#mealoredeb

[omegastation]

One of my favorite moments from Habitat 7 is when they find the Remnant structure and start exploring inside. With SAM offline, Ryder is scanning everything and going "oh look another weird alien machine!!!" That is until they find one they can activate and like... they just activate it??? No debate with Liam before, no "hey, maybe it wouldn't be good to do this, I should wait" They’re like "let’s push that button to see what it will do!” And Liam starts losing his shit like "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" And for a few seconds with the noise the machine is making you think "this is it, game over! that thing is going to explode, run!!!!!" but... It just turns on the lights inside the structure. There is a pause and then:

I mean................. Is there a more typical MEA/Ryder moment than this? I don’t think so

[omegastation]

The scene in which Ryder wakes up after the mission on Habitat 7 is full of good little Liam moments. He's there when Ryder wakes up, meaning he's been in SAM Node patiently waiting:

When Cora talks about Alec’s death he reaches out and puts his hand on her shoulder (he shows his support to someone who is basically a stranger to him):

When Ryder talks about being the new Pathfinder, he immediately says he believes they can do well in that role:

And tells them they’re not going to do this alone:

and because Liam knows Ryder worries, he also checks on their sibling for them AND tries to reassure them at the same time:

I really like how thoughtful he is. 

[omegastation]

You know one of my favorite parts about meeting Vetra (besides the obvious)?It's how Cora reacts. When Vetra takes Ben to the side to sort of "bribe" him with the idea of releasing his son from cryo earlier than planned, I thought Cora wouldn't be too happy about that. For some reason I thought "okay by the book Cora is going to make a comment about Vetra, I can already see the mess it will be and the resulting fight on the ship urgh, why do they always do this with those types of characters???? and always female characters I mean NOOOOO"

But what Cora ends up saying is: 

SHE’S EXCITED TO MEET AND WORK WITH VETRA! She’s like “Hell yeah! Let’s go baby!”

It’s beautiful.

[omegastation]

I did a first playthrough of MEA months ago and felt meh about it. Then I went back to it for what I call a lore playthrough (recording everything and checking specific parts of the lore to use it for Mass Effect Lore). I felt better about the game but it wasn't quite the experience I wanted? Now I'm back with Scott Ryder, my main Ryder, to record everything all over again and use the footage to transcribe the games. And I'm having a lot of fun!

I think forcing myself to finish the transcripts first before moving on to other parts of the game has a positive aspect on how I see the game itself. Probably because I don't feel like there is a rush and I am taking my time to explore everything. I need background conversations recorded so I can just walk from place to place just for that. If something happens fast on the screen, I can return to it whenever I want. And by the time I'm done with my transcript and need more footage, I'm really excited to play again. IDK, I think I need that kind of pacing.

Transcribing also helps me because I appreciate the writing of the game more. Some lines are truly brilliant. And I'm really enjoying the very dry humor found in the dialogues. It's familiar and typical Mass Effect. You can find the same type of amusement at the absurdity of it all in the trilogy.

I'm just very happy with MEA right now. And when I don't agree with something it's doing, I'm still much more involved than I was before. It's been really nice.

[omegastation]

I’m going to be Captain Obvious but I legit never noticed before: Kirkland is MEA's Jenkins. 

Like Jenkins, he's from Eden Prime and left the colony to get a fresh shart. He has high hopes and even discusses his new life with other team members... And he doesn’t survive past the first mission. 

They did it on purpose, right? Poor Jenkins and Kirkland.

[omegastation]

Tell you what, I've decided to redo my MEA lore playthrough (for various reasons, including transcript purposes, better vids to use, etc, basically had to do it all over again) and now that I'm back after some time away I'm really amazed by the quality of the graphics. Like seriously, the animations can be off but only on rare occasions and everyone looks gorgeous. REALLY GORGEOUS? I keep staring at everyone with heart eyes.  So the patches really improved the quality of the game. And while it's not perfect (and there are still bugs for sure), I'm really happy they listened to people and kept improving the game. The efforts paid off.

[omegastation]

This is a bit morbid but I wonder what Alec is saying here. There aren't subtitles, he's just talking without us hearing him. It's after the Pathfinder transfer so he might not be talking to SAM? It might be his last words to Ryder (and last words before dying, period). Have the devs/writers said anything about this scene? If so, would love to know!

edit: forgot about the last memory, nevermind!

[omegastation]

One thing really funny I noticed while recording myself playing MEA is that I go back and forth before picking lines like I'm about to make the decision of my life. I'm watching it like... "PICK A LINE DAMMIT!" And right when I think this is it, past!me has made a choice... Noooooo, I actually need more time! What is the right choice between "Wow." and "I'm still the boss."???? Obviously it's "Wow." Five hours to pick that one, jeez.... :D