and not just ‘acquaintances’.

Now, if you’re talking a more personal relationship? That happens once the war starts. Post Clone-Incident, Kaidan stops by the apartment to pick up something he left behind, he and Caleb have a beer together, talk, and “stuff” happens. By “stuff” I mean Caleb let’s Kaidan know he’s interested, Kaidan lets Caleb know he’s interested and .. well ... yeah. There ya go. :P

2. Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?

answered here

3. What was their first kiss like?

Let’s see if this answers the question:

He forces himself to step closer until only a few inches separate them. Cautiously, he searches Kaidan’s face, finds nothing but encouragement and support. He hesitates one last time, running a hand through his hair. “Kaidan, I –.”

The smile widens, perhaps a hint of smugness in it but nothing ill-intentioned, as he replies, “Your call, Shepard. We’ll do this however you want or not at all.”

Your call. The suggestion leaves Caleb shuddering, his eyes closing tight. He knows. By all that’s holy, he KNOWS. “Stay,” he rasps, pleadingly. It’s all he can manage.

Warmth tickles along his cheek as Kaidan trails his fingers along his jaw. Caleb cannot stop himself from leaning toward the touch. “You’re sure?” Kaidan breathes.

“Yes.”

In less than a heartbeat, Kaidan closes the distance, his lips covering Caleb’s. His touch is slow but sure, gentle but firm, and Caleb’s chest tightens. Awkwardly, he wraps an arm around his shoulders, tugging him closer, unable or unwilling to release him. Time losing meaning until Kaidan breaks the kiss. Both of them, Caleb notices immediately, have trouble catching their breath, and in Kaidan’s eyes he sees curiosity as he waits …

4. Were they each other’s first anything (kiss, relationship, etc.)?

The only ‘first’ involved for them is that falling in love with Kaidan is the first time that Caleb realizes he is bisexual. Now, love as a teenager is far different from love as an adult, and what he feels for Kaidan is far more than anything he’s ever felt before, so in a sense Kaidan is his ‘first’ real love, but he did care for Ciara and Moira, too, in his own way, and he wouldn’t cheapen that. Basically, they are each other’s ‘only’ from the moment they decide to pursue a relationship. How does that sound?

5. What’s their height difference? Age difference?

Hmm ... They are about the same height I think, whatever difference there is, it’s minimal and Caleb certainly doesn’t care about it. Neither does Kaidan.

As for age difference? Technically it’s three years, according to Caleb’s records (despite the 2 years he was ‘dead’). However, Caleb doesn’t know how old he really is. It could be a wider gap, it could be a narrower one. He doesn’t know for sure ... (yet .....) :P

6. What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

Okay, very briefly, Caleb gets the chance to meet Kaidan’s parents post ME1. They’re back in Vancouver, following up with Command after the Battle of the Citadel. Caleb is told that Ashley’s name has been placed on the memorial to the fallen, so he goes to pay his respects (and also meets Abby Williams who will play into the future stories). Sometime later, Kaidan shows up and he’s with his parents. They go out for drinks and a chat and spend a bit of time together. That’s the only time Caleb meets Kaidan’s dad until ... SEE THIS POST. Caleb gets along very well with Kaidan’s mom, too.

Now, as for Kaidan, since Caleb has no real ‘family’ to speak of, we’ll refer to the Reds, Coats and Abby Williams as they are the closest thing to family he has. (Honestly, if you ask Caleb, he’d say his family consists of Kaidan, the kids, Kaidan’s parents, Coats, Abby and the Reds in that order). For the most part, Kaidan likes the former Reds. There are a couple of exceptions, but SPOILER, so not going to say just yet. He adores the kids as well. Coats ... I’m not sure of yet because he and Kaidan started chatting at me earlier this evening. I have to see where that goes first. Abby, Kaidan adores as much as he did Ashley.

7. Who takes the lead in social situations?

Depends on the situation and who is involved. I’d say it’s about an even 50/50 split.

8. Who gets jealous easier?

LOL OMG I laughed at this one for a good three minutes solid, don’t ask me why.

I have to say I /think/ it’s Kaidan. Caleb ... just has no reason to be jealous? By the time they get together, the way they get together, he trusts Kaidan with all that he is - and that’s saying A LOT. Trust is a big deal for Caleb, and when he gives it to Kaidan, it’s like tossing the key out the window because he just doesn’t need it anymore, that’s how secure he feels with him. Kaidan, on the other hand, there is a little jealousy at least. Definitely with Coats, possibly with Abby, too. That I need to play with a bit more. I do know that any jealousy of Abby comes from the fact that she is there for Caleb in ME2 timeline events when Kaidan isn’t. As for Coats, it deals with the fact that he and Shepard have been best friends for so damned long.

#Ship Questions #ladya's OCs #Caleb Shepard #Kaidan Alenko #mshenko #Brothers in Arms #omg these two! lol #thank you so much!!!#swaps55

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korkro · 4 years ago

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Mass Effect Asks

Gonna go ahead and just answer all of these as well because I want to lol

1: Favorite background and psych profile?

earthborn/ruthless

2: Favorite class?

adept

3: Favorite ME1 mission?

probably Virmire

4: Favorite ME2 mission?

Horizon

5: Favorite ME3 mission?

i guess Priority: Tuchanka. i don’t have a lot of favorite things in general lol

6: Favorite ME1 squad?

Kaidan and Wrex, baby!

7: Favorite ME2 squad?

Thane and...Garrus? maybe?

8: Favorite ME3 squad?

Kaidan and Edi

9: What squad member do you bring along the most?

Kaidan of course

10: What squad member do you bring along the least?

Ashley

11: Are there any squad members you just don’t like?

Ashley

12: Favorite non-combatant?

reading these questions makes me realize how long it’s been since i’ve played ME. do Steve and Sam count? Cal loves his gAy Team

13: Who did your first Shepard leave behind on Virmire?

it’s always Ashley lol

14: Who did your most recent Shepard romance?

Kaidan

15: Anderson or Udina, for council member?

i think i usually pick Udina

16: Favorite species?

krogan and geth

17: Favorite loyalty mission?

i don’t have a particular favorite but Cal would probably enjoy Grunt’s the most

18: Favorite weapon?

biotics! Cal relies very heavily on them

19: What power(s) do you use most frequently?

warp is my go to

20: Favorite DLC?

well, i’ve never played ME2′s dlc so from the others i will say Citadel for the amusing factor and extra homosexual scenes with Kaidan but i really like Leviathan

21: Favorite non-Normandy character?

Bakara

22: Favorite multiplayer class/character?

i’ve never played enough multiplayer to even remember my options

23: What enemy do you really like fighting?

none in particular stand out to me tbh

24: What enemy do you really hate fighting?

reapers lol. but also geth snipers in the first game

25: What mission do you dread every time you get there?

speaking of reapers, Priority: Rannoch. i’m already hating the thought of doing it in the remaster

26: Who do you wish was available as a romance option?

KAIDAN IN ME1. Thane. bioware fucking hates gay men :)

also Wrex

27: How many Shepards do you have?

as far as the Shepard goes, just Cal. but considering Ryan is the original Shepard where Cal gets his last name from, i suppose he counts too lol

28: What’s the most hilarious thing that’s happened to you while playing (a glitch, a mission that went haywire, etc)?

uhh, nothing really

29: If you primarily play Paragon or Renegade, is there a dialogue/interrupt/action of the opposite alignment you always take?

i have thoughts about the way renegade and paragon are written in regards to crew interactions but i always have to take a bunch of paragon points during Feros because Cal doesn’t kill those people needlessly. also giving Legion to Cerberus nets renegade points but i sure as fuck am not doing that

30: Share a headcanon about one of your Shepards HC:

I dunno what that HC means but Cal straight up quit the Alliance after Torfan and worked as a dancer in a gay club. his first language is Spanish but he’s equally fluent in English and knows a lot of Chinese (he can get by very well in another language too but i do not remember what it is now oops). and he retires from all spectre and military bullshit for good after the reaper war and does porn instead lmao

#mass effect

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crqstalite · 5 years ago

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video game questionnaire :)

tagged by @greencrusader13 ! might be a little disappointed because anything i’ve posted recently (ME, DA + SWTOR) are the only games I’ve ever played. i know, i’m a gaming baby but i’m getting there lol.

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

Games

First game you ever played: I want to say World of Warcraft. I was born a few months after it was released [it’ll be 16 before I am :( ] and my parents absolutely loved it throughout my childhood. They stopped playing retail a while back, but they got me into it back during Mists of Pandaria. I don’t play it anymore (no real reason other than that except for one time, I’ve been locked to free to play since I picked it up)

Favorite game: If you mean game I go back to just for the hell of it when I’m sad or bored, SWTOR.

Game you’ve played through multiple times: ...SWTOR. I have quite a few toons that are honestly just copies of each other. It isn’t perfect, but besides WOW it’s a game from my childhood. Been playing since beta (okay ‘playing’ is a rather complex word for wandering around and not knowing what the hell to do at eight years old)

Game you hated at first but now love: I’m usually willing to give most games a chance, even if I don’t like it. See: MEA. Can’t say I love it, but some of the characters I like.

Game you used to love but now hate: Overwatch. I used to be really into the competitive scene but the highest rank I ever managed was bottom of the barrel silver. They make it rather difficult to rise in rank, and I gave up a few years ago. Still play when I need a little bit of chaos in my life but it’s not on my list of games to love anymore.

Your favorite game atmosphere/setting(s): Mass Effect 1. Now saying I’ve been through the whole trilogy and then some, I like the setting of the calm before the storm. Shepard + co. know something’s up, but without real proof they can’t really do anything. It’s a little unnerving, really.

Game with the best group/companion(s): Mass Effect 2. With the largest crew in the trilogy, it’s impossible not to get attached to them. Except for Jacob. I will never be attached to Jacob.

A game with your favorite ending: I might be too hard on games, but I legitimately can not think of an ending where I went ‘wow! I worked really hard for this and my characters prospered because of it!’. Except for ME2, where I was flying by the seat of my pants at first, entirely unaware of how the ending system worked and honestly, probably only managed the best ending because of mutuals (you know who you are ;). Made it all the more satisfying seeing all of my squadmates at the end.

A game with the WORST ending: MEA. I didn’t like the entire game to begin with, and the Meridian stuff honestly flew over my head like a damn jet. I always liked the Tempest’s theme, and that gave me chills over the ending, but it was rather anticlimatic. Unlike the two games before it, there’s really no risk factor in the ending. And Ryder 1 was a poor excuse for a culmination of your work. I did not spend a majority of those 65 hours on that game to not get another cutscene or epilogue with my 100% viability.

Best character customization?: I’ve been told DAI has one of the best. However, I personally like MEA’s, the realism is nice but a little jarring when it’s animated in-game.

Hero and Companions

Your favorite playable character: The Inquisitor and Trooper from SWTOR are my favorite classes to play. Shepard is pretty great too.

The funniest playable character: Currently, the Smuggler from SWTOR.

Your favorite companion(s): Elara Dorne, Andronikos Revel, Doc, Theron Shan, Lana Beniko + Gault (SWTOR), Alistair and Morrigan (DAO; I know, it’s early but they’re fun!), Garrus Vakarian, Kaidan Alenko, Tali’zorah nar Rayya vas Normandy + EDI (ME OT), Vetra, Drack, Jaal + Kallo (MEA)

Companions you could live without: Skadge, Jacob + PeeBee. I would’ve said James, but he grew on me during ME3′s campaign. Liam and Gil are sort of climbing up there, but I can see where MEA tried to grow their characters so I’m giving them a pass for now.

Relationships

Favorite game friendship(s): Shepard + Garrus. Sorry these two snip at each other so much of you let them, and that line ‘There is no Shepard without Vakarian’ kills me every single time. None of my Shepards have actually romanced him but it’s cool to see a female/male friendship that isn’t dependent on a relationship to back it. On that note, Joker + Shepard as well. He doesn’t have that big of place in the game, but he obviously really cares about them. He’s omnipresent in the series too, and one of the few characters that can’t die in the game. Hell, Anderson even asked him to watch over their stress levels, and he was obviously serious about it too. And Tali + Shepard. While that can also be a romance (apparently was even a bi one before it was cut entirely, thank you modders for restoring it), the friendship you can have with her is undeniably sweet. She feels like a completely capable younger sister that you watch grow up through the games, from a young Quarian on her pilgrimage to an Admiral who was ready to do what was right for her people.

Favorite game relationship(s): ...Shepard/Kaidan (ME3, specifically. I mean you guys you’ve seen my blog), Shepard/Garrus, Ryder/Jaal, Ryder/Reyes, F!SW/Theron, F!Consular/Felix, F!Trooper/Aric

Favorite companion banter: ...you guys play games with banter between companions? I kid, but I like the banter between Ashley and Kaidan in ME1. And Morrigan and Alistair’s in DAO.

A relationship you loved but went bad: Malavai Quinn and a female Sith Warrior. I loved the way it was going during the vanilla story, but then the betrayal hit and he disappeared for six years and two expansions. A double whammy if you ask me. This kind of goes for all the vanilla romances, especially Vector for me.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: Jaal and Ryder, and then Thane and Shepard. I did Jaal’s with Fia, and have yet to do Thane’s with Shepard. Jaal was unbelievably sweet if you did romance him, and he has a living family you visit in game. Thane’s is sweet, but also heart wrenchingly sad because you knew he was going to die in the next game but you’re still entirely willing to go after him.

A character you wish you COULD romance: Joker. Sorry, I am not sorry. I mean apparently there’s even a line where he alludes to if there was an alternate universe, he’d quote on quote “Rock your world”. Bioware, lock away the good romances why don’t you. I can just imagine how quickly the conversations in the cockpit would turn on their heads...and Zenith. Zenith I wanted as an option. I feel like the Consular would’ve worked rather well with him.

A minor character you wish could be a companion: Nihlus. I know next to nothing about him, but the fact he was killed off so fast is annoying to say the least. Skavak from SWTOR as well, I know he was an antagonist for a whole chapter, but I mean, we chased Jaesa down for a whole Act, so Skavak should’ve been fair game too.

Fun

Shoutout to a random NPC: Green took mine, but yes, that officer from the Citadel in ME2, “Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space!”

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: Left 4 Dead. I know, it’s an old game but I love zombies. I would probably have nightmares for a while but the universe fascinates me at least.

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: Walking Dead (Telltale; not even for the zombies but because the story telling is not as great as it could’ve been), Dead by Daylight (yet again, the universe is cool, I just don’t like other people)

Online gaming or solo?: Solo. Up until recently I’d only ever played with PUGs during FPs and that was rather frustrating. It got so bad that I ended up just running them to level and do the story quests at higher levels, especially for classes like the Inquisitor that I’d run plenty of times before. Still, some new Discord mutuals fixed that for me, it’s actually fun to do FPs now.

Why do you play video games?: For someone who grew up rather sheltered (and is still sheltered, shhhh), video games were my escape from kids who liked the sun and animals a little too much. So I played video games. It distracted me from my other problems in real life and gave me something else to focus on, like saving the galaxy a few times over.

tagging: @sheyshen , @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond , @roguescarlett

#questionnaire :p #friend memes #long post

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monochromatic--stains · 7 years ago

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all the mass effect asks under the cut because i have nothing better to do with my life

Mass Effect asks

Ask me or reblog so your followers can ask you! Happy N7 day!!

1. What’s the first name of your main Shepard?

Revan because I’m KOTOR trash and KOTOR is the main reason I started playing ME

2. Share a screenshot of your main Shepard.

I play on PS3 so it would just be a bad phone screenshot, but just imagine a really pale femshep with a brunette bun and impossibly sharp cheekbones

3. Favourite class to play?

Either vanguard or engineer. My canon Shepard (Revan) is vanguard and my alternate Shepard (Arya) is engineer.

4. Colonist, Earthborn or Spacer?

Revan: earthborn. Arya: colonist.

5. Paragon, Renegade or neutral?

Revan: paragon (paragade in ME2). Arya: renegade

6. Your favourite Paragon interrupt?

It’s been a while since I’ve played but probably hugging someone?

7. Your favourite Renegade interrupt?

Pushing the guy out the window in Thane’s recruitment mission in ME2

8. Share a headcanon about your main Shepard.

She was sexually abused as a teenager by her foster father but didn’t realize it. Her foster mother didn’t react well to the situation and it led to her running away from home and joining a street gang for 18 years until Anderson personally recruited her.

9. Share a headcanon about your Shepard and their LI.

She fits in really well with Kaidan’s extended family, and after the war she spends a lot of time with them and finally feels like she has a real family (aside from the Normandy of course)

10. Who is your Shepard’s best friend and why?

Kaidan, in addition to being her one true love. They just get along really well, it’s easy for them to talk to each other, they both understand the isolation that comes with being a Biotic, they make each other laugh, etc.

11. Your favourite romance?

Kaidan, as said before. It’s just a really sweet, realistic romance that spans all 3 games, and he’s the kind of person I’d want to marry in real life. I also really like Thane’s romance, although it’s less than ideal.

12. What kind of pet would Shepard probably buy? (Besides fish and hamsters^^)

Definitely a cat, maybe a dog too.

13. Who would be in your perfect squad? (List up to 8 characters)

Kaidan, Ashley, Tali, Garrus, Jack, Kasumi, Grunt, Legion

14. Is there a squad member you disliked in the beginning, but started to appreciate later? If yes, who and why?

The only squad members I’ve really “disliked” are Liara and Jacob and I still don’t like them :/

15. Who should’ve been a romance option?

Han’Gerrel Ashley, Miranda and Jack for femshep, James for both, an option to keep Jacob until the end, basically more romances for femshep

16. Your favourite mission in ME/ME2/ME3?

The suicide mission, Overlord, Ilos, The Citadel (me1)

17. Your favourite character overall?

Kaidan. On top of loving his voice, he’s a really sweet, chill guy and he’s my Shepard’s rock. I hate when everyone calls him boring just because he’s a human and you only hear his backstory by talking to him regularly.

18. Character you really dislike?

Liara. I think she’s one of the blandest companions in all of BioWare history, and she’s constantly forced down our throats, especially in ME3. The game constantly acts like she and Shepard are BFFs even though I never interact with her, and I even get a romantic end scene with her EVEN IF I NEVER FLIRTED WITH HER!

19. Favourite planet?

I think Virmire. It’s just so pretty. (and one of the most memorable missions takes place here)

20. Favourite weapon?

Biotic charge, assault rifles and punching

21. Do you like to use Biotics?

Yes!

22. Citadel, Illium or Omega?

Citadel, although Omega has that Aesthetic

23. Mako or Hammerhead?

Hammerhead

24. Enemy you really hate?

Kai Leng just for being really out of place in the story

25. Creepiest enemy?

Banshee

26. Favourite moment in the games?

I probably can’t pick just one, but some that stand out are the suicide mission, Shepard and Kaidan’s final romance scenes in both ME1 and ME3, and the Citadel party

27. Worst moment in the games?

The long stretch after Rannoch in ME3 where the game suddenly turns into Liara’s Feelings: The Game and doesn’t ever get better

28. Favourite quote from the game?

Geographic conditions indicate an aesthetically pleasing view nearby. Organic lifeforms may wish to take note

29. List three things you really liked about ME/ME2/ME3.

ME1: just the overall aesthetic that made it feel like an 80s sci-fi movie ME2: the entire plot, just the creepiness of the Collectors and earning the trust of a bunch of random aliens and making them their family ME3: the combat and the few closure things they did correctly (making up with Kaidan/Ashley, Rannoch, the Genophage)

30. Something you disliked about ME/ME2/ME3?

ME1: the super clunky combat ME2: most of your ME1 squad being gone, Jacob Taylor ME3: most of your ME2 squad being gone, having to play multiplayer to get the best ending, the last 3rd of the game not living up to the standards of the rest of the series

31. Overall, which one is your favourite game of the ME series?

ME2 which is really funny since I initially didn’t like it for being too different from ME1

32. Is there a choice/action you regret doing in the games?

Making Miranda a leader in the suicide mission after losing her loyalty because she was being mean to Jack, therefore always losing whoever was in the vents

33. What’s your favourite alien race and why?

Quarians probably. They have a unique culture that isn’t explored enough in the games, and there are a lot of cool minor Quarian characters that I wish had more spotlight (and I love Tali of course). But don’t get me started on how I hate that they were suddenly painted as the bad guys in 3.

34. Favourite non-Shepard OTP?

Tali x Han’Gerrel. I’m literally the only person in the galaxy that ships them. I don’t care.

35. Do you create fanart/fanfics/gifs/other cool stuff?

Yeah but not nearly enough, I’m too occupied by other fandoms.

36. Share your favourite screenshot(s).

Like I said before, PS3.

37. What do you wish for in ME: Andromeda?

An interesting, engaging storyline, complex companions, an extensive character creator, lots of new aliens, non-repetitive gameplay, a game that isn’t released as an obvious beta with only a few patches being released before they give up on it entirely and only focus on multiplayer :^)

38. What are you worried about in ME: Andromeda?

That Dragon Age 4 will get the exact same treatment

39. What will be the name of your Ryder?

Jolyne. I also tried to do another playthrough with another Ryder I called Etro but I couldn’t get past the prologue before I realized I had absolutely no passion for this trainwreck

40. Do you already know how your Ryder will look like? Describe them or share fanart.

Jolyne has a generic ugly face that I couldn’t change nearly enough, pastel purple hair and red eyes. Etro looks like Foo Fighters from JoJo.

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astralune · 8 years ago

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Aright so, let’s talk about this (without spoilers).

Controversial opinion: Mass Effect Andromeda is a good game.

Yeah, there’s some dunkass animations. This game probably has a few thousand hours of animation playing in it; regardless of how big a team you think Bioware has for this, the workload was absolutely prioritised into buckets for what got a got of attention and what got one pass and done. None of it is gamebreaking, and none of it reduces this game to trash. There are moments that are carried by nothing but the animation and those moments nail it.

Yeah there’s some sidequests that could be better. While Bioware’s said they’ve looked at The Witcher 3′s sidequests as examples, it hasn’t stopped them from also putting in some obvious filler fetch quests alongside the better, more narratively interesting or mechanically involved ones. Thankfully, most all of them get sorted into a different quest category, and it’s pretty trivial to identify them before you’ve wasted your time.

Yeah there’s some dialogue that could be better. That’s always been the case though - everyone’s forgotten about Jacob crooning about the priiiize so quickly. But there’s a lot of good dialogue in there too, especially for the player Ryder - I’ve never felt as relatable to the PC in a bioware game as I have in this one.

It’s important to remember that the Andromeda Initiative is a civilian operation. You aren’t a military badass before the game begins. You’re a civvie, dropped into a role you’re not sure you’re up for doing, with responsibility draped over your shoulders. I can’t speak for you, but I found that relatable as hell. Ryder talks like I do sometimes. He reacts like I do a lot of the time, especially since I’m picking the emotional tone of my response from the dialogue wheel instead of insistently hewing to which of Paragon and Renegade I’ve chosen for this playthrough ahead of time.

It’s the first in (hopefully) a new series. Most choices in Mass Effect 1 didn’t feel meaningful until ME2 came along, and MEA feels like it’s setting up a lot of good hooks for DLC or sequels to come. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if MEA ends up feeling like there’s limited branching / narrative control in the hands of the player; Bioware staff have talked in the past about the tens of thousands of plot states they ended up having to juggle and QA in ME3, so if they’ve decided to reel that in a little to keep shit under control for now, that’s fine.

The crew of the Tempest - your party members - will surprise you. I went in expecting to like some and ignore others, and was pleasantly surprised about who ended up my favourites, and that others were actually interesting, earmarked for future playthroughs instead of relegated to ‘never using them’. It takes time to get to know them, same as in every game. ME1 didn’t do much to endear me to Garrus, after all - ME2 picked him up and ran with it.

The game is gorgeous, with environments that were simply pretty to look at - check those screenshots above. The Mako Nomad is a dream to drive, especially after you upgrade it. The complaints about the time taken to move between planets is overblown - it’s designed to feel like actual exploration, and the Heleus Cluster is pretty, so if 20 seconds to have your ship fly through space between planets is a problem, then frankly, tab over to your web browser of choice and check your feeds for ten seconds.

The ending was, for me, pretty damn satisfying - a step up over ME3 and Dragon Age Inquisition both - and felt like it answered enough questions while leaving me wanting more in terms of DLC and sequels. Give me more to do in Andromeda, Bioware, I want it.

Ignore quests in the ‘Tasks’ category unless you really wanna do them, and don’t fret about 100%’ing everything. Go on an adventure in another galaxy against aliens that fight you and Environmental Hazard Level 4′s. Exhaust dialogue wheels and flirt with everyone you want shamelessly. Drive up 95 degree slopes with impunity. Have fun.

I should go.

#Mass Effect Andromeda #MEA #Mass Effect #Bioware #God damn the unrelenting dogpiling was depressing me #do you like mass effect?#do you wanna go on an adventure in the mass effect universe?#then PLAY IT #try to play on PC though if you can #it sounds like the console version looks like warmed up ass in comparison sometimes #as for Addison #im pretty sure shes DELIBERATELY bad at talking to people #check the codex entry for her sometime

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rebel666 · 8 years ago

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Mass Effect Andromeda 10 Hour Review (Spoiler Free[mostly])

Firstly, I’m basing this off of playing via PC. I have a mega processor that can handle it but my graphics card is at the minimum requirements and was comfortable with medium but I was able to play on high (didn’t try ultra but will once it comes out and I have more time to tweak my settings). I cannot speak for those playing on consoles or those playing with other settings on their PCs. I also don’t have a fancy or expensive keyboard or mouse. My keyboard is an old beat up Logitech basic keyboard (with most of the keys worn away) and mouse is an Azza weight controlled gaming mouse.

As for my knowledge on Mass Effect games, I have been playing Mass Effect (pretty much nonstop) since it first came out in 2007 so I have spent almost 10 years being in the fandom. The only other fandom that has kept me around this long is Pokemon. I played them all on the 360 and PC. I didn’t move to playing them on PC until after ME2 was released. Mass Effect 1 will always have my heart (because of the Mako) but Mass Effect 2 gave me the one character I wanted to romance (Garrus) and Mass Effect 3 finally allowed me to kiss said romance. I will admit that I played ME2 the most based solely on the story and character interactions. I will also mention that I played over 400 documented hours of ME3 MP and was on the team who was the second worldwide to defeat Platinum. In case any of you wanted to test my validity.

10 Hour Rough Allocations:

Character Creation: 0:25 (I designed my Ryder and kept my sibling default) First Zone: 1:45 Nexus: 1:30 Space Exploration: 0:30 Second Zone: 4:45 Multiplayer: 1:00

Pros:

Holy moly the planets! They are so vast and beautifully wonderful! I spent hours wandering around (even to places I shouldn’t have been yet and nearly dying every time from hazards) and upon reaching the top most location I just had to take a moment to look around. The details to the landscapes definitely precede all previous games. Not to mention how many systems we will be able to explore. You get just a glimpse at the galaxy map and it is massive! It’s huge! Like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy definition of space HUGE. You see all the speckled dots of systems and planets waiting to be revealed. It’s such a tease! There’s definitely going to be so much to explore. Probably more than all of the previous games combined!

Space travel is VERY different than before. It cannot be compared to the previous games. It is very immersive, brings you right into feeling like you are there on the bridge traveling between planets. It’s really unique. It’s a little more time consuming but you get used to it. When it comes to scanning, it’s not like ME1 or ME3 where you just tap the planet for items and not like ME2 where you’re probing every little thing you can. Instead of constantly probing like in ME2, your science officer will tell you if there is or isn’t anything to scan for (which helps so much) or if you should just skip to the next. You can even scan the entire system you traveled to for anomalies!

I really enjoyed the layout of the Tempest. It’s easy to get around and I really love the view from the bridge. From what I’ve seen, certain characters have their spots they tend to be in but they do move around and all the areas are easy to access with ladders that connect the levels. There are no elevators that you have to select levels on and wait to load anymore. It definitely feels like home. And to be honest, there are areas that remind me a bit of the layout of Serenity from Firefly.

For me, the story drew me in pretty quickly. So many things happen. The game throws you right in and I had to slowly gather my bearings much like the Pathfinder did in the game. It doesn’t start all sugar and rainbows and you being the badass like Shepard. However, it gives you a sense of progression the more you proceed and that gave me a sense of accomplishment. As well as a sense as to how dire your role is in this new galaxy.

The lead enemy guy is a very curious character. I’ll leave it at that. His body language reveal so much in the brief moment he was on screen. I would share in full detail but that would be too many spoilers. (You can contact me if you want to know my thoughts on him.)

This “animation failure” everyone had I only experienced once on one character – Addison. There was also one instance where the lips didn’t match up but that could have been caused by multiple things. Everyone else didn’t have issues at all or was so minimal that it hardly bothered me. In fact, there was an extreme attention to detail on the motions/animations of your direct crew (which I’m going to be spending the most time with anyway). I could watch Vetra move around for hours. She’s so fluid. I can definitely see more attention being given to the aliens than the humans in game but it really doesn’t ruin my gameplay.

The whole crew is very loveable. I seriously cannot hate any of them. They are all unique and bring their personalities to the table. You get to talk to everyone on your small crew and they all have their reasons for being in Andromeda. Feeling so different than any of the Normandy crew but still making you feel right at home in the Mass Effect universe. Even the starting human squadmates are enjoyable. Picking one of them to romance is honestly going to be one of the hardest decisions of all the BioWare games ever. I mean it. I don’t know who to pick! (And I usually know ahead of time after reading lots of spoilers and teasers.)

One thing that already makes this different is the amount of female characters. Female aliens especially. Previously it felt like every character was male but now it feels more balanced!

There is a lot of dialogue and even BioWare themselves confirmed that this has the most dialogue than any of the previous game by a mile. Which I really prefer. This is a RPG and I want to talk to everyone. There’s so many conservations happening and the banter on the operations deck is one of the best (the only thing I’ll say here is Girl Scout cookies).

The combat is well polished. Like nearly flawless. The fighting felt fluid and definitely had its challenging moments. I went for a more tech based route to start (since I usually play as Engineer/Soldier). There are a lot of new skills to try and the skill tree is very reminiscent of ME1 (which was my favorite of the three) mixed with ME3. There are a lot of weapons you’ll remember from before and some new ones. One thing I will suggest is combining jet pack and melee. That is a ton of fun. Try it once… you’ll see.

The Nomad. Now I’m a hardcore Mako lover. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with that vehicle. However, I do really enjoy the Nomad. It took a few minutes to get my bearings with it but once I did I was able to climb over virtually anything! It even got me to the top of the map where I thought it would have issues. With it being able to hop from terrain mode to speed mode, it made traveling a lot more user friendly. I will admit though… I do miss shooting things.

The music is fantastic and I could listen to for hours (and I most likely will).

Within the 10 hours I played, there were already two characters from the previous games being mentioned. I won’t name who or go into much detail but it’s nice to hear some familiar voices and meet some of the family.

Overall it all feels like you’re coming back home to Mass Effect… just in a different galaxy.

Cons/Bugs:

Multiplayer has the most issues… which is shitty for me because I love ME MP. On PC, everyone’s mic is automatically on (unless you mute it) and it took multiple tries to silence people. I don’t think people even realize it but it’s annoying when their game is blaring into your ears while you’re trying to play. And then the lag… it was really difficult to play with so many lag issues. I would jump and return right to the original area, a bunch of running in place instances, and such. It was tough to bear through but I managed 3 matches (only 1 with extraction). But to be honest I had multiple issues with ME3 MP when it first came out. Hell, I was one of the few with the rare Black Hole glitch. (Trust me that sucked.) Andromeda MP has a lot of potential and is definitely challenging. Just needs a bit of fixing. (This could also explain why the beta for MP was never released.) Once it is fixed, it’ll be fun.

As for single player, there are little things that were buggy. Like I could not change the color of my Pathfinder’s armor. No matter what I did and how many times I tried, it reverted back to the black/red combo. (I was trying for a white/orange/black aka Cerberus colors). It was extremely annoying. I tried it multiple times and even reloaded the game but still had this issue. It allowed me to change my casual outfit with no issues though!

The only other major problem I had was when my game got stuck on the map screen and wouldn’t let me escape no matter what. I had to shut it down and restart. I had another instance where I was stuck on the menu screen and it blacked out and crashed.

I had a few other bugs but reloading it fixed them. These bugs included minor things like the omni-scanner having issues staying on.

The interface on the PC is a little weird. There are two. One that holds the main journal/skills/saves/etc and one that opens up for loading saved games. It's a little weird and I wished they kept it as the original style.

Now as for that “walking” bug people experienced, as another friend put it, “I actually had to go out of my way to get the weird walking animations, I ended up sprinting at a staircase and erratically moving the joystick back and forth to get that odd walking animation for like ten seconds. But I had to purposefully do it to get that animation weirdness." Two others and I also had to purposefully do it to get that odd walk. So don’t believe everything you see/hear.

Final notes:

There are a lot of reviews out there that range from blindingly negative to absolutely positive. Some say the animations are game breaking while others haven’t seen it in their playthrough. Some even complained there is too much dialogue… in an RPG… yeah, I’ve seen those complaints. I suggest you take all of the reviews with a grain of salt, including mine. Why? Everyone will have different playthroughs. Some will experience zero issues while others will have loads of issues. Many have praising results while others have critical opinions. One thing is certain though, 10 hours is hardly scratching the surface of this game. I would suggest you try it for yourself (rent it if you have to) before you succumb to others opinions. If you like it, if you don’t like it, at least you experienced it for yourself. And also don’t attack others for having a different opinion.

As for me, I feel right at home. I feel like if you loved the exploration, the story, and the romances in the original trilogy then you’ll really love Andromeda. I am really looking forward to how vast this game is going to be and know I’m going to be putting in easily over 100 hours in the single player (and another 400 hours into multiplayer once it’s fixed). One thing I am going to do differently this time around is take my time. I will admit that I rushed through ME3 (mostly to get to the Garrus romance scenes asap) and felt like I missed so much that I had no choice but to play a second time to really absorb it. But this… this I really want to enjoy. I want to take it all in. The one thing it does do is make you feel like you are right back in the Mass Effect world. I’m ready to return. I’m ready to continue my adventures as the Pathfinder. I’m ready for Andromeda. (And I’m going to secretly hope for that one Volus to roll out of cyro.)

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zydrateacademy · 8 years ago

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Retrospective Review: The Entire Mass Effect Franchise

Andromeda is coming out in a week (as of this writing) and I feel like I want to revisit the franchise. I’ve done a post like this a few years ago when my blog was new but didn’t really settle in on a style and it was kind of garbage with a lot of pointless paragraph breaks. First, some quick insight. I was born in ‘89. That means I was too late to life to be considered an “80’s” kid, and the 90’s were half over before I was able to form real likes, dislikes, or memories. It’s a strange bit of flux because most of my “Nostalgia” is usually in the form of Legos as opposed to comics, games, movies, etc.

It’s a flux that’s kind of leaked into my daily life. My family is not, and never has been particularly affluent. Every extra ten dollars we find, we think “YES. A few days of gas” or “YES. Lunch money.” We’re not poor, we’ve never had a lot of room for amenities. We update our computers basically once every 5-10 years based primarily around income tax returns. Whatever hand-me-down I get from person who was able to afford their new computer, it was always better than what I had. A problem that has recently been remedied when I was employed for two and a half years as a part-time cashier still gave me enough to buy my own completely up to date computer that will last me the next five years on its own. Stick with me, I’m getting to the point. As a result of all of that, I tend to not be able to get games as they come out. Especially not games that turn into these huge franchises. A few games hold special places in my heart BECAUSE of the very fact that I was able to start with them. Mass Effect is one of those series. I started with it on the Xbox, probably borrowing it from a friend initially and playing it in bite-sized chunks before getting it used (likely bought for me like everything else was). The story starts out well. Your character (do I even really need to name them at this point?) is on the track to becoming a Spectre, a sort of special service agent for the entire alien government. During the screening process, another Spectre goes rogue and the entire game is building up a sort of power base against him while discovering a secret of the universe that may lead to the death of everyone in it. Damn. Ramped way the hell up, didn’t it? I suppose that’s fine, as studios don’t exactly expect all their games to shoot off the way they do sometimes. Mass Effect was good for its time. A fairly basic shooter with some RPG elements, in the older days where putting a point in your skills increased damage by 4%, and other things like that. It was incremental, but it had a cool idea based around a boring mechanic. Every few levels in the huge variety of skills you had at your disposal, you’d get a new ability or some kind of boost. Put enough points in “Fitness” and you’d unlock an ability called Immunity, an active ability that reduced taken damage by a flat rate for a few seconds. It’s interesting how the following two games basically dropped that idea, gave you the same 4-5 abilities (that vary per class), called it a day, and just built everything around those. It made the second game a certain kind of boring because every playthrough was effectively the same. You hotkey your main one or two attacks and just shoot stuff when it’s on cooldown. The second game’s story went sideways rather than forward, a point against its favor when looking back at the series as a whole. It continues, presumably a few months after the events of the first game and your ship gets shot out of space and Shepard literally dies immediately. In the introductory sequence establishes that you were picked up by the Cerberus organization and basically rebuilt like goddamn Robocop. I was expecting a “We have the technology!” type dialog but alas, we were deprived. Cerberus was an organization briefly mentioned in some tiny fetch quest in ME1 when you discover a small outpost had been husk-ified. To their credit, this definitely tied into what they would end up doing en masse in ME3 but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. They come to ME2 full force as Shepard is more or less forced to work with them when the mere association makes the alien council backpedal their support for Shepard, whom they presumed dead. As a result, you don’t see a lot of them in ME2. The whole story culminates in fighting a sort of human-based reaper that the collectors (who you later discover were reaper-possessed Protheans. Christ this series is weird) have been building by harvesting human colonies just on the edge of the government’s jurisdiction. Because of this they refuse to respond to the abductions and Shepard joins Cerberus to figure out this mystery and solve it. With bullets. Or whatever the hell comes out of guns in this universe. Something something mass effect fields. The entire game is basically the Dragon Age 2 problem all over again. It feels like it takes place in a single setting even though it doesn’t. It’s mostly padding. Half the game is loyalty missions as you run around to make sure your minions are happy enough with their lot in life, so they’re suicidal enough to do the suicide mission at the end but not suicidal enough to shoot themselves on the Normandy because they’re just not quite sure their father is still alive or not. I never liked this aspect of the game. Every where I turned, someone on my team was whining about something that barely mattered in the grand scheme of things. You could argue that settling their business gives them enough drive and morality to survive the mission at the end. If they didn’t have the morale, maybe they would be too sad to move out of the way of certain bullets. I get that, morale is a huge thing and I suffer from the gain and drain of it on competitive multiplayer games. I feel it, but it’s exhausting to try and manage it across a 20 to 40 hour game. Especially since the mechanics were dumbed down as I alluded to earlier. In the end, ME2 barely matters on a story standpoint and mostly served to update the graphics, systems, and mechanics from the first. To that end, they did fine. ME2 looks fine, even by today’s standards. In a more combat-oriented game, ME2 functions as a successor. This brings up to ME3. It opens up about a full year after the events of the second game, where Shepard is being punished for their actions in the Arrival DLC of ME2. Never got around to doing that DLC? Tough shit, as they reference it throughout the entire first act of the game and even later when you meet a Batarian on his deathbed. I played through it maybe once and I still don’t really understand what happened or why it was my fault, but there you go. Basically, in the second scene the reapers attack and fucking finally, the goverment lets Shephard get their best murder on and fly out to kick some actual ass. This is even lampshaded by Legion (a Geth teammate you acquire in late-game ME2) who told their own people that the reapers were coming and were believed immediately and began prepping. “Must be nice”, Shepard says. Indeed. The entire game is spent gathering war assets for the finale of the series. The more you have, the better it goes on a story standpoint. If you scrape for every asset you are capable of, there will be less loss of life. More soldiers on the field, more field assistance, and generally a slightly less bleak atmosphere (which is still pretty goddamn bleak). The mechanics are a crisper version of ME2′s. You still only have 4-5 main abilities to use per class but the leveling system is a bit more nuanced and more in-depth than before, which edged towards ME1′s style without being too stupidly gratuitous like adding 4% to damage. They saved that for actual gun modifications. The cover system has remained through the entire franchise (As it will continue in Andromeda) and it mostly serves to give you shield recharge while reloading your gun and not much else. Mass Effect 3 is probably my favorite of the entire franchise. Some are beholden to the first game as classic nostalgia, and I don’t know many who talk about 2 very much. However mostly decry the third game for its flawed ending and I chalk that up to a PR misunderstanding, or just bad wording on Bioware’s part. See, the sting mostly comes from when they claimed that “Oh the ending won’t be a simple A, B, C matter...” That’s exactly what it became. In the end you had the choice between destroying ALL synthetic life, taking control of the reapers for yourself and effectively fusing your consciousness with them, or if you gathered enough assets, full on synthesis. This basically fuses organic life with synthetic code, making everyone a sort of hybrid and thus rendering the Reaper’s flawed logic completely moot, and they fuck off into the void of space all over again. However for those who actually watched the endings, with the help of the extended cut, there’s a lot of nuances that that simple choice does not immediately seem apparent. In the extended cut you can see the multitude of your choices play out. Did you cure the genophage? You witness the rebirth of Tuchanka and see it get rebuilt in grand buildings with Krogan mothers celebrating their children. What did you do about the Geth/Quarian conflict? You see the results of that as well. Yes, the ending decision did boil down to an ABC choice but the ramifications of a few choices that you made since the first game still absolutely had an effect. A mass effect, if you will (please kill me). Ultimately I feel like there’s a lot more to do in ME3. I’ve played it for a few hundred hours, changing something big every time I do it. I take on a different lover, I switch sides and sabotage the genophage (which I will never ever do again because holy shit). I hop between Paragon and Renegade because it’s fun to watch the world change before my eyes as I decide to murder people that I would not otherwise have done. I do run out of things to do however as the level cap is 60, and if you’ve imported a ME2 save you’re probably already level 25-30 so it takes a single playthrough to max out. After that point, doing NG+’s only change a bonus power and maybe you can fiddle around with different weapon types and adjust playstyles. Which I did often. While I wrap this up with a sort of game-by-game summary, I want to give an honorable mention to ME3′s DLC, The Citadel. It’s often considered the ‘true’ ending to the series and is my personal headcanon post-final battle regardless of lives lost. It takes place on the Citadel (obviously) while most of your crew is on shore leave while the Normany gets cleaned up as it presumably does every time you dock anywhere across the franchise. Shepard’s life is never simple as it turns out there’s a plot against their life and must scramble to figure out another mystery. It’s an incredibly funny DLC with a ton of humor and mostly acts as a tone-shifting breather for the general “We’re all fucked” aura the game mostly gives you. It even ends on a “We’re all in this together” high note with most of your crew (And some from ME2 come back!) overlook a beautiful view while in the titular Citadel. So. We’ve reached the conclusion with my overarching thoughts on the franchise as a whole. It’s good. It’s an experience, and I highly recommend playing through it because there’s a lot to talk about. I’ll give a basic rundown. Mass Effect 1: Fine game, but has not aged well on a visual standpoint. Story is perfectly solid and moderately self-contained without originally relying on a whole franchise to carry it. RPG elements are excessive and each individual upgrade doesn’t feel like it does much until the higher levels. Mass Effect 2: Basically sidesteps its predecessor. Weak story that takes the plot nowhere but with crisper, actionized mechanics and less inventory menus to worry about. Mass Effect 3: Is the culmination of everything they learned from the last two games. More nuanced RPG systems that seem like a middleground between 1 and 2. Story comes to a solid conclusion, and I don’t agree with all the constant whining about how the endings ruined the entire game for some people. Grow up. I’m sure the game has some kind of anthology pack you can buy on sale at this point and I’d recommend giving it a go. If you’re a newcomer to the franchise, be prepared to set aside anywhere from 50 to 200 hours between the three games. If not, Andromeda takes place between the events of 2 and 3 while taking place in a completely different galaxy and will very likely only slightly reference the previous games. There’s the occasional nod, like you meet a sibling of the Turian female in Omega. Other little nods like that but it won’t be necessary to go through all three to enjoy the full experience of Andromeda. Can’t wait!

#Mass Effect #mass effect: andromeda #Andromeda #Bioware #EA Games #Electronic Arts

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annakie · 5 years ago

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An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Eight

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I accidentally messed up the numbering on part Seven’s link to post six, so if you missed post six (or yesterday’s part seven), the numbering up there is correct.

Wherein we get back out into the galaxy, explore, help some people, and kill some others!

So now that we have Liara, it’s time to really dig into the galaxy. We have a few people we talked to on the CItadel who need help, and maybe we’ll stumble into a few more things along the way.

First of all, let’s check out the galaxy map...

Hey wait a sec, what’s this?

Petra Nebula!? Oh hey, another new addition by the ME1 Recalibrated mod.

Gorgeous map, only one system available.

Heeeey we recognize this place, we’ll get to go there in.... two games!

Can’t land there (or anywhere in the system) but it’s cool that it exists! There are a couple of other neat little things in the system I didn’t screenshot so that you can have a cool new experience yourself if you decide to use the mod on your next playthrough.

What I really miss from ME3, by the way, is the % markers which note when you’ve fully explored a system or if there’s more stuff to find there.

Anyway, my PLAN had been to take a screenshot of each planet or spacecraft before I entered it to help orient the playthrough better, and then the non-screenshotting couple of hours happened, so we lost some of that along the way, sorry.

Still, let’s see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into.

I love this planet. The lava juuuuust below the surface, peeking out. Just some of the coolest terrain in the game.

What a great view, let’s get a little clo--

OOPS.

I meant to do that.

Wide open spaces with no fears of a thresher maw living in the lava! ...I hope?

Ah, here’s our objective, a distress signal being sent from this location, let’s see if we can help...

FUCKING GETH AMBUSH.

Aw yeah, jumping over those explosives like a pro!

...most of the time.

Well this planet was a bust. Let’s see if we can actually help someone.

Another planet, scanned a few things, not sure what we’re doing here but hey, I found a lone building!

Ah yes, a prefab which is totally different from all the prefabs we’ll enter because the creates are stacked in a different configuration.

Honestly they should have put one of these prefabs in ME3 for Old Times Sake. (The ones that actually look like homes/labs/whatever make so much more sense.)

Annnd we’re being attacked. Not sure why, but here we go!

Awww yeah, Throw! And Ash and Kaidan managing to be useful I think?

Except they let a guy slip by us, but luckily there’s a convenient explosive nearby. That got ‘em.

OK back to facing forward OH FUCK A KROGAN.

Kaidan’s biotics and my shotgun, a favorite combination. Now stay down!

Sweet, level up!

And that fight’s over, time to explore this pla...

Whew, thanks Kaidan.

This guy thought he could sneak past me. Well me, my shotgun and my 20 shield strength sure showed him.

ME1 combat is so... messy though. I mean, I honestly still enjoy it, but I’m in the camp that agrees combat gets better every game, Andromeda included. Of course, I just REALLY LOVE Vanguarding in ME3... charging into a group of enemies, hitting Nova, spamming charge again praying that I’ll find a good target to charge to in time. ME1 combat is basically all just... spam abilities from cover and hope your companions are doing something useful. Being a Vanguard is more about style over substance in ME here. I mean you do get some really useful abilities, but your shotgun isn’t that much use unless things get too close.

Which, you know, they do pretty often.

Anyway, remember... I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!

FUCK I hadn’t been back to the Citadel to pick up Nassana Dantius’ quest yet. Let’s just reload the quicksave from outside and we’ll... come back and do this the right way later and see the entire quest.

I do this more often than I care to admit.

Also no screenshot for this but... I also found Wrex’s personal quest planet and recognized it only when I saw the building, since it’s in a pretty memorable location. Still, grabbed everything else off the planet so it’ll be quick when it’s time to go back and do that quest.

Well let’s go back to poking around the galaxy.

Message coming in. Patching it through.

Ah, yeah, hey Hackett. What’s that? You’ve got some dirty work you need me to do for you? Cool, be right there.

Before the ME2 DLC Arrival came out, Hackett was one of Mass Effect’s biggest mysteries. Who is this guy? Why is he telling us to do things? Does he have some secret agenda? Why is he so sketchy? Our Shepards seemed to trust him but WOW he sure did send us on some touchy missions. Speculation was all over the place on what he looked like and what he was really doing.

Turns out, he’s just a pretty cool guy who wants you to take on all the secret spy missions the Alliance doesn’t want to take credit for.

I wish I’d saved it, but just a week or two ago I saw a pretty great post circulating about Hackett. He IS the guy that’s going to make sure a job gets done, even if he’s not going to do it himself. He’s the back-room Admiral with the squeaky clean image up front. He’s the Gus Fring of the Alliance.

Also getting Lance Riddick to voice him was great. Just a real authoritative, steady guy who you actually want to trust.

And it turns out he looks basically exactly like most people thought, but maybe with a few more scars. (I mean, he really looks a lot like Lance Riddick, tbh) But we don’t know that yet. For now, let the mystery be.

Time to actually go help someone.

Ah yeah, Chairman Burns, we do negotiate with terrorists, in this case. But they needed negotiating with.

Maxing out the Paragon-meter is worth it for moments like this. These guys have probably suffered and it’s no surprise that no one has really listened. Sounds like a lot about the galaxy hasn’t changed since we got out there.

This is also an excellent moment for Kaidan.

Being able to let Kaidan reason with them is fantastic. Although he probably ultimately doesn’t make a difference mechanics wise, it’d be nice if maybe the check is easier if he’s here. I don’t know. But Kaidan knows, even if he’s one of the “lucky” ones who “only” gets migraines.

One of the grossest posts I’ve seen about Kaidan are people who argue she shouldn’t be on the team because of his implants and since he has a “disability”. Or that it’s “kinder” to sacrifice him on Virmire. That’s some real gross ablism you’ve got there.

Anyway, I love being able to keep this situation under control. Burns actually comes through if you do, even if those guys probably go to prison for awhile for terrorism. Better than being dead.

Time for... another planet!

Again, didn’t take a screencap of this one but... there’s a missing survey team? I must have picked this quest up in the elevators, because normally you get it on Noveria. Anyway, Let’s go find them on Trebin, I’m sure they just can’t broadcast anymore or something. It’s cool

FUCK. SHIT SHIT SHIT. FUCK!!!

I probably could have actually used Warp or Throw or even Barrier there but... too late now! We lived!

I was all ready to blame this on Cerberus, but creepily, there’s no explanation for who huskified them or why. I’m still going to blame Cerberus, seems like something they’d do.

Well, time to move on.

Honestly, I can’t believe anyone who says ME1 isn’t beautiful.

And driving the Mako is FUN in places like this!

Oh there’s a camp up ahead, we’re here to find the remaining crew of a crashed ship for our new friend in the Citadel Tower.

Again, no footage/screenshot but eventually you find where the mercenaries tracked down Willem (the brother) and killed them. Shit. We were too late. I actually tear up sometimes telling Garoth that his brother died. They held out for awhile, too, but we were too late.

It would have been nice if, say, if the very first thing we did after leaving the Citadel was to come here, we could have saved him, but I guess this quest is another way of Bioware telling us that sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do to change things.

One more quest this update, then we’re stopping back off at the Citadel next.

Presrop, one of the most well-known of the sidequest planets. (OKok, technically it’s a moon.)

One of my favorite landing sequences, just because the stars make it so... dramatic.

I mean DAMN.

Klendagon's most striking feature is, of course, the Great Rift valley that stretches across the southern hemisphere. What is most fascinating about the Rift is that it does not appear to be natural. The geological record suggests it is the result of a "glancing blow" by a mass accelerator round of unimaginable destructive power. This occurred some thirty-seven million years ago.

It took a solid three minutes of Flycam flying to get that closeup shot, btw. I actually flew all the way in the first time I came here, and didn’t take screenshots. Took about six minutes. The updated texture is impressive.

Well, Hackett sent us here, let’s deal with Major Kyle.

Being nice and non-threatening gets you into places.

I’ll admit, before I came in here, I decided to cheat in enough paragon points to max out Paragon already. For me personally, I’m trying to make sure this is an “ultimate” playthrough, a save file I can just use over and over from here on out. I want everything to import into ME3 the first time around with all the plot flags set how I want them without messing with Gibbed’s Savegame Editor, so making sure I can convince everyone how I want them to is important. So hey, Major Kyle, stand down.

I don’t think I’ve ever played as a Ruthless Shepard in ME1, or if I have, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how it goes. But he was the commanding officer at the battle of Torfan, and your CO if you’re Ruthless. He’s also a reminder of how serious PTSD can be, and what it can do to a person.

I also love this tidbit from the Wiki, which I didn’t know since I’d never done these particular choices before:

(In Mass Effect 2) If Martin Burns was not saved in 2183, a news report on the Citadel will announce that Kyle is trying to form an all-biotic community as the reparations were not given to L2 biotics and they have become even more alienated from galactic society.

I really liked that if you reason with him, he doesn’t give you any trouble and turns himself in like he says.

Hey, this negotiation thing is easy when you’re the best person in the galaxy at it!!

#mass effect #kaidan alenko #the mako #chairman burns #major kyle #bioware #annakie's mass effect stuff

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pestopascal · 8 years ago

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thoughts on andromeda?

Sry if you're expecting smth rly concise in regards to like overall feelings… Like I’ll talk about specific parts and all but … overall? I enjoyed Andromeda. Glaring technical issues aside… it wasn’t that horrible of a game despite what everything pre-release said (and, hey, i got it for below release price, plus a deluxe upgrade so like basically saved myself more than $100. even better).

Like, clearly though, there is a HUGE need for improvement. Another just… 6 months to work out the bugs. They sat there and went ‘this is good enough for release’ when honestly it wasn’t. It so wasn’t. Tbh this just begs the question of every company that looks at their games tho and decide on who deems it good enough lmaooooo. Reactions to the demo alone should’ve given them that idea but oh, no, they thought it was good enough and Bioware’s classic ‘we’ll just fix it later’ attitude is… honestly getting kinda grating. Like I sat through DA2 and Inquisition with this kind of attitude bioware. Come the fuck on now.

And look, honestly, conspiracy theories aside, for a new studio group, especially since most worked on DLC alone, it wasn’t bad. Not the greatest thing I’ve ever played, and Andromeda gave me maaaaaaaad ME1/ME2 vibes — which actually caused me to go back and replay OT for like 2 weeks haha

Under the cut to keep going bc I got kinda long and complain-y lol but smth specific hmu

But like… I’m not gonna ignore that it was literally made with straight white male gamers in mind. Like this has to be one of the worst games out of Bioware that specifically had that group as a main demographic. Considering they’ve come pretty fucking far with everything else, Mass Effect as a whole has always struggled in my opinion to be Up There with everything else they’ve produced. I know it’s different teams. I know. But there still should be a standard the company sets for itself and each fucking team to achieve. How can they go from DAI (which wasn’t that awful either and was pretty forward) to this? How come all their fantasy stuff has always been SO much more ... everything compared to their future space series? There are more than enough posts and articles out there to point out why specifically, and it’s not just like now how they’ve made Sara Ryder sexy and smooth skinned and small faced and bedroom eyed. Like these issues were existing loooooooong before during initial releases. You literally do Peebee’s first time if you choose to embrace eternity with her (again with the space virgin thing!!!). Gross.

Honestly the teammates weren’t bad either I really ended up enjoying the dynamics. At first, yeah, I turned my nose up at like Vetra and Drack just because… we’ve already had like a space vigilante turian teammate for three games, and a dad krogan for a while now, and I’m still wondering who the cut teammate was and I’m putting money on it being another fucking quarian okay just because Bioware is gonna stick to what they know as far as dynamics go. I bet it’s gonna be a dude quarian. They’re just gonna do it we know they will. Like that’ll be cool don’t get me wrong but it’s not exactly groundbreaking. We’re gonna have to pay for this person too lmaooooo fucking sink hole.

And Jaal is a pretty decent dude (he’s actually fucking hilarious which I kinda didn’t… expect) and Liam is alright but goddamn like. I know Ryder is supposed to be sufficiently inexperienced compared to Shepard. But like NOTHING came about from nearly dying in both Liam and Peebee’s loyalty missions. A friendly bit of banter and ‘we nearly killed the human pathfinder but that’s okay we’re all bffs!!!’. Also Liam just feels like he was written by like four different people. What is consistency. Boy has some Issues. Cora grew on me heaps after her loyalty mission which I noticed happened for a lot of ppl too ig bc she finally stopped acting like she knew everything about asari lol rip. Peebee actually got tolerable and the dismissiveness will forever bug me in regards to her past relationship but idk why I even expect anything? Like this dev team thought Hainley was okay for release. Fuck. Kallo and Suvi were rly cool I rly liked them (I Trust Kallo) but Gil needs a huge fucking overhaul. Or you just need to be able to tell his bff5eva off for being such a judgy bitch tbh.

(also makes me wonder who they’re gonna play pair the spares with but that’s another question for another time)

Some of the shit they pulled though (Sloane Kelly being one of the Biggest Fucking Concerns) isn’t even something you can just shrug over. Sure when I first played I was like yah fuq that nonsense with head on spikes. And then they give you a goddamn novel — which is UNsurprisingly fucking important to understanding wtf happened before Ryder/s arrived — to basically convince you that Sloane is probably the better choice in some respects even though honestly I feel like there was no inherently right or wrong choice in that situation. Reyes and Sloane both had their pros and cons and it just came down to personal preference. Tacking on a romance that literally hinges on that choice was rly unfair to Sloane tho. LIKE OK it was kinda unfair to Reyes too but rly it was just sooooo rude to Sloane. You literally have to let her die to complete Reyes’ romance. Wtf. What kinda BS is that.

And it’s ALWAYS the fucking shadowy types (who are, unsurprisingly, ALWAYS their male bisexual characters who are Always Labelled as the sleeping around kinda guys u kno) that fucking backstab. Come the fuck on bioware. You can only run this trope into the ground so many times before it just becomes offensive as a whole. And by so many times I mean like once. You did that way back before KOTOR. Enough is enough.

And then there’s the whole no m|m romance teammate. Srsly. SRSLY. ITS SPACE. 600YRS IN THE FUTURE THAT WAS ALREADY 100+ YRS IN THE FUTURE. THERES LITERALLY NO EXCUSE. I don’t give a flying fuck if you have a straight white male audience. Bioware has built itself on being some kind of fucking “””””””pioneer””””””” in the way of romance and storytelling. Like i saw smth that said Bethesda and Bioware tried to trade secrets and messed up (in relation to Fallout 4 too) and honestly that’s a rly accurate summary of what happened. and ESP when bioware was all like ‘deeper more meaningful relationships! more realism! JKS we rly don’t care and gave Peebee 3hrs of content and Liam less than 30mins. We lied. Again. We do that a lot.

TLDR;; okay. overall… I did enjoy it. I will replay and honestly I’m waiting out for lots of patch fixes before I rly settle into a second play through — and I would like Bioware to admit they fucked up big time. Not just these small apologies and “we’re getting to its” just. Admitting it. They won’t but I hope so. And like I don’t expect anything perfect as far as Andromeda develops, and honestly I’m GLAD it wasn’t like OT like I know some ppl bitching their heads off expecting Shepard 2.0 and getting Ryder … and Ryder is honestly hilarious as far as protags go but like. Needs improvement. Hopes for DLC??? Please don’t give away very valuable world building information in a dlc this time tho pls thnx

#replies #LIKE OK I ENJOYED IT #BUT IM STILL GONNA SIDE EYE THE FUCK OUTTA THIS SHIT #bioware needs to man tf up and own up that #a lot of the shit they did #wasn't good #it's NOT good #and its ALWAYS mass effect that seems to struggle #compared to their fantasy series #wHY #FUTURE #SPACE #WHY DOES ANY BULLSHIT MATTER ANYWAY #ok I'm done sry #Anonymous

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annakie · 5 years ago

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An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part One

A lot of these posts are going to be just my impressions, things I love, cool things to point out, I don’t know. Rambles about how much I love this game and everything about it.

To start off I’ll talk about my OC a little bit, and how I got into Mass Effect. Then we dive into the prologue.

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My OC

So we all have our Main OC Shepards. Mine is Annakie.

Annakie is a name from an MST3k episode that I have loved since the first time I saw it in the early 90′s. I started using the name Annakie in IRC shortly thereafter, specifically in the SciFi channel’s IRC server, which used to be fairly active back in the day. And by the day I literally mean circa 1995. They used to host some pretty cool, especially for 1995, events there, like authors and writers of their shows would come in and do Q&A’s, including Kevin, Mike and Bill from MST3k. Kevin Murphy recognizing where my nick came from immediately was a moment of pride for me.

So I’ve basically always been Annakie online, even after knowing that it’s a real actual name some people have, I’ve still managed to snag it most places on the internet. And most of the time when I play a new game, I start out playing Annakie, or one of two or three other names I regularly use sometimes. But naming my first Shepard Annakie and having her look more or less like this every time I play is just... what I normally do.

Also I normally play goody two-shoes the first time I play through any game with moral decisions. The first time I played through Mass Effect, though, she was an engineer. I think the second time onward she’s always been a vanguard.

She’s a Spacer, because I love having her mom alive and get to talk to her. I like that she didn’t start from trauma. But she’s a sole survivor, because I like how that shows how strong she became. I also like that it gives her extra incentive to hate Cerberus later on.

Discovering Mass Effect

I’ve been gaming since I was seven in 1982 when my parents brought home our first Atari 2600. When RPGs became a thing I liked JRPGs a lot on the family Nintendo and some action RPGish games like Super Metroid, but when Western-Style RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights came out, I found my true video game love.

Before Mass Effect, my favorite game was Knights of the Old Republic. And it’s still way up there in my list of favorite games of all time. And I really loved Carth Onasi. Although I’d loved other video game love interests before him, Arin Gend, Valen Shadowbreath, Celes/Locke... Carth was my favorite. That also inspired me to try my hand at fanfic for the first time. That never saw the light of day and I’m pretty sure I lost it like 3 hard drive crashes ago.

So when I heard that the same company that made KotOR was making a new, non-Star Wars space game, I was excited. Until I went and looked at some of the trailers, gameplay preview videos, etc, and saw no female protagonist option. I must have looked somewhat early on because even on message boards I looked at the answer was “they haven’t said anything” or “I don’t think so”. And I was *crushed*, then stopped paying attention to that video game. After it came out, I heard it was a pretty good game, but if you could only play a guy, I wasn’t that interested.

It wasn’t until 2009 when I finally got an XBox 360 and realized I had no idea what games to play on it that I didn’t already have on PC. I joined a game trading thread on a forum I was on, and bought a few titles, and someone was selling Mass Effect cheap, so I thought... what the hell, I’ll probably like it even if I have to play a dude.

A few nights later I was curled up on my couch with controller in hand and... hmm this music is pretty good. OK New Game... Create Profile... wait what? Custom or default Female character? You can play as a woman?!? WHAT?? Damn, I should have looked at this game more closely. Okay.

So I made my Annakie Engineer... and honestly I don’t remember what origins I picked then... but the game started.

I recognized one of the first two voices I heard but couldn’t place it. And then a third guy was talking over these space scenes and someone walking scenes and... hang on, is that Seth Green?!?! Neat! Real cool space imagery here, great music... and then the intro was over and another guy started talking.

That. Is. Carth. Onasi’s. Voice.

I SCREAMED.

Then I stood up walked into my office, sat down at my PC, googled “Carth Onasi Voice Actor Mass Effect”, found the character’s name, then googled “Kaidan Alenko romance”. Found the wiki page, saw the answer was yes, and screamed again. Really, really mad at myself. This game had been out for two years. A space RPG where you can play as a lady and the same voice actor I already ADORED was in it playing another romanceable character. I knew then, two minutes into the game, that I was going to fucking LOVE THIS GAME and I should have played it TWO YEARS AGO.

I went back, played all night, and for the next several nights until I beat the game. And then joined forums and everything I could get my hands on to find fellow fans, then replayed the game, and played again, and again, and again until I had all the achievements. Then I bought it on PC so I could get all the achievements on PC and be ready to import saves for when Mass Effect 2 came out.

The one good thing about waiting so long to play ME1 was, I only had a year to wait until ME2. That year was basically all about Mass Effect for me.

The Prologue

Anyway, while we’re here, let’s talk about the prologue.

First off, who else, the first time you played, when in character creation you heard the “Profile Corrupted!” message thought you fucked something up or maybe your game disc was bad. Anyone? Not just me, right? I may have restarted my Xbox.

The class descriptions I think are a little wonky. I chose Engineer the first time through because I like utility classes and I like healing. But the classes don’t really... play that way I guess. Hitting F to heal (or whatever it’s mapped to on the controller) doesn’t really matter, and a couple of classes have access to First Aid. Nobody is really a “healer”. Hence switching to Vanguard later.

The prologue itself does a really great job, though, of setting up the game, and the world. It starts with the great move of telling you a little bit about your own character, helping you to understand those choices that you made “Spacer” “Earthborn” “War Hero” “Sole Survivor”, That was a good move. It took me until my second playthrough to connect those two guys talking about me to being Anderson and Udina.

Also, nice that they explained what Mass Effect actually *is* and placed you in a year, so you have an idea how far ahead this game is from our own time.

And then this...

Majestic.

But it’s great how they start with a shot of you, looking at Earth

then you see Jupiter, with an establishing shot of the spaceship you’re in. (OK I didn’t get a great screenshot of this, I’m using gifs that are going in a gifset posting tomorrow)

And then you fly by Neptune

Then... wait what the fuck is this thing?

Along with Seth Green talking to... someone? And the movement through the ship, giving you glimpses of Jenkins, Pressley, crewmates doing their jobs, the camera constantly sweeping, something big is happening! Something exciting! You’re not sure what all of it is but... it sounds cool!

The camera swings around on the person you’ve been following, and you already kinda know it’s your character, but there you are, in a very cool sweeping reveal.

The music swells. Then the big glowy weird scissors thing... eats the spaceship and spits it back out.

It’s all so effective. It’s kind of breathtaking to watch even for what must be like my 30th time, not exaggerating.

And I can never wait to do it again. What a great way to start this game.

#mass effect #annakie's mass effect stuff

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annakie · 5 years ago

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An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Two

Aliens! Exposition! Guns! Explosions! Kickass Ladies! Betrayal! So much death!

Um, this got long. Sorry not sorry.

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The first thing Mass Effect does after coming out of the introduction is assure us that yes, we have aliens

and we have hot guys (and hot aliens, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

They should have made an advertisement pointing out these things just for me so I would have paid release price for this game. Ah well, I’ve bought it on 360, Steam and Origin now. They have my money.

We’re going to make it most of the way through Eden Prime in this post.

One thing Mass Effect does a lot of in the beginning here is exposition. There’s a lot to learn about the state of the galaxy in 2148, and there are people there to make sure you learn about it. Jeff and Kaidan only do a little bit of exposition, you learn about Nihilus, a tiny bit about Spectres, and that Captain Anderson is badass. I wish this scene actually lasted longer -- this is the only time we see Kaidan away from his Orange Corner (or that other orange wall) on the ship for awhile. I guess there’s the conference room, but still. If they ever do a remaster, please Bioware, let the companions move around the ship like in ME3 and give our boy better lighting.

I love the flow of the Normandy SR1. It feels the easiest to get around in since it’s so much smaller... except when you have to get on the elevator. I also love the dark theme. The ME2 SR2 always feels so... blinding. The only thing I miss from the SR2 really is my decked out Captain’s quarters. I mean does anyone even ever go into the ME1 quarters except to get the one codex entry until it’s sexytime?

I do like ME1′s use of ambient conversations, you get to learn a little about Pressley and Jenkins before talking to them. Those conversations, though, are just such exposition dumps. I think they do it fairly well, but there’s so much to remember. Both Jenkins (with Chakwas) and Pressley really harp on what and who Spectres are, pretty sure even before you talk to Nihilus you have an inkling you’re gonna eventually be one.

I honestly wish we had more actual interaction with Pressley than what we get here, he has very little to say after this point. Another hope for a remaster.

This kid Jenkins, he’s got a good career ahead of him if we can tame his hot-headedness. That’ll be his role in the game, I’m sure, the kid you mentor and grow into a reflection of you. Good to know he’s from the planet we’re heading to, I’m sure he’ll be a valuable source of information there.

Having played a lot of World of Warcraft, and I mean a LOT, from the alpha, then release, for the next two or three years, the fact that his name was Jenkins was actually a bit of a hint for me even then. But more in the “Wouldn’t it be funny if...?” and then he did. Nice.

I’m really glad Chakwas gets fleshed out a little more in just the one more conversation after this one and in future games. Because there’s not much to say about her here.

Whew! Exposition over, right? We’ve learned about Spectres, the First Contact War, about Eden Prime, that we’re in the Alliance, that there’s Turians and a council that governs things and... we’re good, right?

Wait, didn’t Anderson say he was already with Nihilus in the conference room? Where’d he go? What a bro, to step out and let Nihilus make a big turn-around moment of introduction to us. Okay, more loredump. Cool. Really getting the concept of Spectres now, for sure, especially from this guy, who is one!

Finally, Anderson. Just in time to tell us about Spectres, and Eden Prime, and now it’s time to learn about the Protheans. Whaaaaat? You want ME to maybe be a Spectre? I’m shocked!

Oh sorry, Annakie just flew through time from ME3 to stare into the camera incredulously.

I’m sure that this will be a decision that will be deeply impactful through the entirety of the rest of the series.

But here we learn about Protheans, and they lost me a bit on that one when we first played the game. Who the fuck cares about what happened 20,000 years ago? THIS IS THE FUTURE!!! We’re in SPACE!

Well, we wouldn’t get away from the Protheans so easily.

Oh what the FUCK is that thing? You’ve hooked me right back in. Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up? LET’S GO.

You guys... ALOV is so good, and so pretty. And these screenshots look shittier on tumblr!! Look how clear these movies are now. And these are just 720p! They’re working to upscale them to 4k! Again I say, all hail the modders.

Still, that giant red spot doesn’t look so good for the people living there...

I’m sure it’s fine.

We’re all suited up, but sadly the super cool alien isn’t coming with us? Didn’t he say he was here to follow and observe us? Well, he knows what he’s doing.

Anyone else already willing to die for Anderson fifteen minutes into this game?

The sky is supposed to be that color red, right? Right Jenkins?

As cool as this level design is, also something that could use improving. There’s like... no housing here? Just a bunch of tall towers on the ground all really realy far apart from each other? You’re on a new planet and everyone lives inside a giant tower? I mean, good for preventing Urban Spawl I guess. I’d love to see a more populated Eden Prime. Even in ME3 we just saw a small dig site and more towers in the distance.

Anyway, better level up. Jenkins is young and needs some training if he’s gonna survive this mission!

Here we go, show us what you’ve got!

Shit.

My first time through, I truly thought I’d fucked up and probably reloaded this fight two or three times before accepting he was just... supposed to die. And then I remembered his name was Jenkins, knew it was intentional, and laughed.

Honestly, it’s a great fakeout with making us feel like Jenkins is important, and then having him lose the battle right away. ME1 is pretty brutal that way. It’s a good way to signal that this game is probably going to rip your heart out, so get used to it.

Shepard and Kaidan have a moment, and I like this because it’s really the first time I think you can really start showing who your Shepard is, with how you react to Jenkins’ death. Either way, I like it that she tells Kaidan that we need to focus. I also love that, though we don’t get to see a moment for Jenkins from here on out in ME1, that they finally gave his memory a moment in ME3.

I love Flycam.

What. An. Entrance. For. Ashley. Williams.

Bioware, give us Ashley and Kaidan living in a Mass Effect Remaster, please. I will pay $100 for this DLC. (I know, I KNOW.) I have only played through with Ashley living all the way through once. I’m sorry Ash, I love you. I just... LOVE Kaidan.

But hey that’s HOURS away. For now, she’s with us, and she’s amazing.

Sorry, I just caught several great images from Ashley’s intro and thought you needed to see them. It’s gonna be a miracle if tumblr lets this thing post.

This is fine.

Uh, I’m not the only one who still sometimes dies on Eden Prime because I can never remember how the controls work until like, the end of the planet, right? “CRAP, WHICH BUTTON IS MEDIGEL?” “WHY ISN’T THE SQUAD RESPONDING TO GOING WHERE I TELL THEM WITH Q and E?” “Shit shit shit gotta reload OH FUCK JUST THREW A GRENADE SIX INCHES AWAY. WHY IS THAT MAPPED TO R?”

Grotesque and yet... great visuals. This is when you realize these Geth aren’t playing around. This is Bad Bad.

Iiiiif you also used to always punch out Miguel and then like awhile later realized how shitty that was and now know that the “Geinuis is the other side of the coin of Madness” speech here is also really shitty... raise your hand. Especially since Miguel is, you know, right. Anyway, do better on a remaster, Bioware?

The one good thing here was the “Thank the Maker” at the very beginning of the encounter. I want Shepard to visit Thedas. Give us this DLC, Bioware!!

Oh Nihilus, you were too pretty, and trusting, for this world.

Bioware, again, in the remaster... please go with your original plan and not make Saren all Gethed out this early. I wish that could be modded away. It’s so distracting to have him be OBVIOUSLY HALF MACHINE and everyone being like “Saren? Working with the Geth? PREPOSTEROUS!!”

Got some AMAZING screenshots of Sovereign taking off thanks to Flycam.

Also, this is just such an OH SHIT moment. Look at that thing! It’s terrifying! Also it’s easy to miss if you’re looking the wrong way, this maybe shoulda been in a cutscene. But even so, when you see it, it fills you with SUCH DREAD. They do such a great job of amping up the tension and drama and mystery bit by bit on Eden Prime. Giving you bits of the greater story and also feeding you pieces that will eventually come together, but not for awhile.

I followed Soverign as long as I could before he disappeared. Got this far away from land. The actual spaces in the game are huge, but we’ll get to more of that later.

Congrats! You all survived! For uh... about two and a half more years?

Can’t believe we can’t loot the Spectre’s body.

Also... the luckiest dock worker in the world. I can never yell at him for sleeping on the job. It’d be hilarious if he showed up alive on Horizon in ME2, and like Haven in ME3.

This is the guy that usually kills me.

OK, this is ridiculously long already. We’ll finish up Eden Prime and get to the Citadel next time.

#mass effect #annakie's mass effect stuff #bioware #mass effect 1

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annakie · 5 years ago

Text

Thoughts on a DW Rewatch & Mass Effect replay.

So I’m in the Eleven / Clara half-season now.

Also I’m now replaying Andromeda. I have thoughts, about both. I’ll start with Doctor Who then label it when I get to Mass Effect stuff.

Oh my God this gets long and rambly. Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts.

So, season 702... I’m ready for it to be over. I miss the Ponds. I felt like most of the first half of this season was pretty great, honestly. I’d forgotten how fun some of those episodes were, I think at the time we were anticipating a new companion so heavily that it was harder to appreciate those episodes? I feel like there was a lot of criticism levied towards them that now I felt like was a bit too much. The western episode was kinda meh but still not bad.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about these Clara / Eleven episodes that I’m still not connecting with but I’m in the middle of the Crimson Horror episode (which is a Vastra/Jenny/Strax heavy episode and enjoying it more than anything else so far this half-season.

*edit later* NOPE NOPE NOPE I’D FORGOTTEN HOW THE DOCTOR FORCES A KISS ON JENNY. GROSS. SUPER GROSS. SHE’S A MARRIED WOMAN, A LESBIAN AND DID NOT CONSENT TO ANY OF THIS. BAD DOCTOR, BAD.

Honestly even with some excellent guest start acting, the Russian Submarine episode was STILL a slog and the ghosts in the 1950′s episode no better. Like they still weren’t ridiculous and unwatchable but... just didn’t feel fun or interesting at all? The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS episode was decent, and I felt like that wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been..

I remember reading a criticism of these episodes early on where they said that the biggest fault is that they failed to give Clara any real characterization or solid personality other than “girl the Doctor is obsessed with”. She’s SUPER IMPORTANT but not only do we not know why at this point but it really doesn’t feel... earned? I don’t recall it ever feeling earned that Clara was supposedly always so important? “The most importantest companion EVAR!”

And as someone who stanned the hell out of a character who was hated in the fandom for “replacing” a previous companion I’m checking myself to make sure it’s still not because I Miss the Ponds. Like, I don’t HATE Clara, I just, at least at this point in the rewatch, can’t find any reason to really LOVE her? She’s there, she’s fine, Jenna-Louise Coleman is doing a great job with what they’re giving to her but... I don’t know. It all feels... off.

I had forgotten all about the “the Doctor rides a motorcycle up the side of a skyscraper” moment and something hit me in that moment that made me remember that wow people hated that moment. It felt really... shark-jumpy somehow.

I love Eleven, but this half-season isn’t connecting with me, AT ALL. It feels like the writers just went and dug through a bunch of rejected script ideas, polished them up and were likle “let’s just do this until Matt Smith is gone.” I’m anxious to get to Twelve.

Mass Effect Stuff

OK TECHNICALLY I haven’t finished ME3. I still need to do the party and the goodbye scene, (Citadel Epiloge Mod installed) but I’ve gotten all the Stuff and done all the missions in the arena. I just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye yet, so I started Andromeda a bit early.

-----------------

OK look I had a point I wanted to make and never quite got where I wanted to go with it right here. I’m too tired of trying to fix it, so this stands as written.

This playthrough had me ruminating a lot on Kaidan and Garrus. I really love both of those characters, though in my heart I’ll always primarily love Kaidan, I’ve done the Garrus romance and wouldn’t mind playing that character again to see the romance one more time. In ME1, I bring Kaidan everywhere all the time, and pick which other companion I bring to the story-based missions based on what I know is gonna happen like I’m sure most people do. Wrex for Therum, Tali for Feros (though I REALLY wish you could switch before going to see the Thorian), Liara for Noveria, Ashley on Virmire, Garrus for Ilos/Endgame. I rotate through all five for sidemissions.

In ME2, Garrus is my always-bring companion, with Garrus + Miranda being my favorite team. Except after the Omega relay, where characters with Throw really shine with all those husks running at us, Jack holds the bubble, and Miranda and Thane, who both have Warp to help take down the Reaper Baby, are the preferred team. Also so Miranda can tell TIM to fuck off.

Then in ME3, once the game opens up, Garrus is back on the perma-team, with a preference towards bringing Liara along... until we get Kaidan back. And then I realized I didn’t bring him to a single thing except a side mission or two until Earth. Mostly, this is because I’m following the Kaidan Banter guide and it turns out Garrus is a real banter hog for most of the missions. At leat he’s not James, who I literally never use unless I’m going on an N7 mission and feel bad that I haven’t taken him off the Normandy in awhile. I mean, even Javik gets more play. Also EDI doesnt leave the Normandy til near the end when all of a sudden she gets real important.

But Garrus is always on the team for Priority Earth. And that always felt like the way the main game should end, with your two favorites. (Also what kind of monster wouldn’t bring Wrex to the combat-centric areas of Citadel DLC? I keep thinking I should have runs where I bring other people but... Wrex is my other fave and we don’t get him with us AT ALL since ME1.)

I love Garrus, so much. And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective... overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters. The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile. But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of DW, or actually playing the games, those characters are awesome.

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines. Going back through my blog reminded me that even the TAH fandom had some of this, with a small percentage of fans being real dicks to two prominent female characters in favor of their favorite ship, which soured even that just a tiny bit.

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this. It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing. I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall. Maybe yelling a lot about Martha Jones did change some people’s minds. It still isn’t that good of a look now, even knowing that in general I was pretty polite and logical about it. I might respond to an odd comment now and again in some favorite character tags, but in general, turns out that kind of fight just isn’t worth it.

And those fights seem so stupid in the light of everything else happening in the world today.

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.

-----------------------

I also wanted to say, and I know I said it in a few other posts about this ME3 playthrough, but seriously I cannot believe how much ME3 is a changed game because of the modders. I cannot imagine ever playing ME3 again without these mods. There were so many small things that I kept thinking I should take note of to talk about and I’m sure I forgot 90% of them, but there’s things like... adding in mentions of the Andromeda Initiative, closing a few plotholes, mentioning Emily Wong, adding in many more Spectre console options which end up having their own plotlines, adding in an entire plotline about the VI civilization that had previously only been talked about in like, social media or Cerberus News Network posts, having the Normandy be so much more populated, seeing so many more other species on the Citadel with more variety in clothing for those species that have clothing / could have more variety, way more female Turians.... every time I play ME3 the game is more and more like the game we wanted when it came out.

I am kind of itching to go back and replay it even now.

But hey, instead, its time to talk about Andromeda.

-------------------------

So first of all, yes, mods for Andromeda. A few appearance mods, a lot of convenience mods.

After having recently played DA:I and I think Andromeda and DA:I are a lot more similar than Andromeda and the previous trilogy, I had decided it was time to cut down on the stupid stuff Andromeda does, like “Oh, you want minerals? Spend 10 minutes in each mining zone finding the PERFECT place to gather materials or you’re fucked” No, thanks. I’ll mine but give me that “one probe placed anywhere and you’re done” mod.

Make the modifications and crafting materials I use actually matter. 2% damage increase is nothing. Make my squadmates not suck because I remember doing 90% of the work myself before and that got exhausting with the number of spawns.

I tried to not go overboard so things feel like cheating, but there’s enough out there to just get rid of the stupid stuff, and it’s nice. And works together a lot easier than the DA:I mods did.

One thing I did do was install the Multiple Romance Mod. I enjoyed it in DA:I, even though ultimately I only did 2 full romances. I am **NOT** romancing Gil or Cora with the mod, I just wanted to experience all the content available for female Ryders at once, since I’m not going to have the energy to replay this 100+ hour game enough times to see every romance on its own. So I am poly-romancing Liam, Jaal, Vetra, Suvi, Peebee, Keri, and if it lets me, Reyes when it’s time.

I’ve only gotten all the way through Andromeda once (where I romanced Liam) My second playthrough was right after my first and stalled out about halfway through (was romancing Jaal.) It was one of those “I’m totally gonna get back to this! (She didn’t.)” things. I’m gonna be honest, I enjoyed the Liam romance and was enjoying the Jaal romance, I’d done a fling with Reyes but not the full romance my first time through and the fling with PeeBee on my second. Reyes was probably my favorite out of all of them. So this time I decided.. let’s see which I love the most, all at once. I don’t know if I’ll do this in the future, but this game is too long to not see all the content I wanna see, TBH.

And you know, I still really do like Andromeda. It’s a GOOD game. And I’m forever going to be mad that we’re not going to see how this story ends. This story deserved to finish being told. Like, there are a lot of very legit criticisms about Andromeda, but it didn’t deserve the harshness it got. And the worst thing about it, and DA:I both is that... there’s just a little TOO MUCH of it. 100 hours is an amazing amount of game but... it’s also just too much. For now I’m not trying to 100% this playthrough. My plan is on each planet to get the planet to 100%, take out the Kett or whatever major base, the Remnant Architect, and yeah probably clear out the sidequests that show up on the map, but fuck quests that are like “visit random Kett camps until you find the right datapads that don’t show up on the map!” or “scan random blobs in the forest that don’t show up on the map!”

So like, do the content, not the filler.

I still hate the vaults. The first one is cool. The rest are tedious. But they’re mandatory.

I love everyone on this spaceship though. They did the Tempest stuff SO WELL. All the companions I think are... good? There’s no one I don’t like, even the non-squadmate shipmates ship have so much interaction and so much to do/say. It’s not like “a bunch of randos and Joker, with occasional appearances by Chakwas and the Engineers” There’s no randos, it’s just a few people you have real interactions with, and its great.

The lack of enough beds in the bedroom will never not annoy me. There’s 4 beds for... Lexi, Liam, Cora, Suvi, Kallo, Vetra and Gil? Even if Liam slept on his couch, and Vetra put a bed in her supply room... still doesn’t add up. What, do Salarains not sleep or something? Does Lexi sleep in a medical bed?!? Peebee sleeps in the escape pod, Jaal brings a bed with him, and Drack’s like “Eh I’ll just sleep in the kitchen”. WHAT? THE KITCHEN?

I mean sure there weren’t enough beds, even with the sleeper pods, on the Normandy either, but somehow that was less disturbing.

Also, I know you’re supposed to HATE Director Tann but I love Kumail Nanjiani so I find it hard to be a total dick to him, even if he usually deserves it. If he wasn’t an anti-Krogan racist I think it’d be easier to like him. He was thrown into a pretty shitty situation and... did actually hold things together for some time. He’s not doing anything out of malice. He’s a dick, but also doing what he needs to do to keep the Initiatiave going. Oh, except for being a anti-krogan racist. (Honestly, I also think “until he turned Cerberus Udina was just doing his job pretty well” too, so...)

Taking some screenshots as I go. I mostly just take screenshots for me now. I have a few thousands screenshots from a dozen or more games rotating through my desktop background, and I keep adding to it, and love it.

Anyway, I’ve gotten Eos, Voeld and Havral to 100%. Time to go save the Moeshe. I’m having fun.

*edit from later* I’d forgotten that... idk if the dialog they recorded for Jaal was the first thing they recorded for him or they used a different VA or what but on the Save the Moshe mission his voice is VERY DIFFERENT and oh man, that is still bad.

Might take a break for when Onslaught comes out for SWTOR, though. I haven’t really played SWTOR in months. Oops.

#personal post tag thingy #annakie's mass effect stuff #doctor who stuff #hey this gets REAL RAMBLY sorry not sorry

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