Bubba's Mass Effect Adventures [Archive] - Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums

Bubba

03-26-2016, 04:19 PM

So yeah, it took me a full hour to even get past the custom character screen. I was intending on playing as a female then once I was happy with my lass... I changed my mind. I decided I wanted to play as me instead. Trying to design someone that looks like you is pretty hard going. You start to question how you actually look and it can be quite depressing! I eventually settled on my young man and I realised too late that my eyes were all wrong. Oh well, too late now.

I proceeded to select 'Colonist' and 'Lone Survivor'. I toyed with the idea of 'War Hero' but decided that after my playthrough of all three games... then they can call me a hero!

My class took me forever too. I had it in my head that I'd go with Infiltrator but I panicked at the last minute and selected Soldier instead.

After playing on PS4 for so long I thought I wouldn't be too keen on the way the game looked with it being on PS3 and the first in series. It looked great though. I also thought I'd get annoyed with the constant conversation choices. Jury is still out on that but I'm actually enjoying that so far.

I started the first section of Eden Prime and it has to be said... Jenkins was asking for it. The poor, daft bastard. I realised pretty much straight away that I'd picked the wrong class. I love the sniper rifle and wasn't keen on rushing ahead to engage. The mechanics on the rifle aren't amazing but I'm sure once it's levelled up it'll get better.

I didn't get in that locked door because my reactions were terrible. I'd accidentally been using omni-gel so I couldn't even use that. I pushed on a bit further and witnessed the death of Nihlus before deciding enough was enough. I'd only just started so I decided to stop there and start again from scratch next time. I'm gonna be an Infiltrator damn it! I like the idea of opening all the doors myself too.

I'm gonna crack on later tonight after my gig or first thing in the morning. It won't take me long to get back to the same point. Enjoying every minute so far though!

theundeadhero

03-26-2016, 10:22 PM

When it comes to character creation in most games I just use the default face. I'll change the hairstyle/color, eye color, and maybe the nose a bit, but I've made some truly horrifying monsters trying to edit faces in the past.

I prefer Infiltrator for two main reasons. The first is that you can pick all the locks yourself. It would get ridiculous trying to get Omni-gel for everything that can be unlocked in this game, and I want the choice to use any party member instead of taking a slot up with someone that can break them. The second is that it's it's a mix between engineer and soldier. You don't sacrifice too much in the way of damage to have the electronics ability. I preferred the pistols to the sniping though.

And yeah, fuck Jenkins. That guy should of remembered his training.

Formalhaut

03-26-2016, 10:56 PM

With the reaction time locks, you can just save beforehand and try again. I messed up a few times until you get the rhythm. Heck, you don't even need to do all of them, they're just loot boxes, and the loot system in this game is annoying as hell.

I can't give you sniper advice, because I never played as a class that could really use snipers effectively in ME 1, 2 or 3 (Vanguard, Adept and Sentinel). I'm not great at sniper rifling, and the thought of concentrating on headshots while under fire is... perturbing.

Bubba

03-28-2016, 10:43 AM

if you don't like it much at first try a new class and give it another try.

Well, I've re-started the game for a third and last time and I think I'm finally happy. The main reason I started again was...

When it comes to character creation in most games I just use the default face. I'll change the hairstyle/color, eye color, and maybe the nose a bit, but I've made some truly horrifying monsters trying to edit faces in the past.

...this. Yeah, I thought my guy looked pretty good when I'd finished. In-game though, he looked like the illicit offspring of an elephant and a village idiot. I've gone with default Shephard as he's much more handsome than I'll ever be.

With the reaction time locks, you can just save beforehand and try again. I messed up a few times until you get the rhythm. Heck, you don't even need to do all of them, they're just loot boxes, and the loot system in this game is annoying as hell.

This is the second reason why I did a third restart. I got the first lock fine but the second one I came across on Eden a prime threw up 2 'X's in a row and I panicked and pressed 'O'. I was not happy. I'm definitely gonna be saving beforehand in future.

Anyway, I restarted and completed the mission on Eden Prime. Very happy that I restarted as I managed to get some decent gear from that Cole guy in the second locked trailer and then some grenades from that coward hiding behind crates where Nihlus was killed. I'm really hoping the sniper rifle gets more stable as while I love it, it's tricky at this point.

Also, I'm a terrible Commander. Towards the end of the level I found some better armour for Ashley but... I... thought she looked better in the white outfit and didn't give it to her. I'm an awful person.

Just arrived in the Citadel and yeah, I want to live here.

Formalhaut

03-28-2016, 11:42 AM

You get some improved aiming mods that will help with that, I'm sure. In 2 and 3, you get some time dilation mechanics when aiming, which is nice.

Freya

03-28-2016, 03:12 PM

Yeah better guns and better mods for them will help. Infiltrator is my go to. In fact I've tried other classes and always end up switching back to infiltrator.

The first game's facial creation sucks. It does. In the second game some "plot reason" happens and you can tweak your face if you want and it's much better in the second game.

Bubba

03-28-2016, 07:36 PM

Yeah better guns and better mods for them will help.

Its just the weapon sway at the minute that's a bit much. I'm still a pretty damn good shot with it. I attribute that to Sniper Wolf battles in Metal Gear Solid when I had no diazepam.

So like the true lone survivor I am, I had a free half an hour whilst my baby is at his grandma's and my fiancée was having her eyebrows done. I've had a nice explore of the Citadel, or the parts of the citadel I can access. Those consorts are a friendly bunch, aren't they? No wonder there's a four-month waiting list. Anyway, I think I've activated some sort of side quest as this consort wants me to confront a guy who is spreading lies about her. No idea where Chora's Den is though so I assume I don't have access yet.

After a nice long walk around the rest of the Citadel (I love it here) I headed for the tower to try and convince the council that this Sarren guy is a baddie. Although, it has to be said that Shephard can't know for sure whether he's actually guilty. We as the player know because we saw the cut scene. Shephard heard the shot, then some untrustworthy smuggler told him that Sarren killed Nihlus. Hmmm, I guess I'll just see how that plays out.

After playing hundreds of hours on Destiny, you can tell already that Bungie took a lot of inspiration from Mass Effect. Only, I've played about an hour or two of this game and it already has more story to it than the entire Destiny world. I've listened to everything in the journal (partly because I'm in love with the guy's voice) and the game seems to have a rich, detailed world. I'm excited for what's to come!

Freya

03-28-2016, 08:00 PM

I think after you talk to them once or something you can then explore more of the citadel and go to different levels, one of those levels is where choras den is. You'll start acquiring new party members as you wander so try to go to a bunch of different places! Once you go to actually leave the citadel and go exploring, go find the last squadmate mission first. I don't want to say too much to spoil anything. Do all the planets first and then save the Virmire planet last as that progresses the story officially further and you can't go back. There's like 3 main missions, one to get the last squadmate, noveria, and another one i'm spacing on. You only need two done to unlock Virmire. But don't go there right when it unlocks, finish everything!

Bubba

03-28-2016, 08:43 PM

No that's great, thank you! I really don't want to miss anything so anything that will advance me too far I definitely need to know about :D

Formalhaut

03-28-2016, 09:02 PM

Yeah, it's rather similar to Dragon Age: Origins, with a central mission flow which opens up in the middle, before funnelling through to the end:

Eden Prime, then Citadel. After that, the game opens up to three main missions taken in any order: Rescue teammate, Feros and Noveria. After completing two of those, Virmire opens up, which you can complete at anytime. After that, you're on a straight path to the end.

Hilariously, this results in the situation where you can rescue the team-mate last, long after the other three primary missions.

Probably the best order is Teammate, Feros, Noveria and finally Virmire.

theundeadhero

03-28-2016, 09:59 PM

Speaking of good commanders and armor: on my last play through the game I was a male soldier Shepard, and I was not exactly a moral compass on Eden Prime. Ashley has armor with better stats than what you start with, so being the solider commander I was, I put that pink armor on myself and gave her the crap I had sitting in my inventory. I'm just going the pretend that's why the council ignored that particular Shepard. He was too pretty.

Sniper rifles get slightly better with sway. I don't remember any mods making it sway less, but you can get ones that reduce its recoil. In ME2 and 3 however, they're amazing.

I'm curious once you recruit your party on the Citadel, who you'll pick and whether you plan to stay with that crew or switch it up throughout the game. If you use the same person through most of the game you get an achievement which unlocks bonuses available the next time you play through the game. For that reason I always get the next crew member mission done first. After that, I fly through all the non-mission planets doing all the quests you find planet-side to level-up a ton and get lots of gear, except for the DLC asteroid and space station. I do those two after Virmire. Make sure you go to Earth's Moon as soon as you get the mission though. The reward is worth it.

Remember to talk to your crew after every planet for the conversation and to sell the extra stuff you don't need. If you do that you'll never run into the extra annoying problem of not having enough inventory space.

Bubba

03-29-2016, 01:45 PM

Sniper rifles get slightly better with sway. I don't remember any mods making it sway less, but you can get ones that reduce its recoil. In ME2 and 3 however, they're amazing.

Well that's encouraging. I'm sure I can stick out a poor sniper mechanic in the first game if it's corrected in the last two. Like I said, I'm a pretty good shot with it anyway.

I'm curious once you recruit your party on the Citadel, who you'll pick and whether you plan to stay with that crew or switch it up throughout the game.

I had another little tinkle last night and don't think I've recruited anyone yet apart from Kaiden and Ashley which are both clearly automatic. I met with the council and yeah, that was pointless. They'll do bog all about Saren without proof and to be honest, I agree with them! I was put onto a lead to find this Harkin guy in Choras Den who can help. It doesn't sound like he'll be a recruit though. I guess and I 'll just go and see what's shaking in Choras Den as I have two reasons to go there now!

I clearly should have got there before now but I keep meeting people with sidequests for me! I met this guy called Chorban who wants me to scan all the bloody Keepers. His name was far too similar to Corban Dallas from The Fifth Element so every time I found a Keeper and scanned it I would say "Corban Dallas Multipass!" because I am an actual freak. Anyway, I've been round the Citadel twice and pretty sure I found all the Keepers. Just gonna head to Choras Den now to meet my two contacts and hopefully complete Corban Dallas' sidequest too :D

Freya

03-29-2016, 02:43 PM

There are three squadmates at the citadel so make sure to look for them all!

Formalhaut

03-29-2016, 03:10 PM

Not that they're hard to miss.

Bubba

03-30-2016, 10:00 AM

Decent progress this morning!

Recruited Garrus who I do like a lot. He has a great voice. He then put me on the track to find Wrex so I now have a Turian and a Krogan on my team :D. After quite a bit of dilly-dallying, I decided on Ashley and Wrex as I thought I'd opt for a balanced team as opposed to the characters I actually like.

Fist never stood a chance. I've been getting some practice in with the pistol and I managed to clear out Chora's Den with little fuss. I wasn't impressed with Wrex executing Fist without asking. He hasn't made a great first impression on me so far.

We then took out an assassin and were introduced to Tali. Don't know what to make of her yet. She's definitely a badass but she seems a bit cold. I quite liked the story of her pilgrimage though. Plus, she had the evidence to expose Saren.

I completed Xeltan's side quest now I just need to head over to the Asari consort to complete that one. God knows where the rest of the Keepers are... it feels like I've scanned a thousand of the smurfers.

My final action was to decide on a new team. It's weird how I've changed about certain members. After an initial infatuation with Ashley I've definitely cooled towards her. She's just a bit meh... I prefer the bantz with Kaidan. I ended up picking Garrus and Kaidan. It's a pretty unbalanced team as Garrus and Shepard have the same set of skills. As long as I mix up which abilities I increase for them it should still be pretty balanced, I reckon.

EDIT: I'm a Spectre now :D

Freya

03-30-2016, 12:53 PM

Yes! Kaidan is the best!

Also garrus is the best. I played infiltrator and still had him around cause he's a great character!

There are soooo many keepers. It takes me a really long time to get them all.

theundeadhero

03-30-2016, 07:34 PM

Have you checked the docks just up past your ship for a keeper? There's 3-4 in the presidium as well, especially off to the sides where you wouldn't normally go.

Ashley and Wrex was my team the first time I played through the game so I was excited, but then you changed it :( I like Garrus a little more in the other games than this one. He's alright, but choosing between him and Wrex I just like Wrex better. Sure, he just went in and shot the guy, but you knew he was a merc hired to do just that :p I've never liked anything about Kaidan. I like talking to Tali, but she's rarely on my team.

Onward, to space!

Freya

03-30-2016, 07:37 PM

I actually had Wrex and Garrus. Lizard-like men for the win!

Mr. Carnelian

03-31-2016, 12:30 AM

You're getting along at a much faster pace then I would have thought, Bubba. I can't believe you're a Spectre already! I actually started replaying Mass Effect myself early last week, so this thread really couldn't have come at a better time. Looking forward to finding out which of the main missions you do first!

theundeadhero

03-31-2016, 05:27 AM

I actually replayed the first two last week and am on the third one now, too :p

Bubba

03-31-2016, 08:44 AM

Have you checked the docks just up past your ship for a keeper? There's 3-4 in the presidium as well, especially off to the sides where you wouldn't normally go

Yeah, I got the one just past the ship. Maybe I've finished it and I don't even know? The guy is no longer at the Citadel Tower so I can't even ask him.

You're getting along at a much faster pace then I would have thought, Bubba. I can't believe you're a Spectre already! I actually started replaying Mass Effect myself early last week, so this thread really couldn't have come at a better time. Looking forward to finding out which of the main missions you do first!

Haha, cheers Mr C. I'm quite surprised myself actually considering how busy I've been with exercise and baby duties. I'm away in Birmingham this weekend so I won't get any done then. Gonna try and squeeze a session in tonight or tomorrow. Heads up though, I'm gonna go and recruit my new team member straight away to see what they're like :D

I actually replayed the first two last week and am on the third one now, too :p

Damn man, you played the first two games in one week? I have a feeling it will take me decidedly longer!

Freya

03-31-2016, 06:13 PM

Oh man I am so excited for you. You'll finally understand my nerdy ME fitness shirt after you finish this game or at least past a certain part in ME1 :excited: I just thought of that haha

theundeadhero

03-31-2016, 07:23 PM

Well, I had some extra time off because of Easter break. I also get exp faster from having beaten it before, and I don't have to read the dialogue because I know what it says and where to go already :p

Bubba

04-01-2016, 08:47 AM

Oh man I am so excited for you. You'll finally understand my nerdy ME fitness shirt after you finish this game or at least past a certain part in ME1 :excited: I just thought of that haha

I've completely forgotten what that looks like! You'll have to show me again once I've reached that part :D

Onward, to space!

Erm, not quite. One thing you should know about me is that I'm easily distracted... hence I'm sat at work posting about my Mass Effect adventures as opposed to actually working.

I couldn't let that last keeper lie (it turns out I only needed one) and after another tour of the Citadel, I found the pesky little critter hiding in the Flux Casino. Side quest done! The only problem with touring the Citadel is that I picked up another five bastard quests on my way round. I helped Jenna the barmaid in Chora's Den, found an optical disc for Reporter Wong (who I was hoping to hit on but no joy), stopped some weird floaty thing from preaching crap & helped a man recover the body of his wife from the authorities. He was really sweet actually.

My personal favourite was after talking to a guy called Jaleed, I think. He sent me over to Chorban Dallas Multipass and I actually found out that scanning all those Keepers was actually illegal (I probably should have guessed, tbh) and I then told him in no uncertain terms that I would no longer be scanning any Keepers for him. No way!
Chorban Dallas Multipass: "Bu... but! You've already scanned them all!"
Shepard: "Sshhhhh Multipass, sshhhhhh"

Oh, there was another one as well. I'm not sure it was a side quest though as it activated automatically when I got to the casino. Some dodgy guy was chucked out for using a machine to cheat. I told him I'd have a go with it and then got into a conversation with the casino owner. It gave me the option to turn the guy in. I'm not much of a gambler so I did! I felt a bit guilty when I went out and talked to him though as he'd been working on it for years. Then I came to my senses and thought "Smurf you man, don't cheat!"

I think I may have activated another sidequest when I examined a 'Suspicious Gambling Device' in the Flux Casino. There was no clear indication of what to do though. Maybe I have to come back to that once I've been out in space a bit, idk :shrug:

theundeadhero

04-01-2016, 09:06 AM

If you're playing a renegade Shepard then one day soon you will learn how amused I am at the phrase hitting on reporters.

Formalhaut

04-01-2016, 10:58 AM

If you're playing a renegade Shepard then one day soon you will learn how amused I am at the phrase hitting on reporters.

I recall that she punches you back in ME 3.

Nonetheless, I always did the interviews paragon-style. Though I did enjoy the more badass renegade interrupts in ME 2 and 3.

Pheesh

04-01-2016, 11:02 AM

Making me want to replay this series now. Think I'm gonna have to dust off Origin as the ME trilogy are literally the only games I have for it.

Freya

04-01-2016, 02:41 PM

Have you met conrad yet?! He's the best. He's a NPC guy in all three games.

Bubba

04-01-2016, 03:06 PM

Have you met conrad yet?! He's the best. He's a NPC guy in all three games.

Actually, I think I have. Isn't he that proper creeper who asks for my autograph? I think I gave it to him (the autograph) because I'm vain but then he just left? I haven't seen him since :shrug:

Can I assume he returns at some point? I can't even remember where I saw him!

Freya

04-01-2016, 04:21 PM

Yeah that's probably him. He LOVES you! You're the best :)

Bubba

04-01-2016, 04:34 PM

You're the best :)

Well, I wasn't gonna be the first one to say but yeah... can't argue with that.

I'm actually a bit gutted that I'm going to Birmingham this weekend. Now I'm commander of the Normandy, I want to take her out for a spin!

Maybe I should cart my PS3 down there?

Formalhaut

04-02-2016, 01:51 AM

Mass Effect does a good job of having recurring characters crop up. Make sure to keep an eye on them!

Bubba

04-02-2016, 09:44 AM

Mass Effect does a good job of having recurring characters crop up. Make sure to keep an eye on them!

I certainly will! I plan to head back to the Citadel after each system that I complete.

So I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning because my body hates me. I decided to make the most of the time by doing a workout then having a quick 30 mins on Mass Effect. I can't get enough of this game at the minute. It has me hooked!

I decided to leave the Citadel for now. Any sidequests I'll hopefully be able to pick up upon my return from my first space trip! Eager to recruit a new member, I headed for the Artemis Tau cluster and had a nice tour around the system. It is a miserable Saturday morning here in England so I thought I would head to Athens first for a bit of sunshine! Clearly the ongoing issues with the Greek economy has had an effect on tourism here as they don't allow you to fucking land anywhere. While it was interesting learning about the five planets here I was disappointed that's all I could do :(

I set course for the next system which went by the name of Knossos. Again, there were five planets but only one I could actually land on! Now I know that some planets consist of gas and are impossible to land on but come on, game! Give me something! What's that? You did? Oh yes... there was one planet I could land on. Therum.

Unfortunately, all my space wandering had cut short my time. As soon as Therum materialised I had to save my progress and head off to work. This was a real shame as I'd appeared in a badass buggy that I could navigate the planet in! This just has me mega-excited to crack on with it when I'm back from my trip. Damn friends and their inconvenience :argh:

theundeadhero

04-02-2016, 08:18 PM

While the Mako sounds cool, I wish the ME series would stay away from vehicles. Whoever designed the physics of that thing deserves to be punched in the dick. Straight deserves it.

Athens is literally the only system in the whole game with no planet/spaceship to land on :p

Formalhaut

04-02-2016, 09:46 PM

Most systems have at least one landable planet, but don't go expecting every planet to be explorable. :p

Bubba

04-06-2016, 12:46 PM

Finally booted this bad boy back up this morning!

I was at the start of Therum on my quest for my next crew member. My initial excitement for having materialised in the cool-looking Mako Land Rover was extremely short-lived. Trying to turn this bastard around in tight spot was the equivalent trying to turn a blue whale around in a swimming pool with no water. I agree with theundeadhero and his penis-punching suggestion.

The weapons on the Mako were not amazing either. You have to be pretty damn precise with the grenade otherwise it misses entirely. Also, the machine gun is weeeeeeak. At one point I actually got out and tried to snipe the Geth from a distance. I quickly discovered that one hit from them results in instant death and from that moment, I vowed to keep Shepard's arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

I actually made pretty good progress before that first death. I'd taken out the few stray Geths on the road before arriving at a bunker. I took the sneaky side road to flank the place and took out all the enemies and three gun turrets with minimal damage. Also, my decryption skills are top notch now :cool:

Following my silly death, I was very cautious when proceeding even from inside my Rover. I came across a few more easily-killed Geth before coming face-to-face with (shock horror) A GETH COLOSSUS!! Honestly, after playing Shadow of the Colossus, this guy was not worthy of the name. He clearly has an inferiority complex and has just given himself a completely inappropriate macho name. He was down after two grenades.

After a couple of tunnels I was forced to ditch the Mako, squeeze through a gap and continue on foot. It was actually nice to bring the old pistol and sniper rifle back into play. There were quite a few waves of enemies that came at me and I must be a terrible commander because Garrus keeps taking loads of damage. I love the guy but I might need to change him for an out-and-out soldier at some point.

Hoo boy, am I ever glad I saved before I got to this cut-scene at the top of a hill. I'm not joking, it took me about 15 attempts at this bit with all of us getting jumped by a load of enemies and one-shot killed by these really smurfing annoying jumpy skinny-frog things. I finally figured out that I was hiding behind the wrong crate which gave them too many angles on us. I ran behind a different crate to the left and it shielded as all pretty well. Managed to take everything out finally with all my team still alive (just!)

I've just entered a new tunnel and a new environment and I'm guessing I'm not too far from the end. All my fannying about with those scrawny lizard-frog-monkeys left me short on time though. I'm eager to to meet my new team-mate though so I'll be carrying on later tonight!

Formalhaut

04-06-2016, 02:08 PM

After a couple of tunnels I was forced to ditch the Mako, squeeze through a gap and continue on foot. It was actually nice to bring the old pistol and sniper rifle back into play. There were quite a few waves of enemies that came at me and I must be a terrible commander because Garrus keeps taking loads of damage. I love the guy but I might need to change him for an out-and-out soldier at some point.

Garrus is odd because he's definitely very squishy, which I wasn't expecting. He's less tech-orientated than Tali, so she ends up having more shields than Garrus. He's pretty much a glass cannon, really.

Hoo boy, am I ever glad I saved before I got to this cut-scene at the top of a hill. I'm not joking, it took me about 15 attempts at this bit with all of us getting jumped by a load of enemies and one-shot killed by these really smurfing annoying jumpy skinny-frog things. I finally figured out that I was hiding behind the wrong crate which gave them too many angles on us. I ran behind a different crate to the left and it shielded as all pretty well. Managed to take everything out finally with all my team still alive (just!)

Yeah, that section is very difficult. It's probably the worst for an infiltrator, as you can't really use sniper rifles against a moving target. The key with that section is to find the right cover and just hug it at all times until a hopper stops hopping for a while. It's easier to do if you've levelled a tad (as in, not go straight to Therum).

Bubba

04-06-2016, 02:47 PM

Yeah, that section is very difficult. It's probably the worst for an infiltrator, as you can't really use sniper rifles against a moving target. The key with that section is to find the right cover and just hug it at all times until a hopper stops hopping for a while. It's easier to do if you've levelled a tad (as in, not go straight to Therum).

Hopper! That's a much better name for them. Yeah, they were doing all the damage where I was originally hiding. They could hop so quickly from one position to another and because there were two of them they kept zapping me. Hugging the left hand crate worked a treat though as they both appeared in a good position for me to shoot. I was just patient with the rest and we got the job done.

I suppose whichever system you choose to explore first will be tricky because levels are still pretty low. I'm glad I persevered with all those side quests at the Citadel!

Formalhaut

04-06-2016, 03:03 PM

True enough. Doing all the available sidequests in the Citadel (no matter how boring) is generally enough levels to see you through one of the main quests, though I would say Therum is probably the easiest of them.

Pumpkin

04-06-2016, 03:37 PM

I haven't played the first one, only the second, so I don't want to spoil this for myself. Let me know when you get to 2 though :D

theundeadhero

04-06-2016, 07:47 PM

Using tech or biotic powers on hoppers is generally the way to go. You can tell your teammates to use them too.
Are you zooming in with the Mako for more precise shots?

Skyblade

04-07-2016, 01:38 PM

Using tech or biotic powers on hoppers is generally the way to go. You can tell your teammates to use them too.
Are you zooming in with the Mako for more precise shots?

I always try to ditch the Mako when attacking things. Ever since I learned that it cuts your Exp by 90%. Always try to finish foes off on foot. You get so much more experience.

Bubba

04-07-2016, 02:46 PM

I haven't played the first one, only the second, so I don't want to spoil this for myself. Let me know when you get to 2 though :D

I'll give you a shout when I'm there. Making decent progress so far :D

Using tech or biotic powers on hoppers is generally the way to go. You can tell your teammates to use them too.

Yeah, I've been kind of ignoring these but as you'll see from my next update, they are very useful.

Are you zooming in with the Mako for more precise shots?

I was just using the shoulder buttons as I would with Shepard so yeah, pretty sure I was zooming. If the Mako crops up again on another planet I'll have a bit of a tinkle

I always try to ditch the Mako when attacking things. Ever since I learned that it cuts your Exp by 90%. Always try to finish foes off on foot. You get so much more experience.

Great tip, cheers! I just need to work on not dying when I try that.

Update Time!

I've went into the main complex on Therum and headed down the tunnel system. No trouble apart from a few geths and after heading down the elevator I came across Liara trapped in a weird blue force field. I was reminded of Frodo trapped in Shelob's web only you know, if Frodo was a long, beautiful, blue alien. I will save you, fair maiden!

I went down to the ground floor to find a way past this force field and got into a bit of a scrap with more baddies. I used my pistol and went "pew! pew! pew!" until they were dead. I lasered my way under the barrier and was introduced to the lovely Liara. I luuuurve her. I thought she was a bit uptight at first but no, she's awesome. The boss battle at the end with the Krogan was a bit tense and took me a few attempts. You don't get much of a chance to find cover, do you?! My first attempt all three of us were dead literally three seconds after the cut scene ended. I eventually tried using Garrus' Overkill and Shepard and Kaiden's specials right at the start of the fight. This did the trick and I was able to take care of everyone and finish off the Krogan.

I'm back at the Citadel now. The cut scene was great and I had a big chat with everyone on the Normandy. Here are my thoughts on my team so far.

Ashley: Don't like her. She's a committed soldier but she's a bit of a dick. Plus, after chatting to her in the Normandy she's clearly racist. Go away.
Garrus: A cool cat. He's interesting and makes a lot of sense. He has good bantz too :-)
Kaidan: My bro. He takes his job seriously but is not dickish about it like Ashley.
Wrex: Don't see eye-to-eye with him at all. We had a bit of a to-do on the cargo hold. Won't be using him anytime soon.
Tali: She's interesting but I'm still not sure about her personality. I may include her on a trip soon to get to know her better.
Liara: I love her. We chatted for ages on the Normandy. She talked about intimacy and mental connections and yeah... I want to "connect" with her.

Freya

04-07-2016, 03:15 PM

Love at first blue lady sight it seems!

Skyblade

04-07-2016, 04:20 PM

I always try to ditch the Mako when attacking things. Ever since I learned that it cuts your Exp by 90%. Always try to finish foes off on foot. You get so much more experience.

Great tip, cheers! I just need to work on not dying when I try that.

How to kill a Thresher Maw:

Sit in the Mako, move up to the range where it pops up and starts spitting acid. Don't move, and jump over the acid spit. Fire cannon shots until you're worried about killing it (one or two shots, then jump over acid, and repeat), then switch to the machine gun to whittle it down even more.

Once it's almost dead, wait to dodge another acid spit, then exit the Mako and immediately shoot it with your most powerful weapon (usually a Sniper Rifle). Should kill it before you get in trouble. And, since you're "supposed" to take them on in the Mako, the extra experience you get is amazing.

Sniper Rifles are my weapon of choice through most of the game, but they are by far the best for overworld exploration. Enemies have maximum engagement ranges, and don't regenerate health. Find ledges to hide behind, pop out and shoot a foe, then duck back and wait for the shooting to stop. Rinse and repeat.

I think the Mako experience drop was designed to keep you from cheesing through some fights with the Mako when it's supposed to be a challenging fight. Like, "okay, you can do it that way, but you'll get almost nothing for experience".

But to compensate for this, any section which is designed around the Mako is usually filled with enemies that give 10x the normal experience. So, hopping out of the Mako and taking them out on foot will give you ridiculous experience. Learn to use cover and snipe, and do that instead of using the Mako. It's worth it.

Geth armatures, Thresher Maws, Missile Turrets. Snipe and hide, but kill them on foot. The experience is so worth it.

Formalhaut

04-07-2016, 06:18 PM

I'm back at the Citadel now. The cut scene was great and I had a big chat with everyone on the Normandy. Here are my thoughts on my team so far.

Ashley: Don't like her. She's a committed soldier but she's a bit of a dick. Plus, after chatting to her in the Normandy she's clearly racist. Go away.
Garrus: A cool cat. He's interesting and makes a lot of sense. He has good bantz too :-)
Kaidan: My bro. He takes his job seriously but is not dickish about it like Ashley.
Wrex: Don't see eye-to-eye with him at all. We had a bit of a to-do on the cargo hold. Won't be using him anytime soon.
Tali: She's interesting but I'm still not sure about her personality. I may include her on a trip soon to get to know her better.
Liara: I love her. We chatted for ages on the Normandy. She talked about intimacy and mental connections and yeah... I want to "connect" with her.

Yeah, Ashley is a bit of a dick. I didn't even really notice in my first play-through, but I've been playing ME: 1 recently and one of the comments Ashley makes if you talk to her on the Citadel is atrocious:

"Here on the Citadel I can't tell the aliens from the animals." - Wow. Just wow. My opinion of Ashley dropped like a rock as soon as she said that.

As for Wrex, I actually rather liked him, though he comes across as ruthless and cold at first. Stick with him though, and be sure to gain his loyalty, as he becomes vital to getting golden solutions to problems in ME: 2 and ME: 3.

EDIT: Also, everything that Skyblade said about the Mako is right; you do get a ton of experience if you forego the Mako. Having said that, you really don't need to. Mr. Carny finished ME: 1 at level 57 (though that was with a 25% boost, he got about 45 first time), which is plenty to finish the game with.

Bubba

04-09-2016, 11:19 PM

Man, I love this game!

Quick Citadel update: Stopped a girl from committing suicide. Spoke to Conrad Creepface (he scares the s**t out of me) again, helped Dr. Michele with her drug deal, someone inspected my ship, helped Miss Wong again. She's hot.

Decided to explore the galaxy and went to asteroid X-57 which turned out to be a big smurfing mission! Seriously, I've been playing this asteroid for two days. It was magic though, turned off three asteroid torches, they were sending this bad boy to kill 4M people. Lucky I was here, really.

Garrus is still light-weight. I'm gonna take Wrex with me next time. I can't get rid of Liara though as I love her.

Pumpkin

04-10-2016, 12:57 AM

Freya

04-10-2016, 01:06 AM

Oh yeah kind of spoilery I guess if you plan to play a lady in ME:2 and carry over your data in ME:3 (which I doubt since you're playing a dude, I think) but APPARENTLY

If you romance Jacob, as I did, he friggin cheats on you? Screw you Jacob :stare:
AND gets a girl preggo! Like doesn't even stick with you or anything just goes and starts a family while you're off saving the galaxy.

Formalhaut

04-10-2016, 01:09 AM

Oh yeah kind of spoilery I guess if you plan to play a lady in ME:2 and carry over your data in ME:3 (which I doubt since you're playing a dude, I think) but APPARENTLY

If you romance Jacob, as I did, he friggin cheats on you? Screw you Jacob :stare:

Yeah, he does. This won't affect Bubba unless he plans to not transfer his character over, but it does suck. I've never romanced Jacob myself (I've only played ME once through) but learning that made me go off him.

Plus, he's even more of a boring character than Kaiden was in ME: 1. At least Kaiden had his L2 implant injuries as an interesting point. Jacob is just pretty dull. Saw this on YouTube: it was mildly amusing.

67861

Pumpkin

04-10-2016, 01:13 AM

I liked him, he was a nice dude. I mean I wanted to romance Tali but that wasn't an option and he started hitting on me before Garrus so I was like "eh, could do worse"

AND THEN HE TURNS IN TO A DIRTBAG WHY

Formalhaut

04-10-2016, 01:35 AM

While we're on the subject of romances, who are you going to romance, Bubba? Are you set on Liara?

Rantz

04-10-2016, 08:07 AM

Bubba

04-10-2016, 09:36 AM

If you romance Jacob, as I did, he friggin cheats on you? Screw you Jacob :stare:

What a prick. Yeah, I'm playing as male Shepard so no Jacob for me.

Plus, he's even more of a boring character than Kaiden was in ME: 1.

:Freybert:

While we're on the subject of romances, who are you going to romance, Bubba? Are you set on Liara?
If she'll have me :flirt:

I'd be quite interested in seeing a Shepard/Kaidan romance but not sure if that is an option. At the moment though yeah, I'm only seeing in blue at the minute.

Of course, this is all a mere side event to me saving the Galaxy. I'm a commander and a Spectre and need to focus on the job in hand.

I may neglect my duties if Liara hits on me though. I'm a terrible commander.

Formalhaut

04-10-2016, 03:47 PM

M!Shep and Kaiden is an option... but only in Mass Effect 3. I know, it's very dumb. BioWare is very LGBT-friendly now, but when it came to Mass Effect they were very slow on getting same-sex romances in the games.

ME: 1 had, at best, a F!Shep and Liara, but that doesn't even count because Asari aren't technically female. As far as I'm aware, ME: 2 has no same-sex romance options whatsoever, which is bizarre given how many crew members you're given. Dummied content even suggests that a few members would have been bisexual, but got cut. Finally, ME: 3 goes all out with a decent selection, but it is a long wait to get there.

For what it's worth, with my new M!Shep I do intend to romance Kaiden, which means me going without his sexy face for ME: 1 and ME: 2. :shrug:

It's dumb. Dragon Age was way more upfront from the very first game. Perhaps they didn't want to offend anyone on their flagship series, but it is disappointing.

EDIT: And about Kaiden; he isn't boring, as such. They just didn't do much with his character. Don't worry, he is much more interesting me ME: 2 and ME: 3, but in ME: 1 he's just this nice guy. I still prefer him to space racist Ashley though.

theundeadhero

04-10-2016, 07:46 PM

In ME2 femshep can romance Kelly Chambers. It doesn't count towards the paramour achievement since she isn't a playable character, but it's there.

Freya

04-10-2016, 11:08 PM

Formalhaut

04-10-2016, 11:11 PM

Actually, it's in the coding of ME1 that mShep and Kaidan can be together. There's mods that you can use to use it. They just decided to change it when they published, probably someone somewhere said no guy on guy thing. I guess it's a good thing because at the time people flipped a lid about seeing a side booty of the ladies. I remember it on the news and they were complaining about it. Imagine the fallout if it was guy on guy too. I guess it came when it could.

I know, it's just disappointing, tis' all. ME: 1 I can sort of understand, but by ME: 2, surely the series was popular enough to shield itself from idiots? I know Thane was dummied out of being a bisexual option.

Bubba

04-11-2016, 12:22 PM

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

So I was exploring Sharjila in the Macedon System. It was a pretty cool planet but it had a level 1 pressure warning so I couldn't leave the Mako for too long or else I'd start losing health. I'd surveyed pretty much the entire planet, found 3 minerals as well as a downed probe. The last thing I spotted was a guarded compound that fired lasers at you when you got too close.

Now here, a smart person would have saved the game then try to take on the compound. Not me! I exited the Mako and tried to snipe whatever the hell they were from distance. Whilst faffing trying to get a decent aim, the pressure started to reduce my health. I stood up to run back to the Mako and got shot in the arse by a laser and died. Cue having to play the whole thing again.

I repeat. Stupid.

Skyblade

04-11-2016, 01:04 PM

Bubba

04-13-2016, 11:52 AM

Completed Sharjila with plenty of saves! Used the Mako to take out the lasers and sniped any stray pirates from distance. The compound was tricky though. A few heavily armoured pirates and a couple of snipers made it tricky. The reason it took me a few attempts though was because there was one biotic enemy on the upper level that wiped me quite quickly a few times. I'll have to try and work out the best strategy for them. Advice?

Since then I've been side-questing my ass off. Checked my journal and had a few not completed. Found the last of the three bodies on asteroid X-57, my Sharjila mission was actually part of a side-quest I'd forgotten that I initiated. I took evidence back to Nassana and she's giving me discount on lots of cool stuff. Whoo hoo!

Also, I'm gonna ask a daft question now. How do I sell/convert any old crap gear I've got? I'm probably missing something really obvious but I've got a load of rubbish gear I don't need and I don't want to run out of space.

The last side-quest I did was a doozy. Admiral Kahoku told me about some missing marines on Edolus so I thought I'd take a gander. The planet was simple enough to start with (a few minerals and items) until I discovered the bodies of a load of marines. This huge worm thing came out of the ground and I immediately thought of one of my favourite B-movies, Tremors. Yeah, I struggled with this guy as he wrecked my Mako a few times. It was an enjoyable fight though as I kept thinking of quotes from Tremors as I was fighting him. "Ain't no way Chang is getting his slick mitts on this for no fifteen bucks!" Judging by my number of deaths, I probably should have just concentrated though. My penultimate attempt I got him down to a sliver of energy then got out of the vehicle and tried to snipe him. Bad move. Stayed in the Mako for the last attempt though and finished him off. Side quest done and more to do later on tonight!

Freya

04-13-2016, 02:45 PM

Formalhaut

04-13-2016, 02:51 PM

Yeah, thresher maws are a dick. I hate any enemy that has an instant kill move, and burrowing up from underneath you is an instant kill, including within the mako.

:roll2

The best way to deal with biotics or tech people is to bring someone with damping to shut them down, as well as using radioactive rounds to increase their cooldown period.

theundeadhero

04-13-2016, 09:08 PM

You can sell your stuff at any store in the game. The guy downstairs in your ship between Garrus and the hallway to Tali is a good spot if you're not in a city.

Formalhaut

04-13-2016, 09:17 PM

Yeah, on the purchasing menu, press left or right to access 'sell' and 'buyback'.

Which you'll be doing plenty of, trust me. Half of this game is as much a 'shoot n' loot' than Borderlands is.

Bubba

04-14-2016, 11:06 PM

Cheers for the assistance, both of you. Managed to sell a load of crap at the end of tonight's session. Bloody good job too because at the end of the mission, a warning flashed up saying I had used 144/150 spaces in my inventory. Just in the nick of time!

Grab some Devlon armor. Their stuff makes you immune to environmental hazards.

Not sure I have any of this but after a thorough cleanse of my items everyone is pretty kitted out, I'd say. Cheers!

So, I was scouring the ME universe pondering my next mission when I came across our own solar system. After reading what mankind had done with it in the future (fascinating stuff, really), it was then that I remembered this little titbit from earlier in the thread.

Make sure you go to Earth's Moon as soon as you get the mission though. The reward is worth it.

Right, that's the boy for me.

Did a quick scout of the moon and took out some turrets before circling in and making my way to the main compound. Nearly lost my Mako from getting too close but managed to take out the six turrets and save my game. So yeah, three identical underground bases which was slightly disappointing but they were challenging and enjoyable. The first one nearly wiped me within about ten seconds. I learned quickly that going in all guns blazing was a bad move. After using a few medi-gels, I retreated to the first tunnel and took out those flying robot things with my sniper. Proceeding with caution wins the day, I found. The remaining two bunkers were slightly more difficult but my brave and valiant hide-in-the-first-tunnel technique worked wonders.

Moon completed and now I understand why theundeadhero suggested coming here. Got a new specialised class! I went with the commando option which gave me more firepower and increased my marksman skills. There's no stopping me now! BUT! That wasn't the most exciting thing that happened tonight! Things have progressed between me and Liara!!

After cleansing my gear, I decided to have a chat with my team on the Normandy and there were a few new conversational options. After chatting with Kaidan and Garrus, I turned my attentions to the lovely Liara. She said she was fascinated with me (who can blame her?) and asked whether there was anything between me and Ashley. Unfortunately, "I wouldn't touch the bint with a ten-foot barge pole" wasn't an option... though I assured her we were just friends (if that). She then asked if the attraction between her and myself was mutual. Obvs I said "Sure thing, baby". Dunno if I came across as too eager though as she said she didn't want to rush anything. That's fine, I'm happy for this to be a slow burner for now.

I saved it there but am fully intending on having a chat to Ashley tomorrow. Hopefully she'll come on to me too then I can tell her I'd rather be put on a waiting list for experimental pile surgery.

Formalhaut

04-14-2016, 11:13 PM

Did a quick scout of the moon and took out some turrets before circling in and making my way to the main compound. Nearly lost my Mako from getting too close but managed to take out the six turrets and save my game. So yeah, three identical underground bases which was slightly disappointing but they were challenging and enjoyable. The first one nearly wiped me within about ten seconds. I learned quickly that going in all guns blazing was a bad move. After using a few medi-gels, I retreated to the first tunnel and took out those flying robot things with my sniper. Proceeding with caution wins the day, I found. The remaining two bunkers were slightly more difficult but my brave and valiant hide-in-the-first-tunnel technique worked wonders.

Yeah, that mission is difficult if you do it as soon as you can (level 20, which you should).

Your tactic was a good one. The rocket drones can really rip you to shreds, so the best tactic is to camp in the first room. Send your squad to wait either side of the doors, then move forward yourself just enough to alert a few drones. Run back to the first room and pick them off from there, dodging any missile strikes.

The best method is to not alert the entire group of drones. If you do that, you're pretty much screwed, but luring 3 or 4 away is doable.

As for the bases - ME: 1 is like DA: 2 in that many of the environments are recycled. There's like two or three environments on uncharted worlds, and that's about it. It gets better in ME: 2, though by that point there's no longer any uncharted worlds, just side missions, companion quests and main missions.

theundeadhero

04-15-2016, 01:38 AM

The first time I went in one of those rooms the destroyed me, so the second I followed the same tactic and did well. I kinda wish I had done the more drones in each building one first, since more means more exp, but I always forget on each playthrough, so ehhh. I like choosing commando as well. With max points put into it, you're literally unstoppable and never overheat pistols.

Bubba

04-15-2016, 01:29 PM

Also, I've had a bit of a U-turn with Wrex. Garrus was taking far too much damage even when he had decent armour. As much as I love his dialogue, he's been relegated to the sidelines.

My team now consists of Liara and Wrex. Currently building up Liara's bio attacks whilst I'm turning Wrex into my tank :D

Formalhaut

04-15-2016, 02:11 PM

Wrex basically forms your tank in ME: 1. Very sturdy, massive health pools - I'd dump a good deal of your early points into his defensive talents. His biotics aren't the greatest anyway.

Freya

04-15-2016, 05:14 PM

Plus Wrex is awesome. So bring him cause of that.

Bubba

04-15-2016, 05:29 PM

Plus Wrex is awesome. So bring him cause of that.

He's slowly coming back into my good books but I'm still on the fence about him at the minute. He's there mainly for battle purposes. He's got character though!

Skyblade

04-15-2016, 08:13 PM

Formalhaut

04-15-2016, 08:20 PM

Wrex grows on you. He's at his most ruthless in ME: 1, but as I said earlier, stick with him.

Anyway, I need to vent because thresher maws are scary and I hate him. So I land on my first planet (Edolus, the missing marines mission) and I tentatively creep up to the beacon signal. I know I'm prone to exaggeration, but I'm not in this case. I literally find thresher maws terrifying. They can kill you in one hit, are ugly, and can burrow from underneath you, killing you instantly.

So I encounter it, as expected. I backtrack slightly to give it distance, and it burrows back in. Oh smurf. But, you know, it does that all the time! As long as you're not driving around recklessly, it can't hurt you. I'm backtracking, and look what smurfing comes up right in front of me? That pissy little death phallus. I was fortunate that it wasn't directly under me, or I'd be dead instantly. For what it was worth, I did have time to reload a save and angrily thrust the controller into Mr. Carny's direction to deal with it. So it wasn't a death, but for me it was in all but name.

I hate instant death (ME: 3 loves this, by the way). I hate dying in video games. I hate smurfing surprise jump scares that kill you. I hate smurfing thresher maws.

I hope to hell they're not back in Andromeda.

Bubba

05-02-2016, 10:04 AM

So yeah, I've done far too much fannying around with side quests. I decided to take the plunge and do the my second main mission. I decided to go with Feros because well... it comes first in the alphabet.

I was excited when I parked the Normandy up. This excitement was short-lived however as the geth made me feel about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. It took all of six seconds leaving my ship before having my arse shot at. Luckily for me, I'm over level 30 now so I was pretty well equipped to give these guys a sound spanking.

I fought my way through to large room where the colonists had gathered and chatted to their leader, Fai Dan. Wasn't he one of the characters from Mortal Kombat? Anyway, I had to head into their tunnel system to help them out with their geth problem. Having not long completed a expert run of The Last of Us, my exploration skills are pretty damn impressive. Managed to nail a few side quests.

Killed those annoying Varren dog-type things, fixed three water terminals and recovered a power cell from a downed transport. Fai Dan and his buddies were pleased with my work :D

Mako'd across a bridge and found another group of colonists. Couple more side quests done as I recovered some dudes laptop (come on, man. iCloud is the future) and found a scientists daughter. Then I ended up shooting a guy in the face. He was a bit mental though and not sure I had any other choice.

Onward to the end! It turns out this ugly-ass plant was controlling all the colonists and I had to dispatch the geth and use stun grenades on the colonists. I'm a terrible aim with the grenades and I kept running out of them :(. It took me a good few tries to save all 16 but I'm not losing anyone, dammit!

The final section was running around the ugly-ass plant and taking that thing down. I still struggle with biotic enemies (even when using damping) but just about managed it. Saved an Asari scientist and Feros is complete! Just gonna head back to the Citadel so everyone can tell me how amazing I am.

Bubba

05-02-2016, 10:13 AM

Oh, there was an unexpected confrontation in the Normandy cockpit! Liara and Ashley came up to me and said I had to choose one of them (or both!). Ashley spouted her usual racist bullshit that humans should be with their own kind so the choice was pretty simple. Ashley took it pretty well and sauntered off leaving me and Liara. She invited my back to her quarters for a more "private discussion". Cue bom-chikka-wow-wow music.

As it turns out, she still isn't ready to get freaky just yet. She's glad I chose her but wants to wait until we've saved the universe. Jeez! I might be dead by then! Being a true gent though, I respected her wishes and left her quarters. I'll be in my bunk.

Freya

05-02-2016, 04:28 PM

I love your recaps haha. Yeah see, Ashley says some crazy racist shit all the time. And people like her more than Kaidan!

Skyblade

05-02-2016, 05:15 PM

I love your recaps haha. Yeah see, Ashley says some crazy racist trout all the time. And people like her more than Kaidan!

Eh, I don't really like either of them. They were my two least favorite squad mates in the game, easily.

Bubba

05-31-2016, 04:51 PM

Now the disappointing distraction of Uncharted 4 is out of the way, I can crack on with a game I've enjoyed much more. Excited as I'm approaching the end and then I can start Mass Effect 2!

Next stop Noveria!

You would think that being a Spectre would carry some weight in this universe, but no. Within seven seconds of landing in Feros I was having my arse shot at. Now we've reached Noveria and what happens? Some bitch shouts at me and tries to take away my guns. I resisted the temptation to use the old "Do you know who I am?" line and managed to sweet-talk my way into keeping my weapons.

So I make my way to the plaza and get myself a meeting with the head honcho of Noveria. I think he's called Anus or something. Fitting really as he's a total arsehole. Told me bugger all and avoided my questions like the plague.

After leaving Butthole in his office, I found a friendly Turian called Loki Qui Gon Jinn (or something) who is basically having his office searched illegally by Anus. An illegal anus search, if you will. Loki has asked me to recover some data from his office before he gets rumbled. I agreed because he's gonna give me a garage key (which Anus flat out refused to give me) and I need to get out of this damn plaza.

So yeah, that's where I'm up to. Gonna crack on tonight or tomorrow as I'm itching to get into Liara's pants onto Mass Effect 2.

Formalhaut

05-31-2016, 05:50 PM

Noveria's plaza is probably the most drab, uninviting welcome hall in the entire game. Everything is made of concrete.

Glad you're picking this back up, though Bubba! :D

Freya

05-31-2016, 07:05 PM

Well after Noveria it's full steam to the end of the game at that point! Once you finish that mission you'll have a lot of very important plot and character development happening and it'll move fast! You're getting closer!

Formalhaut

05-31-2016, 07:49 PM

Is Noveria your last mission world, or do you also have Virmire as well to do?

Bubba

05-31-2016, 08:20 PM

Yeah, Virmire will be the last one. I've explored pretty much everything else so it's just these last two main missions and that's it! Best game I've played in a long time.

Freya

05-31-2016, 08:44 PM

So glad to hear that! I'm excited to hear your thoughts about it all after you finish the first game!

theundeadhero

05-31-2016, 11:23 PM

I couldn't resist asking if she knew who I was. Then I told her with my pistol to her face. She didn't like it much.

Even though the plot is full steam ahead after this planet, keep in mind that in this game there's no penalty for exploring anywhere you haven't seen or finishing any missions you haven't yet. It's only once you get to the last planet that you don't have an option to finish everything up.

Formalhaut

05-31-2016, 11:27 PM

I'm quite the perfectionist so I did everything before Virmire. :p

Bubba

06-01-2016, 10:36 AM

Yeah, as soon as I'm done with Noveria I'll be heading back to the Citadel. Then I'm gonna do a mop up of any side planets I haven't done (though there won't be much) before heading to Virmire.

Didn't get chance to crack on last night because of baby duties but I have a lie-in tomorrow so this evening I will be continuing!

Freya

06-02-2016, 01:30 AM

Eee i'm so excited to hear your reaction in the last half of the game. Hopefully you get to it tonight!

Bubba

06-02-2016, 12:13 PM

Hopefully you get to it tonight!

You may be overestimating my abilities a tad...

So I made my way to the Synthetic Insights Offices and was not at all surprised to be greeted by a few guards displaying all the warmth of a service station baked potato. Convincing them to bugger off was surprisingly easy. It was literally a case of "Hey guys, do you wanna go and stand somewhere else?" and they were like "Yeah, OK. You've convinced us. See you later." I am one charming motherf***er.

There were far more committed soldiers loitering about however and we were soon under attack. They were not tough though and soon the floor was littered with... well, nothing as the bodies disappear. I kicked ass though.

The upstairs was a different story. Some shouty lady who looked like Brienne of Tarth stopped me, opened fire and I was dead within seconds. Bitch. After reloading, shouting "FOR THE WATCH!" and using Overload and Throw on her... she snuffed it. I cleared out the goons and grabbed the data from Loki's PC

Anus' hot receptionist cornered me on the way back to reveal that she was a secret agent trying to gain info on her boss. Not being a big fan of Anus, I was more than happy to help. I gave Loki's data to hottie receptionist/agent then convinced good old Loki to testify against Anus. I raised a glass as Anus was arrested in his office and led away. Later sucker!

Hottie also gave me a garage pass and I was on my way out of this godawful plaza. Unfortunately, after taking out a few tricky geth and clambering into a mako, I encountered an enemy guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any Spectre... the cries of a ten-month old baby.

I was hoping to get further than this but I'm gonna push on tonight and try and get this planet done and dusted!

Formalhaut

06-02-2016, 12:55 PM

Bubba

06-03-2016, 01:05 PM

Yeah, the blonde lady guard can really mess you up as you're in close quarters to begin with - and you're an infiltrator. Backtracking helps, as is just unloading everything you have on her (she has biotics, I think) and dealing with her guards second.

I just can't seem to handle biotics very well, even with damping. As you'll see in my Noveria wrap up...

Oh the weather outside is frightful, and the mako is not delightful. So I had to traverse lots of snowy cliffs to get to Peak 15 or whatever. Honestly though, I'm really tired of the mako's s**t. I spent most of my time out of the vehicle sniping dudes from afar, even though there was a biohazard warning outside. Despite a few scrapes, I made it to Peak 15 without major incident.

Just when it was going reasonably well I come against this Juggernaut guy. Hooo boy. He was just a big smurfer who charged at me taking chunks of energy. Luckily, I composed myself and managed to take the big guy out. After sh*tting myself, obviously. The rest of the guys in here were fodder and dispatched with ease before jumping in an elevator.

Well crap. I didn't like the juggernaut but these Rachni things?? They can get to smurf. They simply should not be allowed. Angry poisonous bastards. Especially that one that just appeared from a wall after I cleared the room. No. Just no.

I've just read back what I've written so far and I apologise for all the anger and swearing. I am enjoying the game, honest! I'll try and be more positive in the rest of this summary.

Once in the next area, I had to take down a few more delightful and misunderstood Rachni before speaking to the VI computer thingy. Am I ever glad I saved before going to the memory core. It gave me the choice of either using 100 omnigel or cracking it myself. Being the seasoned hacker that I am, the choice was clear. What was the outcome? I cracked the puzzle first time to the adoration of my dear Liara I had no smurfing clue what I was doing so reloaded and used 100 omnigel.

Reconnected some landlines and repaired a reactor, I pressed on to the tram station, meeting further charming Rachni on the way. The trams here are nice. Though you don't get the friendly tramps that smell of piss telling you their life story like you do in the North of England.

Pushed on to find a nice little community of people all with their own problems... blah blah blah. Yeah mate, got plenty of my own thanks. Don't need yours piled on top. Jog on. I did help Dr Cohen out though because well... it was mandatory. I went into the quarantine bay and whipped up a cure for him because you know... Shepard can do that. Then some Asari bitch lady who I spoke to a few minutes ago has a beef with me because it turns out she's working for Benezia. She was a tough cookie but I was victorious. The cookie crumbled, you might say! Ahem.

After Dr Cohen gave me 24 (whaaaat?!) Paragon points for the cure I was heading for the final showdown! Benezia was in this catwalk room and kept sending out a s**tload of biotic Asari and other pains in the arse. Cue lots of Shepard deaths. This was hard, man. I finally got to a final one-on-one with Benezia (with only one omnigel left, mind) and had to watch her little speech about how Saren was controlling her and she loved her daughter, Liara. Yeah, who doesn't. Get on with it.

She was biotic as well and we all know how good I am against these smurfers... so I ended up watching her speech about seven times. I could probably type it all out from memory now but this summary is far too long already. Took her out and some final biotics and that was it! Level over! Or so I thought...

I forgot about the Hot Labs. Trying not to imagine a load of extremely attractive labradors, I went to investigate. Some guy called Yolo Tarantino (close enough) said we needed to do a neutron purge, whatever that was. At this point it was 1am and I thought "Yeah, whatever man. Let's do it." Have you ever seen that bit at the end of Aliens where they thought they'd escaped and Bishop gets a tentacle through the back? Yeah, that happened here. Yolo Tarantino was a creepy smurfer anyway so I shed no tears. I grabbed his password and initiated the purge. I'm glad they gave you plenty of time to escape the area. 120 seconds. Cheers for that. Also, this was the exact moment the Rachni Anger Management course started in the next room with plenty in attendance. Took me a few attempts but finally made it past them and onto the no-tramp tram and out of dodge.

I did really enjoy this level actually. Nice and challenging! I bombed it back to the Citadel and saved. Just some mopping up then finally Virmire! I'd be quite sad it was ending if it wasn't for the two sequels lying in wait :D

Freya

06-03-2016, 02:35 PM

Did you save the Rachini Queen or did you kill her?

Bubba

06-03-2016, 03:07 PM

Did you save the Rachini Queen or did you kill her?

Wrex told me that I'd regret it but... of course, I saved her. No doubt she will turn into a deformed, armour-plated kiling machine and come for me at the end of the game.

Tell me, have I smurfed up?

Freya

06-03-2016, 03:20 PM

You get a something in ME3! :D

Mr. Carnelian

06-03-2016, 03:24 PM

Saving the rachni queen is a good call.

Formalhaut

06-03-2016, 04:08 PM

Yeah, Noveria is probably the toughest of the first three mission worlds. The Rachni's attacks bypass your shields altogether directly attack your health, which can be very problematic. Best to stock up on poison resistance in your armour.

The problem with biotics is that your only response to them is damping, which isn't all that great an ability. That and they hone in rather quickly and can mess you up for extended periods of time. The fight with Benezia is a tough one. But it is good that you saved the queen though, it is the better call.

Bubba

06-03-2016, 04:16 PM

Yeah, I totally missed that part of my update :lol:

Probably the most important part of the whole mission and there's me telling you about all the goons I've killed! I should really try and be a bit more concise with my updates. I do tend to ramble on a bit!

Glad to see I made the right choice though. Cheers everyone :D

Formalhaut

06-03-2016, 04:22 PM

Virmire has plenty of choices, so don't forget to tell us them. :p

theundeadhero

06-03-2016, 10:42 PM

I'm personally glad you aren't concise. I like to hear all about the adventures instead of a previously on Mass Effect.

Ayen

06-07-2016, 05:24 AM

Benezia was such a pain in the ass. Hated that boss fight. My mother and brother walked in on me at one point and got me killed. The smurfers.

Bubba

06-07-2016, 12:10 PM

So I'm currently on mid-mop up. Systematically going through every system to find anything I've missed. There's actually quite a lot! I have a sneaky suspicion though that some of these have opened up with me completing the first three main missions.

Got a few sideys done and I've noticed in my journal that I've got quite a lot of UNC missions open that need completing. I'm sure all come across these when I'm going through them all.

I'm missing quite a few Valuable minerals, Turian Insignias and Prothean Data Discs. I'm not sure I can be bothered scouring every inch of every planet for them. I could consult a guide I suppose but that's cheating! Are they quite important in the coming games? Will I get rewarded for collecting them all or is just a bit more XP? I'm not entirely sure of my current level but think I'm in the early forties.

Mr. Carnelian

06-07-2016, 12:18 PM

I'm missing quite a few Valuable minerals, Turian Insignias and Prothean Data Discs. I'm not sure I can be bothered scouring every inch of every planet for them. I could consult a guide I suppose but that's cheating! Are they quite important in the coming games? Will I get rewarded for collecting them all or is just a bit more XP?

The only one worth bothering with is the Matriarch's writings, which comes up in a side quest in 3. I'm fairly sure (not 100%, mind), that none of the others are ever brought up ever again.

Formalhaut

06-07-2016, 01:01 PM

UNC: Asari Writings is absolutely essential to the complete fulfilliment of a ME3 quest, whose role it is seemingly to check you've done several unrelated sidequests you'd never think were relevant. Sneaky. While you're at it, make sure you have the Elkoss Combine armoury licence, and retrieved Gavin Hossle's data on Feros (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Feros:_Data_Recovery). With all that done, a certain someone will be able to assist you in ME3.

UNC: Valuable Minerals, UNC: Turian Insignias and UNC: Locate Signs of Battle (Salarian I.Ds and Medallions) do not affect anything, besides completing the journal entry. Bear in mind that there's more pick-ups than you actually need to complete these quests, and sourcing valuable minerals boost your credits by a sizeable amount regardless.

Go for the Asari Writings and pick up valuable minerals on the way, but you can safely ignore the other two if you don't want to.

theundeadhero

06-07-2016, 04:36 PM

Collecting them all gives a bonus to your starting stuff in ME2. It's worth doing it.

Bubba

06-08-2016, 10:29 PM

Still on mop up and all these collectibles are totting up. I may yet complete them all! If I don't though and I'm a couple short, I expect you all to scour my posts in this thread and point me in right direction. Cheers in advance, you guys.

Just finished a mission on Agememnon or something. After finding all the minerals, I headed to the tunnel here fully expecting a crap load of enemies. None came. Instead, at the end I'm greeted by a hologram of T S Eliot who caves me in the tunnel and sets off a bomb to detonate in 10 seconds. For such an amazing poet who wrote works of art like The Waste Land... he's actually a bit of a prick. I hope at some point I catch up with the IRL T S Eliot and shoot him in the face.

I cracked three consecutive 10-button decryptions and disarmed the bomb! Admittedly, you were given slightly more time between button presses but I still think I'm pretty fucking awesome.

My inflated ego was duly popped a few moments later when I emerged and made my way back to the mako. I noticed there were a load of people milling about there. I didn't see any red dots so I assumed they were friendly scientists or something having a planet party. I ran up to them hoping they'd greet me with a jovial wave and some pity XP. I WAS WRONG. They greeted me with a barrage of gunfire and killed me :(. The worst part was, I hadn't saved for ages and ended up back at the start of the damn tunnel :mad2:

I did the whole thing again and sniped the pretend scientists from the safety of... a long way away.

Tune in next time for more foolish deaths and long periods without saving.

Ayen

06-08-2016, 10:35 PM

Well, that's not very nice. I think it's only common courtesy to greet someone with a "How do you do?" before you fill them with bullet holes.

Bubba

06-11-2016, 11:43 AM

Formalhaut

06-11-2016, 02:18 PM

Well, that's not very nice. I think it's only common courtesy to greet someone with a "How do you do?" before you fill them with bullet holes.

Exactly. Why can't everyone be civil?

I'm level 43 and think I'm levelled enough to take on Virmire. I'm still mopping up though and can't stop until I've seen every planet! My UNC side missions are dwindling now so I'm gonna stick out the sidequests until completion. theundeadhero has convinced me to try and get everything as I want to be awesome in Mass Effect 2.

I have a gig tonight then I'm gonna get another good hour of mopping in to wind down. I can see the finishing line!

The maximum level in the game is 50, and even with EXP bonuses from trophies and accomplishments, you still won't reach that figure. I got to level 48 - with bonuses and doing everything - so you're levelled just fine.

A quick heads up about the endgame: after Virmire, you're on rails for a bit at another location. Once you leave that location, do not head to the final planet until you're certain you've done everything, as heading there is the game's point of no return and there's no postgame mopping up segment. Once you hit the end, that's it. So just be careful to check that you have everything complete before embarking on that final planetary excursion.

Ayen

06-11-2016, 02:23 PM

If a certain squad member doesn't survive Virmire I'm going to be :colbert: at you.

Bubba

06-11-2016, 02:24 PM

If a certain squad member doesn't survive Virmire I'm going to be :colbert: at you.

What are you talking about? They're all going to survive!

Formalhaut

06-11-2016, 02:28 PM

Don't spoil things for him, Ayen! Virmire is a beautiful mission, though. I love it.

Ayen

06-11-2016, 02:36 PM

Don't spoil things for him, Ayen! Virmire is a beautiful mission, though. I love it.

Well, it's a good thing you posted this because I was two seconds away from being a dildo.

I remember literally only three things about this mission.

Formalhaut

06-11-2016, 04:29 PM

It's a pretty memorable mission in my opinion. Of the bunch, I found the 'Rescue Liara' mission to be the most forgettable. Literally one thing happened in that mission.

Ayen

06-11-2016, 05:07 PM

In my case it has less to do with the quality of the mission, and more to do with having not played the game in a while. I remember the beginning section of the game the best since I played through it the most. I'm as bad as my brother is when he's always starting new games in Dragon Age Inquisition.

Mr. Carnelian

06-11-2016, 07:19 PM

The maximum level in the game is 50, and even with EXP bonuses from trophies and accomplishments, you still won't reach that figure. I got to level 48 - with bonuses and doing everything - so you're levelled just fine.

Actually, the level cap is 60 and you reached 58. But, that was with experience bonuses you get from having completed the game once already. Probably 52-54 is the maximum you can actually reach on a first playthrough, with no bonuses.

Formalhaut

06-11-2016, 07:54 PM

Bubba

06-15-2016, 08:41 AM

Got a decent amount of time in after my gig and had 90 minutes last night to finally finish my mop up! There are still a few people I need to meet at places to complete side quests but I'm just about ready for Virmire! In terms of all the collectible stuff, here is where I'm at.

Asari Writings: 13/10
Prothean Artifacts: 7/7
Turian Emblems: 12/13
League Medallions: 8/10
Salarian ID Tags: 3/3

Light Metals: 20/20
Heavy Metals: 22/20
Rare Earths: 25/20
Gases: 10/10

Well shit. Unless there are a few things down on Virmire I have no idea where to look for these last three things. The Turian Emblems one is particularly annoying. I could cheat and look for a list of their locations online but I would be really disappointed in myself.

Can you guys at least confirm whether I need to find these things before I head to Virmire or might there be some of them there?

theundeadhero

06-15-2016, 10:34 AM

Bubba

06-15-2016, 10:53 AM

There could be. I don't remember. If not, you'll have the opportunity to find them after Virmire. There's also randoms chunks of searchable rocks in asteroid fields you may not have found in other systems too.

Ahh right, I thought Virmire was the point of no return? Or is there a quick chance to complete unfinished business?

EDIT: Ahh, didn't read Formy's post properly.

Formalhaut

06-15-2016, 01:11 PM

Yeah, just to reiterate, your itinerary for the endgame is:

-> Virmire
-> On rails section in a location (I won't spoil where, though)

-> Free roaming

----Point of no Return----

-> Ilos
-> Final Mission

After the on-rails section, you're back in the Normandy. As long as you don't head to Ilos, you're golden. The Turian insignias and Salarian medallions don't have an effect on any quest in ME: 2 and ME: 3, but they might influence an achievement or something. I'd try and get them regardless, just to say you've done everything and you are close, but without a guide, it'll be a bit of a slog.

Bubba

06-17-2016, 01:07 PM

Asari Writings: 14/10
Prothean Artifacts: 8/7
Turian Emblems: 13/13
League Medallions: 9/10
Salarian ID Tags: 3/3

Light Metals: 22/20
Heavy Metals: 23/20
Rare Earths: 25/20
Gases: 10/10

League Medallions: 9/10

League Medallions: 9/10

Freya

06-17-2016, 01:55 PM

So close haha. I'm excited for your virmire take. It takes the game from "oh this bad guy you need to stop" to "holy shit you nees to fucking stop this bad guy omg" I'm trying not to hype you too much but it's honestly my favorite turning point in games.

Bubba

06-17-2016, 02:09 PM

I know, I'm itching to get to Virmire! All my sidequests are done apart from this last one with the league medallions. It's so infuriating. I might just look up a list of their locations online, fuck it. I've put in the hard work getting everything so surely I can allow myself to cheat for this last little thing?

I'll still know and be annoyed with myself but the thought of scouring the galaxy for this one little medallion is not appealing in the slightest. I want some action, dammit!

Freya

06-17-2016, 03:18 PM

Yeah I don't think it'd be really cheating to look up the last league thingy. You're good, we wont judge haha

theundeadhero

06-18-2016, 06:36 AM

Shame Shame Shame

But worth it. Look it up! I would :p

Ayen

06-18-2016, 07:08 AM

Yeah I don't think it'd be really cheating to look up the last league thingy. You're good, we wont judge haha

I'll judge.

7/10.

Bubba

06-19-2016, 12:01 AM

So with Ayen's judgement ringing in my ears, I pushed on without a guide.

What's the old saying? "You wait ages for a bus then two come along at once." Not that I would know, I don't get on buses with the peasants. Anyway, within 30 minutes of starting back up this evening I found TWO league medallions (turns out I'd not fully explored the Armstrong Cluster) and my conscience is clear.

After a quick trip back to the Citadel and a chat with all my crew, I'm finally ready! It looks like I've maxed out at Level 50. I'm no longer getting XP at any rate. My team are kitted out, plenty of inventory spaces and all skill points used. Let's go and hunt down Saren and kick some ass!

Just landed in Virmire. Stay tuned for my closing stages :D

Formalhaut

06-19-2016, 12:14 AM

After a quick trip back to the Citadel and a chat with all my crew, I'm finally ready! It looks like I've maxed out at Level 50. I'm no longer getting XP at any rate. My team are kitted out, plenty of inventory spaces and all skill points used. Let's go and hunt down Saren and kick some ass!

Ah, yes, you're correct: you are capped at level 50 for your first playthrough. Subsequent playthroughs increase it to 60. I wasn't aware of this as I've only played using Mr. Carny's account, thus I always thought it was 60.

Well done though for reaching the cap!

Ayen

06-19-2016, 12:35 AM

We're gonna build a sphere around Earth and the Reapers are gonna pay for it!

I wish there was a way to amuse the council at the beginning of the first game, instead of insisting you push the Reapers deal. I was just glad with being able to go after Saren. I didn't give a smurf if they believed in the Reapers threat at the time or not. At that point I couldn't fault them for taking the stances they did. Especially that original case against Saren before finding more concrete proof. That was just terribly put together.

Bubba

06-23-2016, 11:23 AM

Virmire!

Another warm welcome here as I barely had time to take in the beautiful scenery before the mako takes a rocket to the face. I stepped out of the mako briefly to do some sniping before realising that it would do me no good at all as I was already maxed out. Time to wreck some s**t with the mako! As it turns out, I got pretty wrecked myself. Saren had spared no expense when arming his troops as every smurfer had a rocket launcher.

I had a rather embarrassing moment when I managed to impale my mako on a rock and was unable to move. I span my wheels for a few minute like a turtle on its back before finally realising I could just use the jump button to get off. The first human spectre, everybody.

Reached a guard station and took care of everyone on foot to give my mako some recovery time. I'm a pistol-toting badass now I've reached Level 50. Embarrassing moment number two coming up. I reached the middle section and failed to realise that it is actually a huge circle. After failing to check the map, I proceeded to drive round the whole thing twice before finally coming to my senses and checking where the hell I was. I got lost by driving in a circle. The first human spectre, everybody.

I then happened upon another guard tower and considered driving straight through until I realised this one had its gates down. Oh well. Leave mako, kill things, open gate. Done. I was a bit disappointed when I then came across a third gate and had to do exactly the same thing. My mako was on its last legs and I was honestly done with this section. As the soon as the gate was open though I arrived at the Salarian Camp. Well paced, game. Well paced.

Spoke to the head of the Salarian army, Commander Kerosine. Straight-talking guy, I liked him. Unfortunately, Wrex was having a bit of a tantrum so he needed a severe talking to. I forget why he was upset now, maybe his shoes were too tight. Ahh, I remember! It was this Genophage business which is pretty horrific actually. The Salarians introduced the Genophage to control the Krogan population which meant only one-in-a-thousand Krogan births were successful. Really smurfing horrible. Saren has cured the Genophage in order to breed a Krogan army. The Salarians just want to destroy the facility along with the cure. I can understand why Wrex was upset... though he may also have had tight shoes because he was very grumpy.

So yeah, I told him he had beautiful eyes and gave him a big cuddle and he was fine. +24 Paragon :D

Spoke to Commander Kerosine and I had my first big decision to make! He wanted to take one of my team members to lead one of his teams. My choices were Kaidan and Ashley. Putting aside my personal differences, I decided to use my Commander head. Ashley was the better soldier so I let her lead Commander Kerosine's team.

Tune in next time to see the horrific repercussions of that decision :D

Freya

06-23-2016, 03:09 PM

Phew, you actually have to shoot Wrex there if your Paragon isn't high enough. So you saved a teammate!

Bubba

06-23-2016, 03:47 PM

Phew, you actually have to shoot Wrex there if your Paragon isn't high enough. So you saved a teammate!

I'm relieved!

Formy was right, Wrex has really grown on me throughout the course of the game. I didn't like him much at first but yeah... the guy is awesome!

Freya

06-23-2016, 03:53 PM

u5Fjc1hBwuE

Bubba

06-23-2016, 05:44 PM

Great. Now everyone on the train thinks I'm a maniac because I can't stop laughing at this!

Formalhaut

06-23-2016, 06:01 PM

I'm glad Wrex grew on you! I told you he would. He becomes even better in ME: 2 and ME: 3, he matures quite a bit.

Ayen

06-23-2016, 06:21 PM

I went as far as to do a side-quest to earn his favor to make that scene easier because I be damned if I'm gonna let my boy go out like that.

Pumpkin

06-23-2016, 09:35 PM

I haven't been reading your posts to avoid stuff for 1. Are you at 2 yet? End of 1?

Freya

06-23-2016, 09:59 PM

I haven't been reading your posts to avoid stuff for 1. Are you at 2 yet? End of 1?
He's getting closer to the end yeah. He'll be on 2 in no time!

Pumpkin

06-23-2016, 09:59 PM

Alrighty, thanks!

Bubba

06-24-2016, 11:17 AM

Cracking on with this tonight. Stay tuned!

Unless you're Pumpkin...

theundeadhero

06-24-2016, 12:25 PM

Started a new playthrough yesterday. Should be able to finish it up by Sunday. I did all the side planets and now have Noveria and Feros left. Let's see who finishes first!

Bubba

06-25-2016, 03:25 AM

Started a new playthrough yesterday. Should be able to finish it up by Sunday. I did all the side planets and now have Noveria and Feros left. Let's see who finishes first!

DON'T.......... TEMPT ME, FRODO.

If it wasn't for the fact that I have friends staying at my house this weekend, I would have easily beaten you. I am officially OFF Virmire and on the home stretch. I won't be completing my journey until earliest Sunday night but I WOULD HAVE WON.

Sat night would have been my saving grace but I have a gig and a family to support. Curse you and your free time!!

if you are eager to know which crew member I sacrificed... you might be surprised!

.....

Stay tuned for first half recap :D

Formalhaut

06-25-2016, 03:38 AM

DON'T.......... TEMPT ME, FRODO.

If it wasn't for the fact that I have friends staying at my house this weekend, I would have easily beaten you. I am officially OFF Virmire and on the home stretch. I won't be completing my journey until earliest Sunday night but I WOULD HAVE WON.

Sat night would have been my saving grace but I have a gig and a family to support. Curse you and your free time!!

if you are eager to know which crew member I sacrificed... you might be surprised!

.....

Stay tuned for first half recap :D

I am legit eager to know what happened down there in Virmire, and your thoughts on it as well. It's probably one of the more emotionally draining missions in ME: 1.

theundeadhero

06-25-2016, 08:12 AM

I am very eager to know who you sacced. And, it was a trap! Perhaps you thought since it's Friday night I would go out dancing, enjoy a pizza and a movie, or maybe be part of a community knitting program? I'm not social enough for any of those things. I just finished pinnacle station and the asteroid after Virmire, so all I have left is Ilos :p

Virmire is pretty amazing. I like all the little stuff you can do to make sure Captain 506 PIR and his team stay alive.

You're almost done with ME1, but that just means your true adventure is about to begin :)

Ayen

06-25-2016, 08:30 AM

theundeadhero

06-25-2016, 08:57 AM

Looks like it's time for you to replay it as well. Think of the Salarians!

Skyblade

06-25-2016, 02:29 PM

Virmire is pretty amazing. I like all the little stuff you can do to make sure Captain 506 PIR and his team stay alive.

Y-You can do things to make sure they survive?

OMG I'm a horrible person! :onoes:

Yes, indeed you can. They can all survive. And Captain Kirrahe shows back up in future installments if you don't get him recklessly killed like the monster you are. :D

Freya

06-26-2016, 05:04 AM

Oh man, I wanna know who you saved! It better be kaidan. You can't be like all these other losers and keep lame Ashley.

Bubba

06-27-2016, 06:18 PM

OK, lets type this bad boy up.

I started this next section without the mako which suits me just fine. Being the expert sniper that I am I made short work of all the enemies here. I came across two buildings where I disrupted communications and blew up a... something to help Commander Kerosine. What was it? Oh yeah, a fuel tank!

After a few flying geth, I found some more fuel tanks which I was more than happy to blow up. Next, I happened upon a terminal outside this hangar-type building. Inside there were these weird "Indoctrinated" enemies that I wasn't sure whether I should kill. I hesitated for about a second before pistolling them all to death.

Next I found a load of Salarians all locked away in rooms. Now, my Shepard is good guy so I managed to free them all. What was my reward for this? The skinny bastards attacked me! Should have left you in there to rot, you cretins. I probably shouldv'e guessed as they were all a bit mental.

Next I found another pretty blue lady who I persuaded to let me into Saren's lab. Rana Banana or something. I then let her go so we'll see what comes of that decision... I eventually activated another beacon. Jesus titty-fucking Christ. I wasn't expecting this. It turns out that Sovereign is a reaper and is fucking bad ass. He's actually the one behind everything and is just using Saren and the geth as tools! I wasn't expecting that one! I thought there might be some sort of boss fight here but it wasn't to be. I pushed on killing a load more enemies. I'm pretty comfortable seeing as I'm maxed out level-wise.

Next step was to take out this turret so Joker could swoop in with the Normandy. When the Normandy approached the game presented me with what I'm sure for some would be a difficult decision. Assault the other turret and save Ashley... or head back to the Normandy and save Kaidan. It took me all of a nanosecond to decide and I gave Ashley a jovial wave before letting her be horribly killed.

Eventually we reach a boss fight with Saren which was a tad tricky but my sniping skills were too much for him. Can I say how much I love the sound of the sniper rifle being fired. Very satisfying. Saren didn't die though, he just buggered back to the Sovereign.

Once the mission was over we were automatically taken back to the Citadel and the bloody Council have grounded the Normandy. Damned fools! I need to get going to Eyeloss and stop Saren!

Tune in next time for what could well be my final instalment of Mass Effect :D

Ayen

06-27-2016, 07:18 PM

I approve of ditching the mako. Worst part of the first game by far.

Bubba

06-27-2016, 07:24 PM

theundeadhero

06-27-2016, 07:47 PM

YOU KILLED HER!

Now you'll never get to see Ashley admit and overcome her xenophobia. She'll never rise above the Williams curse to become a spectre. She'll never find love and acceptance, whether it be from you or another crew member.

ALL SHE'S GOING TO DO NOW IS FEED WORMS AND IT'S YOUR FAULT! :(

Ayen

06-27-2016, 07:49 PM

Now she will sleep the endless sleep of forever.

Formalhaut

06-27-2016, 07:52 PM

I thought you'd save Kaiden! Glad you really enjoyed Virmire; I'd say it is the best set-piece mission of the entire game, and one of the best missions in the trilogy. That sense of urgency really drives the narrative, culminating in that decision. Doing it third as opposed to fourth wouldn't do it any justice, to be honest.

There are a handful of side-quests on the Citadel, but you're otherwise on rails. Mercifully, not for a terribly long period of time, but still.

Freya

06-27-2016, 08:50 PM

Kaidan is better than her anyway so you made the right choice.

The Reaper Convo is the best. It's part of my favorite things in this game. It takes it from some big bad to holy shit, things got waaaaaay more serious.

Ayen

06-27-2016, 10:12 PM

Reapers are coming.

Bubba

06-30-2016, 10:56 AM

YOU KILLED HER!

ALL SHE'S GOING TO DO NOW IS FEED WORMS AND IT'S YOUR FAULT! :(

Ahh well, shame.

Reapers are coming.

My body is ready.

Just a quick update as I've not had a lot of free time in the last few days. I have arrived on Ilos though!

We left Shepard and his intrepid heroes just after they were grounded on the Citadel. There's no way I'm standing for this! We need to follow Saren! But seeing as I couldn't work out how to leave I did the only thing I could think of... I decided to visit the consort chambers to see if the waiting times had reduced. They hadn't and to be honest... I'm just gonna wait until the lovely Liara is ready :flirt:

As it was probably my last time here, I decided to do one last tour of the Citadel. There wasn't much going down until I reached the Medilab. There was a protest going on with this guy called Nigel Farage Charles Sacksweat who represented a Human Pride Party. He explained that he didn't much like other races... I told him that I voted Remain and that he was a prick.

The final little sidequest happened on my way into Flux. This jumpy guy was trying to con me into getting some drugs for him. I explained that this was a terrible idea and proceeded to sing to him the entirety of the Just Say No anti-drug song from Grange Hill.

Finally, I found Captain Anderson blowing off steam in the Flux bar. He sympathised with my plight and offered to help us steal Normandy. Sh*t yes! We headed back to the Normandy and there was an awesome cut scene where Anderson walks into the ambassadors office, lays him out and overrides the Normandy shut down. Go on, Cap! With that, we were off into the big black!

Spotted one more UNC side mission to do with Garrus on a derelict ship. Tracked down Dr Salivation who experimented on different races. Garrus wanted him dead but I took the high road and convinced him to give the doctor to the military. For a doctor though, he wan't too bright and the silly son-of-a-bitch opened fire on us anyway. He died very quickly.

All that was left now was to go to Ilos and OMG OMG OMG!!! Before we arrived, I was visited in my quarters by Liara!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZcYPEszN8

Afterwards, she said I was amazing. This came as no surprise, as all my exes will attest. So, in ME2 will our relationship continue or will I have to start again from scratch with her?

Anyway, rumpy pumpy over, we proceeded to Ilos. Joker did a near-suicidal dive with the Normandy and almost landed our mako on Saren's head. The slippery devil managed to pass through some huge closing doors leaving us stranded outside.

Surely my next update will see me through to the end! Then I'll do a quick review of the first game before diving head first into Mass Effect 2!

Freya

06-30-2016, 05:42 PM

Afterwards, she said I was amazing. This came as no surprise, as all my exes will attest. So, in ME2 will our relationship continue or will I have to start again from scratch with her?

MAYYYYBEEEEEE

You'll have to play it and see if she's there or not!

Ayen

06-30-2016, 06:13 PM

I always had a weak spot for the color blue, personally.

Edit: 13k!

theundeadhero

06-30-2016, 07:41 PM

Bubba

06-30-2016, 08:32 PM

The bigger question is: Whether she's there or not, will you willingly continue to date her, or chose one of the other lovely ladies?

Did you find the planet with Wrex' family armor and the one with data for Tali's pilgrimage? I can't remember if you mentioned those ones or not.

She... She might not be there? Why would she do this to me?!!!

Whether or not I entertain another lovely lady will depend entirely on whether Liara and I... are on a break.

Yeah, I remember both of those missions and definitely acquired both :D

Formalhaut

06-30-2016, 08:47 PM

Ayen

06-30-2016, 08:50 PM

I passed up Kaiden.

For Liara :cool:

theundeadhero

07-01-2016, 04:36 AM

If Liara does happen to be in ME2:

What if Liara is a crew member but breaks up with you? Will you be a sad, lovesopped mess, or date someone else?
What if you can date Liara and another crew member at the same time? Will you stay solo or go for it all?
What if it's possible to date another crew member, then after the end break up with them and hook back up with Liara? Will you have a fling or remain loyal until the end?
What if you do like someone else better, but then Liara won't let you break up with her because you dated her in ME1?!

Ayen

07-01-2016, 06:40 AM

Ooh, I like this.

What if Liara is a crew member but breaks up with you? Will you be a sad, lovesopped mess, or date someone else?

I really enjoyed my conversations with Liara and learning more about her and the connection that grew from there, so I would definitely be sad if she broke up with you in 2. I'd try to see if the game allowed any way to get back together, and after exhausting all possible options, I'd probably go around and shoot things to vent my anger and not take her with me on missions, and then see if neglecting her causes any programming that makes her acknowledge the fact or if the programmers missed that opportunity. After that, I'd probably go see what the other ladies had to offer, if anything.

What if you can date Liara and another crew member at the same time? Will you stay solo or go for it all?

Hm. I'd be tempted at the prospect, and she seemed okay with the idea of you having Ashley/Kaiden in addition to her in 1, so I would see if she'd still be okay with it and then see if any of the other ladies were worth considering a polygamous relationship with, and if you could avoid any conflict between the two.

What if it's possible to date another crew member, then after the end break up with them and hook back up with Liara? Will you have a fling or remain loyal until the end?

I wouldn't want to hurt someone by potentially starting a fling that turns into something more, though at the same time if I ended up wanting more from the fling it'd make me reassess my feelings for Liara. Huh.

What if you do like someone else better, but then Liara won't let you break up with her because you dated her in ME1?!

I would try to see if there were any ways to break up with her and if there isn't go through my resentful killing things and neglecting her phase before I accepted that I was stuck with her forever.

Slothy

07-01-2016, 02:51 PM

Kaidan is better than her anyway so you made the right choice.

Kaiden is the worst character in the game. At least Ashley had some depth.

Freya

07-01-2016, 02:57 PM

Kaidan is better than her anyway so you made the right choice.

Kaiden is the worst character in the game. At least Ashley had some depth.
You're a liar.

I drew some sexy fanart of kaidan once. Back when I was drawing more.

http://img08.deviantart.net/275b/i/2012/025/2/b/kaidan_is_pleased_by_lekana-d4njmmw.jpg

Looking through my deviant art, I have a lot of kaidan fanart.....

Bubba

07-01-2016, 03:03 PM

Kaidan is better than her anyway so you made the right choice.

Kaiden is the worst character in the game. At least Ashley had some depth.

Ashley has all the depth of a teaspoon.

There are too many options! The thought of ME2 scares me now... why can't Liara and I just fly off into the sunset together?

Slothy

07-01-2016, 05:30 PM

Because drama.

Formalhaut

07-01-2016, 05:34 PM

A giant space monkey appears at the beginning of the game and takes her away to be its slave queen.

Bubba

07-01-2016, 10:32 PM

A giant space monkey appears at the beginning of the game and takes her away to be its slave queen.

Not that old chestnut.

Ayen

07-01-2016, 11:16 PM

Liara is pretty smart. What if she gets herself out of it like Ray from the new Star Wars movie? :eek:

Bubba

07-03-2016, 10:38 AM

It's all over!

Stay tuned for my final update :D

theundeadhero

07-03-2016, 07:13 PM

I will push F5 furiously until it loads.

Ayen

07-03-2016, 10:30 PM

I will push F5 furiously until it loads.

Do you want tornadoes?

Because this is how you get tornadoes!

Bubba

07-04-2016, 01:07 PM

Once more into the breach, dear friends - Wilfred Shakespeare

This is it. The pay-off. The shakedown. The inevitable 20-plus deaths on the final boss. The mako being well and truly stuck, we began by venturing out on foot. Following our recent bonding, I wanted to take extra special care of Liara. Especially as she's far more lightweight than Tyrannosaurus Wrex. There were some badass geth in this area which includes those pesky Armatures. I protected my team-mates and did some sneaky snipering from around corners. I mopped up the weaker guys with my pistol before heading to the lower level and activating this Armature Control thing. Not entirely sure what this does but smurf it. Cleared the place of scum before finding an elevator on the upper level.

Ilos Security Station. Home to some seriously evil bastards. We took a bit of a beating here. It's just fortunate killing one of the stronger enemies yields a medi-gel. Also, whenever I use a medi-gel, regardless of whether Shepard himself says it, I always have to say "MEDIGEL DEPLOYED" in that derpy voice he uses. Licking our wounds after the battle, I activated four Armature Repair Terminals. These were basically friendly Armatures that would help us in the previous gun fight. Cheers guys. The three of us just cleared out an entire battalion of geth but luckily you guys are here now to guard an empty room. THANKS.

After a slightly confusing cut-scene at the room's terminal, we were on our way back to the mako to go deeper in Ilos. The door which Saren disappeared behind was now open and we found ourselves driving down a looooooong, suspiciously empty-ish tunnel. A barrier impeded our progress so we left the mako, found an elevator traversed a walkway and came face-to-face with a Prothean VI called Vigil. Holy sh*t. This cut scene was my favourite by a long way. This story is EPIC. It turns out the Reapers are part of a cycle that's been going for millions of years. They wait in dark space for civilisations to appear and develop then the Reapers wake up, travel round the universe and obliterate all organic life. Some Prothean scientists (on Ilos) managed to escape the most recent purge by being in cryo-stasis. Anyway, I'm waffling because this story is AWESOME. Long story short, the conduit is basically a teleport between Ilos and the Citadel. Vigil gives us a disc to temporarily control the Citadel or something. Whatever dude, just give me the disc. Time to hot-foot it to the Conduit!

Barrier now gone, I turned the mako up to 11 and made rapid progress. When the Conduit came into view I only had 40 seconds to reach it. My mako was in a worse condition than Lindsay Lohan after a three-day bender. Just about scraped it to the Conduit and another epic cut-scene and I was back with a bang on the Citadel. AGGHHHHH I'M SO EXCITED!!

The Citadel had changed since my last visit. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but it definitely looked like it could use a new coat of paint. Man, I can't half waffle. Right, Elevator - tunnel of hard enemies - Citadel Exhaust Plain. This was quite a cool area actually. Especially with Sovereign doing huge damage right above my head! We eventually encountered this tricky geth ship boss fight. We valiantly hid round the corner while I tried peering out and sniping. I might as well have been firing elastic bands at it for all the good it did. After much tactical consideration, I decided the most sensible course of action was to run at it like a maniac screaming and firing my pistol. In one regard this was spectacularly unsuccessful, though I did discover a Defensive Turret which I activated. A-ha! The ship was taking damage. I ran back to my team-mates and recovered before eventually realising I needed to activate two more turrets. The ship was then a goner!

I'll spare you the details of the run-up to Saren. Let's just say there were geth and gun turrets which I single-handedly took out like a a true hero doing heroic hero stuff. After arriving in the Citadel Tower I was face-to-face with Saren! He was obviously still fighting Reaper control and I tried convincing him there was a way out of this. I clearly didn't do a very good job as the way out he chose was to shoot himself in the head. Not quite the way out I meant but hey-ho. Joker contacted me to say that Council's ship was under attack and asked whether we should save them or just concentrate on trying to defeat Sovereign. Meh, we can always elect someone else. I chose to focus all attacks on Sovereign. Let's beat this smurfer!

I thought Saren's death was a little too simple. His final form emerged from the bloody carcass that was his previous body. Initially, I was slightly disappointed with the final boss form. It was basically just one of those annoying jumper things but it dealt A LOT more damage. The worst part though was its health. My pistols felt pretty puny but there was no way I could follow it around with my sniper. Just getting its shield off took forever. Then when I was finally starting to bring its health down it regenerates its bloody shield! I did suffer one death here but the second attempt was far more successful! Halfway through the fight you see Sovereign taking heavy damage. Give it to 'em! It took me a while but using Overload and Biotic moves he was soon on his last legs/tentacles. A few more final pistol shots and it was all over! Super Saren was taken down, Sovereign was defeated and I am the dogs bollocks!

The aftermath had me looking forward to what's in store for ME2. I recommended Captain Anderson to have a seat on the new council and announced my intent to go and take down the rest of the reapers! OHHHHHHH YEEAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Gonna write up a review/summary of the whole game this week then after the Ciddies, I will begin Mass Effect 2!

Formalhaut

07-04-2016, 04:30 PM

Glad you enjoyed the end! The only decision I always do differently is save the council, but otherwise, good job on completing the first Mass Effect!

Slothy

07-04-2016, 04:35 PM

Let the council die? Racist.

Bubba

07-04-2016, 04:53 PM

I'm assuming this decision will have serious repercussions in ME2? If I saved the council would I have still managed to defeat Sovereign?

Slothy

07-04-2016, 05:41 PM

Yeah you beat him regardless. Not sure how much of an impact it has later because i only just started mass effect 2 for the first time last week.

Bubba

07-04-2016, 05:52 PM

Aww man, maybe I should have done that :(

I just thought I didn't want to sacrifice a load of ships trying to save the council. Why are their lives worth more?

Ayen

07-04-2016, 06:42 PM

I think the purpose of the choice is to see how each individual respond to different situations when they don't have foresight. Your reasoning for choosing what you did is 100% valid and interesting to think about.

Slothy

07-04-2016, 07:02 PM

Yeah, might impact some relationships later on, particularly from what I know of 3 but I don't know if it screws you out of any options going one way or the other. If it doesn't I would actually rather it did.

theundeadhero

07-04-2016, 07:40 PM

The purpose of the choice is that up to that point you can be completely neutral, and that forces a renegade or paragon path. It changes some dialog in two. In three it changes what war resources you get between their ship or something else (a stronger alliance navy or something) but the change is balanced so no real change.

Congrats! The beginning of ME2 will blow you away, and then the story just gets better.

Formalhaut

07-04-2016, 07:53 PM

You were Paragon all the way through, weren't you? Therefore the new council will be multi-species but human led, which is definitely better than if you were Renegade aligned, where the council is all-human. I still save the council though, but it'll be interesting to see what happens without the original council members. Who will be replaced, how will they be different? I'm looking forward to it. Like Ayen said, you made your choice without the assistance of hindsight or knowing what will happen further down the line, so I say stick with your original decision and come what may.

Bubba

07-04-2016, 08:52 PM

Thanks everyone! I did really enjoy this game. It was made all the better for your non-spoilerific comments and input! Like I said, I'll be putting a full review up here before I start ME2 :D

Bubba

07-04-2016, 10:29 PM

You were Paragon all the way through, weren't you?

I most certainly was! I'm actually eager to play through as a Femshep Renegade so I can see both sides. Obviously not till I'm done with Paragon though.

I maxed out my paragon meter though I did have a little bit of my renegade meter filled up too. I'd like to see the intimidate options on a subsequent play through.

Freya

07-05-2016, 06:26 PM

Yeah Vivi22 just started ME2 as well! So i've been so giddy hearing all you guys' thoughts on it.

I do recommend the DLC in both 2 and 3 though. You got the collection didn't you? Does it have the DLC with it?

Bubba

07-05-2016, 11:01 PM

Yeah, it all comes with it :D

I'll be firing up Mass Effect 2 next week once the Ciddies are over. I'm mega-excited already!

Formalhaut

07-05-2016, 11:28 PM

ME: 2 is much more faster paced in combat than ME: 1, so you'll need time to adjust. I know I did!

Ayen

07-06-2016, 12:23 AM

ME: 2 is much more faster paced in combat than ME: 1, so you'll need time to adjust. I know I did!

Yeah, man. The controls are night and day.

Slothy

07-06-2016, 01:59 AM

I'm about 70% or so through 2 Bubba and it's better in pretty much every respect to the first. It's actually the only Bioware game I've played to date that makes it past being average to being a genuinely good game in my mind. Absolutely enjoying all of it to this point.

Loony BoB

07-06-2016, 01:53 PM

This has been a good read, nice to have a long thread to catch up on during my lunch break. :up: Cheers, Bubba.

theundeadhero

07-06-2016, 08:10 PM

It makes me happy that your eventual first playthrough as femshep will be renegade. Renegade femshep is best shep, with better voice acting and a more interesting story.

For ME2, I'm gonna put behind spoilers the point you want to save until everything else is finished. The game isn't exactly on rails after that, but you'll want to go through the next parts immediately afterwards or bad things happen.

Acquiring the Reaper IFF. Do everything else you want to finish in the game before doing this mission.

Bubba

07-11-2016, 06:13 PM

Mass Effect Review

Being a loyal Playstation customer, this game passed me by when it came out in 2007. Pesky XBox360 and its exclusive games. The trilogy was released for PS3 in 2012 though and I'm surprised it took me this long to finally experience them. This game was fantastic.

Having been horribly addicted to Destiny, I noticed a lot of similarities. Basically, Bungie wanted to make a FPS/RPG game in the style of Mass Effect. The premise for both games is remarkably similar but Mass Effect has the clear edge for one reason: Detail! The Mass Effect universe is so rich and packed with information. Detailed histories of the plight of humans and introducing other fascinating races. I spent a lot of time on the codex learning about everything. Honestly, it makes the lore of Destiny look like a book for five-year-olds about a dog called Ben.

The third-person perspective appealed to me but I wasn't sure how slick the gameplay would be with it being the first one in the series. I was pleasantly surprised! OK, the sniper mechanic could have been better but overall I thought it played very well. Also, after re-starting the game three times, it's clear the classes give the game I great dynamic and encourage multiple playthroughs. I'm already looking forward to my playthrough as renegade Femshep!

The side-quests were varied in story though I was a tad disappointed with the numerous re-cycled environments. Maybe I was expecting too much but when you've seen one bunker you've seen them all. My completionist nature had me travelling to every available planet where it was a similar story each time. Land, look for materials, investigate probe, clear out bunker, done. I honestly didn't mind too much due to the different terrains but when I was eager to finish the main story it became a little tedious. The main story missions were stellar though. A great mix of action and story-telling.

I loved, loved Liara the relationship with my crew. Yes, I didn't like all of them but they were such diverse characters it made the journey so much more interesting. My opinion changed a few times with a few characters. The person I thought would be my love interest at the start I ended up hating. A character I initially despised on first meet ended up being probably the most interesting of the lot. Fantastic characterisation.

The option to play as Paragon or Renegade gave great diversity to the conversational options. Playing a paragon, I chose the higher road the majority of the time. Although in certain situations, I occasionally chose the renegade response as I felt the situation called for it. I liked having the freedom to do that as it made me feel less like a goody-two-shoes robot. I still easily maxed out my Paragon bar.

The story as a whole was fantastic, especially the end reveal on Virmire and Ilos. It left me eager for more and I'm salivating at the thought of ME2! Especially when I hear nothing but great things about it. Normally if I'm playing a trilogy or series of games back-to-back I need a little break in between games. I haven't had that at all with Mass Effect. I just want to crack on!

So yeah, overall it's one of the best games I've played in a number of years. Stay tuned to this thread as I'll be booting up the second instalment this week!

Slothy

07-11-2016, 09:57 PM

Time to move on to 2 Bubba. I finished it last week and it was quite spectacular. On to 3 for me now.

Bubba

07-13-2016, 01:27 PM

68669

...and we go again.

It's time for the second instalment in my Mass Effect Adventures. Tonight starts... begins...beginneth...just... I'l be playing it tonight, OK?

There will be action, drama, suspense, death and hopefully a bit more swapping of bodily fluid :jokey: No doubt there will be plenty of Shepard deaths too... usually following a long period without saving. Again if you could avoid any spoilers for me that would be great!

Formalhaut

07-13-2016, 04:24 PM

I'm eager to hear your first impressions!

Pumpkin

07-14-2016, 06:19 AM

KASUMI AND TALI BEST TEAM

Bubba

07-14-2016, 07:46 AM

Bit of a family crisis last night so wasn't able to start. Tonight will definitely be the night though!

Randy

07-14-2016, 11:38 AM

Bubba

07-14-2016, 12:01 PM

I'm tempted to replay Mass Effect 2 along side you. It's easily in my top 5 games of all time. Really flawless experience. The best thing Bioware has made too!

The one thing I would say is that you HAVE TO play it with the DLC. There's a lot of DLC for the second one. In total, it nearly doubles the length of the game overall. And it fits into the main game fairly seamlessly so you don't need to wait til you've finished it or anything like that. Stolen Memory, Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker are all of the same quality as the rest of the game.

Feel free, man! Be warned though, I won't be making particularly rapid progress due to family commitments. If you could avoid posting spoilers for me on here that would be great :D

So yeah I've had a look at the DLC content for my trilogy edition. It looks to have everything but I can't see one relating to Stolen Memory?

On PlayStation 3, Bring Down the Sky will be included both on disc and on the PSN download, Mass Effect 2 will still have the same DLC on-disc that it was originally shipped with: Cerberus Network; Genesis; Kasumi; Overlord; and Lair of the Shadow Broker. Finally, Mass Effect 3 will also be exactly as it originally shipped.

Can someone confirm whether this list covers them all?

Mr. Carnelian

07-14-2016, 12:19 PM

Stolen Memory IS Kasumi, so you've got all the good stuff covered there for 2. There's also 'Arrival' but honestly you can do without that one. Although, if you do get Arrival, play it last (after the main game), because what happens in it leads directly into 3. Vis a vis 3, I cannot recommend getting the 'Citadel' DLC enough, it is absolutely worth it.

Bubba

07-14-2016, 12:48 PM

Thanks Mr C!

I'm already in love with the series and I've only played the first game so you better believe I'll be getting all the available DLC. :D

theundeadhero

07-14-2016, 04:37 PM

It's also missing Zaeed, who's a playable character I personally don't find very interesting, and the Firewalker pack, which is a couple of missions.

Formalhaut

07-14-2016, 05:05 PM

Eh, Zaeed is okay. I agree his character is a tad weak, but if you want the full experience he's worth getting and he reappears in ME: 3's Citadel. His loyalty mission is pretty good too. Though in terms of loyalty missions, Kasumi's knocks his and several others out of the water. Kasumi is just great in general.

The Firewalker pack gives you vehicle-based missions. They're pretty fun, though the vehicle you get has paper-thin armour which can't take much damage.

I'd get both, though by the time I played ME: 2 for the first time Mr. Carny already had them both, so I didn't really have to make a choice.

Randy

07-15-2016, 01:49 PM

Yeah according to the amazon page, the trilogy contains all of the DLC except Arrival.

That's fine. That was probably the worst of the story DLC anyway.

Bubba

07-15-2016, 02:23 PM

Sh*t. The. Bed. What an intro.

I thought my skills on the original Mass Effect were pretty poor due to the amount of deaths I experienced. On Mass Effect 2 though, I had control of Shepard for all of two minutes and I managed to...

- Kill Navigator Pressley and assorted crew
- Destroy the Normandy
- Kill Shepard by being blasted out into the vacuum of space.

Huh, I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself as this is clearly meant to happen. The sequence where you're walking through the Normandy as she's being torn apart was awesome though. The navigation room was a particular highlight as it was open to the elements; assorted debris flying past. Amazing. I was also happy my lovely Liara managed to save some crew and escape herself.

Clearly though, death isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days. It doesn't quite screw your career up in the same way. I was treated to a lovely cinematic of high-tech medical equipment recreating my entire body á la The Fifth Element. I woke briefly to see a couple of what I assumed were med staff. One was a baldy man and the other was a hot lady (Miranda) with a sexy Australian accent. Nice to look at but she was like... right in my face. Like, RIGHT THERE. Look love, you're pretty but get out of my personal space!

I remembered what Freya said about being able to change your appearance for "plot reasons" and that finally made sense. Thinking back on the inbred monstrosity I created at the start of ME1, I stuck with handsome bastard Shepard. I was hoping for a nice gentle wake-up followed by a leisurely stroll around my new surroundings. Nope! This game doesn't let up! Miranda's voice appears telling me to get the hell up, even though my scars hadn't fully healed. Easy lady!

I grabbed a pistol from the corner of the room and Miranda's voice piped up saying that the cannisters near the door were about to explode. How she knew this when she wasn't in the room I'm not quite sure. Anyway, we had to press X next to a desk to take cover. I retreated to the back of the room and tried to hide behind the desk here. No joy. After a few more attempts I started to panic. Everyone on EoFF will never let me forget it if I died within the first ten seconds of proper gameplay! As it turns out there was a specific place I had to hide (much closer to the bloody explosion!) indicated by a giant orange blob thing. I hope this is just for the hand-holding beginning section and not the whole game. The cannisters exploded I grabbed some ammo and left the room.

After vaulting into the adjoining room, some mech enemy was nonchalantly strolling down the far stairs shooting at me. I was behind cover and ready to confidently pop up and blow the smurfer to smithereens. What actually happened was I kept popping up and down like a jack-in-a-box with attention deficit disorder... and taking heavy damage. What the hell, game? Why change the bloody shoot button?!

The next area had quite a few more mech enemies. I was struggling a bit with the shooting, to be honest. Also, I'm not sure I care for the new ammo system. I suppose it makes sense but I actually really liked the overheat system on the original. I'd not seen that in any other game and I thought it was quite unique. I mean, there seems to be loads of ammo but it's still something I need to stress about, along with remembering to reload. I DON'T LIKE CHANGE.

Grabbed a grenade launcher (whoo hoo!) in the next area and took out a load of mechs. Noice. Found my first safe to be hacked *cracks fingers* well I'm a seasoned pro at thi... WHAT THE SMURF IS THIS? My first attempt at ME2 hacking was akin to a chimpanzee trying to fix a photocopier. I kind of got the gist the second time around and managed to grab the loot just in time. After my initial shock, I think the new hacking mechanic is a brilliant alternative to just button sequences.

Next room consisted of a walkway and a meeting with Jacob. I assume he'll be a team member as I remember this guy as the cad who cheated on Pumpkin's FemShep and knocked someone up behind her back! I decided to put that aside on our first meet as I needed information. After dispatching more mechs we had a brief chat. He told me about the Lazarus Project in which I was resurrected. They hired all the top scientists to try and revive me and eventually managed it after two years. I then asked about my Normandy crew and... wait, what? TWO YEARS? TWO SMURFING YEARS? My lovely Liara will have gone off and had blue space babies with some knobhead like Conrad or someone. GAAWWWWWWD. I'm gonna have to sleep with so many new crew members to get over her...

Right, I'm waffling again. Anyway, we push on to the escape pods and come across Wilson. He's in a bad way so I cure him and the three of us push on. Lots of mech killing ensues. We eventually find Maria who seemed pleasant enough until she shot Wilson in the face. I'd only just met the guy! She informed us that Wilson was the traitor and Jacob says "Yeah, I buy that" and we all push on ignoring the cold-blooded murder that just took place.

We manage to board an escape pod and hotfoot it out of there. A little bit of exposition as Miranda informs us that she's taking me to see this illusive-sounding man called The Illusive Man. Illusive. This guy apparently funded my resurrection and was clearly eager to meet me. You'll be glad to hear I called it a night at this point.

Future updates will hopefully not be as convoluted but quite a lot happened at the start of this game! First impressions: I think this is gonna be epic :-) Everything seems to have been stepped up for the sequel. I just need to get the hang of shooting but very impressed so far!

Formalhaut

07-15-2016, 02:36 PM

Glad you liked the intro! Definitely one of the most shocking experiences, in my opinion!

Freya

07-15-2016, 02:47 PM

I liked arrival :shobon: it prepares you for the holy smurf of ME3 and also a ton of people can die.

Yeah the change up in gameplay will throw you for a loop if you play 2 right after 1 but overall it's much easier for combat.

Glad you like it! ME2 is easily my favorite of the series.

Slothy

07-15-2016, 02:58 PM

Arrival is good. Get it son!

Bubba

07-15-2016, 03:15 PM

Arrival is good. Get it son!

Will do, Dad :salute:

Slothy

07-15-2016, 05:42 PM

I'm proud of you boy.

Formalhaut

07-15-2016, 05:45 PM

So Bubba are you still an infiltrator, or did you decide to change class?

My second ME: 2 playthrough I decided to go infiltrator and I loved the time dilation effect when you used sniper rifles. Very satisfying.

Pumpkin

07-15-2016, 05:49 PM

Fuggin Jacob :stare:

PLEASE TEAM UP KASUMI AND TALI FOR AT LEAST ONE MISSION AND TELL ME ABOUT IT LATER PLS

Formalhaut

07-15-2016, 05:54 PM

Kasumi is one of my favourite characters in the game, both story and gameplay. I love Tali as well, but she's not the strongest character in ME: 2.

Bubba

07-15-2016, 06:34 PM

So Bubba are you still an infiltrator, or did you decide to change class?

Yeah, still an infiltrator! So still... infiltrating and stuff. Looking forward to using the sniper again :cool:

PLEASE TEAM UP KASUMI AND TALI FOR AT LEAST ONE MISSION AND TELL ME ABOUT IT LATER PLS

For you Pumpkin, of course! Don't know who Kasumi is yet but looking forward to meeting her/him/it :D

Freya

07-15-2016, 06:43 PM

She's a DLC character! Kasumi and Zaeed. Those are the two DLC characters. Her DLC is called Stolen Memory while his is The Price of Revenge

Formalhaut

07-15-2016, 06:54 PM

Her loyalty mission is one of the best there is, hands down. And you get an excellent SMG to replace your crappy basic one to boot!

Pumpkin

07-15-2016, 06:55 PM

I always tried to rotate my characters but it made me super happy when I'd get Tali and Kasumi together because they were my faves :flirt:

Formalhaut

07-15-2016, 07:04 PM

I try to use team members that fit the current mission or relate to it in some way. I try not to stick to just one team. In fact, I try not to do that in most games!

Randy

07-16-2016, 04:27 PM

and also a ton of people can die.

Who can die? I don't remember anyone dying in my playthrough.

Slothy

07-16-2016, 05:08 PM

and also a ton of people can die.

Who can die? I don't remember anyone dying in my playthrough.

Don't read this Bubba.
Seriously Bubba: don't do itHow many times do I need to warn you?This is just getting ridiculous.Fine. You can kind of doom the Batarians to death by destroying the mass relay and the planet filled with hundreds of thousands of people

Bubba

07-16-2016, 09:36 PM

Finished the Freedoms Progress mission and things are heating up very nicely. I was so excited at the end of this!

Update to follow :D

Bubba

07-18-2016, 10:31 AM

Illusive Man is illusive.

It turns out he has revived me to help ensure the survival of humanity. No pressure then... jeez. I'm starting to think they should have left my corpse floating through space. Cutting through the waffle, there's an Alliance colony called Freedom's Progress that is under siege. Time to flex my muscles! Once I'd done that I picked up the controller and carried on with the game.

Had quick chats with Miranda and Jacob before jetting off. Miranda clearly has reservations about me which I don't mind. I guess I'll have to earn her trust. Jacob on the other hand was far friendlier and pleased as punch to be working with me. He's quite the charming dude, I can see why Pumpkin was sucked in.

I loved the start of the Freedom's Progress mission. It reminded me of Aliens again when they all first land in the dropship. I was happy to learn that Captain Illusive made me the commanding officer of the mission. Miranda did not seem pleased. I told her to shut the hell up (or I would if it was an option) and said our first priority was to look for survivors. Still familiarising myself with the controls, I accidentally sent both Jacob and Miranda sprinting to the other side of the landing platform. I then entertained myself for a few minutes making them both run back and forward across the platform to the sound of them both shouting "OK!" and "On my way!". I am a terrible commander.

Bleep test over, we started snooping around. Things seemed pretty quiet... a little too quiet. After a box or two containing credits, we were attacked by some more mechs. Once again it seemed like they'd been reprogrammed to attack humans. I've seen I, Robot, I could have told them years ago that making robots was a bad idea.

After a few more mechs and crates, we come face to face with an old friend. Tali! Even though I didn't use her that much in ME1, it was still nice to see a familiar face. Plus, she stopped us all getting shot by her Quarian buddies. Apparently, they're after a fellow Quarian called Detour who is here helping the colony as part of his pilgrimage. It seems like finding this freakazoid will give us the answers we need so we decide to team up *virtual Human and Quarian team high five*.

We soon encountered these pain in the ass flying drone thingies. Overload does the job but yeah, I don't like them. Still getting used to my improved arsenal of weapons. Not had a good enough opportunity for the sniper yet. After cutting down more drones, Tali comes over the comm to say that she's unleashed this badass mech boss and it's tearing everyone apart. Good going, love. It didn't actually cause me as much trouble as the cut scene suggested it might. Overload came in handy again and Shepard can add another reason for everyone to think he's amazing.

After picking up the area's loot, we find Detour in a cabin and hoooo boy... shall we say he is a little disturbed? I'm playing as paragon so I made Shepard shut down Detour's monitors. He did this impressively fast too. Nearly as quick as me closing down my porn browsers when MissH gets home. Apparently these folk called Collector's are kidnapping humans for reasons unknown. Lovely. I didn't take Detour into custody, I let Tali take him with her because she's my dudette.

Mission over, General Illusive gave me some vague info on these Collectors. It would seem I'm on a need-to-know basis though. He says I need to start recruiting members for my team. Let's do it! Apparently, none of my original crew are available so my first stop appears to be to grab this scientist. One familiar face did return though, Joker! Also, he's going to be piloting a brand, spanking new Normandy!

Tune in next time as Shepard accidentally damages a drive plate within his first twenty minutes on board killing the entire crew.

Bubba

07-18-2016, 12:26 PM

Oh, I also got a load of bonuses from my stellar performance in Mass Effect 1!

+ 2000 experience (start at Level 3)
+ 30000 Credits
+ 5000 Element Zero
+ 5000 Iridium
+ 5000 Palladium
+ 5000 Platinum
+ 190 Paragon
+ 22 Renegade

I also received a bonus 100000 credits for importing a rich ME1 character :D

Is this decent or could I have done better?

Formalhaut

07-18-2016, 01:01 PM

For your reassurance, there's really not much else you could do:

However, the game will acknowledge your character's level and morality (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Morality) and adapt it in ways that map across to the new system as well. The higher the level of the imported character, the greater the bonuses granted upon importing.

A portion of the character's Paragon/Renegade points (up to 190 each, which requires the bar(s) to be 50% full[1] (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Save_File_Transfer#cite_note-0)) are transferred over.
Importing a level 1 through level 49 character will grant 1,000 XP (the player starts at level 2), 20,000 credits, and 2,500 of each resource.
Importing a level 50 through level 59 character will grant 2,000 XP (the player starts at level 3), 30,000 credits, and 5,000 of each resource.
Importing a level 60 character will grant 4,000 XP (the player starts at level 5), 50,000 credits, and 10,000 of each resource.
Having the "Rich" achievement from Mass Effect will grant an additional 100,000 credits.

Seeing how reaching level 60 takes a herculean effort (one you can't do on an initial play-through regardless), you did just great, Bubba.

On a small note, even during your initial play-through of ME: 2 without experience bonuses, it is possible to reach the maximum level of 30 by completing every single mission (including DLCs).

Bubba

07-18-2016, 01:15 PM

Nice one, Formy!

It looks like I did everything I possibly could then in ME1. Happy with that!

Freya

07-18-2016, 03:00 PM

Oh yes! The illusive man! Great voice actor.

Actually, the ME series had a stellar cast.

Loony BoB

07-19-2016, 11:54 AM

my first stop appears to be to grab this scientist
Oh hell yeah.

theundeadhero

07-20-2016, 04:09 AM

The scientist is one of my most favorite ME characters.

Pumpkin

07-20-2016, 12:26 PM

His thinness made me jelly

Bubba

07-20-2016, 01:35 PM

Just a quick (maybe) update on my initial exploration of the new-and-improved Normandy!

Well, they've certainly improved on the original. The navigation area and cockpit is largely unchanged. There was a pretty, young lady called Kelly Chambers who is a Yeoman and is charge of all my emails and messages. We had a long chat and she was basically telling me how amazing I was. Seeing as Liara left me to have blue babies with Conrad, I decided to do a little flirting. Though Shepard's closing line of "Maybe I'll do more than catch you, Kelly" did make me throw up onto my own feet. Whilst clearly a pretty girl, I'm not sure she's fantastic at her job. She said she'd let me know when I had messages. OK, thanks. I went over to my personal computer. Bam! 4 messages. Cheers for the heads up, Kelly! After reading and closing all four messages I went back to have a word with her. She then told me I had messages. I know! I've just bloody read them! I issued her with a verbal warning and told her she better buck up her ideas if she wants to keep her job.

Oh yes, Shepard's quarters are swish. Hopefully I'll get to test the springs on this swanky bed a few times during this game. On further inspection of the ship, I came across another familiar face. Dr Chaka Khan from the original Normandy Crew! She is still keen on working with the legend that is Shepard (why wouldn't she?) and I'm happy to have her on board. Activated a side quest too as it turns out she is a raging alcoholic. No problem, doctor. I'll make it my first priority. The rampaging Reapers and Collectors can wait for now.

I also spoke to the chef who wanted some fancier ingredients. He seemed decent so I didn't mind going on on the hunt for basil and rosemary (these are herbs, not secret characters - just so you all know). I also chatted to a couple of engineers down in the bowels of the ship. They were nice and side quest number three was activated. I can't remember exactly what they asked for. I think it was some sort of engineering-type stuff so they can do a better job at engineering.

Saved it just before heading out. I think I'm gonna pop back to the Citadel before the next mission. One of my messages was from Commander Anderson so I should probably touch base with the new council seeing as I'm the one responsible for killing all their predecessors.

Freya

07-20-2016, 10:16 PM

Oh yeah there's a few old NPCs all over the place!

theundeadhero

07-20-2016, 11:00 PM

Unless you murdered them. Mwahahahahaha!

Loony BoB

07-22-2016, 10:29 AM

EDIT: Neeever mind I'm thinking of ME3.

Bubba

07-24-2016, 02:04 AM

"This is Commander Shepard... and this is my favourite store on the Citadel."

Slothy

07-24-2016, 03:09 AM

Says the ad playing in every store. And no one was any the wiser.

theundeadhero

07-24-2016, 06:40 PM

You know what I heard? That the lake in the presidium is full of fish. Think how delicious one of those would be.

Bubba

07-25-2016, 10:49 AM

Now my birthday shenanigans are over, it's time to push on with this. Next up: Citadel adventures!

I had a nice scan of the new galaxy map. Lots of locations for me to inspect. I resisted for now though and jumped straight to the Citadel. I was excited to see what had been done with the place after last time when it looked like a giant abandoned crack den.

A friendly Turian greeted us. He did a quick scan and pleasantly informed me I was actually dead. Only on the inside, mate. Apparently, corpses are banned from the Citadel. Damn right, they only stink up the place. This being the case some guy called Baileys had to lift my ban and I was back!

I spoke to Davina the AI computer first. She seemed keen on reporting everything that I said. Surely being a Spectre and a legend would garner a certain level of trust? Apparently not though. Also, it appears everyone hates humans. I kind of get that. I'm not massively keen on them myself. I had a good shifty around everywhere and did some not-so-subtle eavesdropping on people's conversations. Cheers for the tip theundeadhero, I activated some sidequest by listening to a couple of Krogan chatting about fish. I didn't check my journal though because I'm stupid. I'll do that later.

I went to the cafe next and there were some high grade provisions for sale. Hmmm, I thought. What are the chances that this is what my Normandy chef is after? I decided that it was worth the money and lo and behold, Special Ingredients sidequest was updated! I just need to find a few crates of scotch now so Doctor Chaka Khan can drink until she no longer feels feelings.

I also stopped by the souvenir shop and gave my verbal endorsement (see previous post) in order to get a store discount. If you can't use your legendary commander status to get cheap Citadel shot glasses and nipple mugs then what's the point?

I'm pretty sure there's loads more to do here but I'd booted this up at 1:30am on Saturday after my gig and a few glasses of Jack Daniels later and my eyes were going. I did go and visit the Council before stopping though to see my old pal Anderson and give him a Citadel fridge magnet. Turns out he's about as popular as a carbuncle on the anus. Udina Menzel (that prick from ME1) showed up and solidified this point. I decided to leave the politics to them. I much prefer going out and shooting things. Starting my fourth bourbon, I decided to stop there and watch a load of crap on Youtube instead.

Tune in next time when Shepard is kicked out of Chora's Den for exposing himself to a stripper.

Freya

07-25-2016, 04:07 PM

I love going to all the shops and giving the same endorsement. It amuses me

Bubba

07-27-2016, 12:40 PM

I love going to all the shops and giving the same endorsement. It amuses me

Haha, he literally doesn't change a single word! I think I've endorsed four shops with this so far :lol:

Tune in next time when Shepard is kicked out of Chora's Den for exposing himself to a stripper.

I said this in jest but it wasn't far off what actually happened. Further exploration of the Citadel led me to a groovy place called Dark Star Lounge. Just before heading in, I ran into Rita Skeeter, that reporter who talked crap about me in ME1. I was very tempted to take the Renegade option here and bitchslap her. I'm playing paragon though so I basically just gave her another interview like a mug. Man, I can't wait to f**k some sh*t up with Renegade FemShep next playthrough!

So it appears Chora's Den is no more, Dark Star Lounge is much fancier anyway! I've decided that resurrected Shepard is much more of a free spirit. That being the case, I went straight to the dance floor for a bit of a boogie. It was then I noticed a sexy Asari dancer on a little podium. I felt Shepard would be experiencing Liara withdrawal so I sat down and watched like the pervert that I am. Yes I leant forward... yes I tipped her... DON'T JUDGE ME.

Fun over, I decided to try and act professionally again. Spoke to the bartender who had bog all to say so I just proceeded to order four drinks. OK now the fun was over. I spoke to Turian called Groundskeeper Willy and it turns out he was part of the Krogan fish sidequest thingy. Nice. He told me there aren't any fish in the Presidium lakes. What a crime. I also managed to get hold of some brandy for Doctor Chaka Khan. Unfortunately, there was no option to purchase another one for myself :(

My final act on the Citadel (for now) was to ace another sidequest because I'm fantastic. There was a beef between a Quarian and a... erm... dunno, the short, stumpy ones with an attitude. Dwarf Alien? I'll call them Dwarlians for now. So yeah, the Dwarlian accused the Quarian of stealing his property. There was a C-Sec officer there but he was a racist prick so it was left to yours truly to save the day. AGAIN. I snooped around the local area and it turns out the dopey Dwarlian f**ker had left his thing at a shop. I shouted at the two pricks and then shamelessly hit on on quarian because she had a sexy voice. Pilgramage? Yeah, I know all about them. I'm a man of the world/galaxy/universe. Catch you later, toots.

Right, time to jet off into the big black. Had a couple of sidequests to complete though before I started shooting sh*t up. Passed over the ingredients to the chef but he's still pretty f***ing awful apparently. Then I delivered the brandy to Chaka Khan. Being a working class kid from Northern England, I obviously chose to sit with her and get wasted. I've decided that she is pretty hot for an older lady. She has a Helen Mirren quality about her. I don't think she would, but I would not rebuff her advances if she chose to do so.

I left her passed out in the medibay then decided I've done enough fannying about. Time to set a course for Omega to snare me a scientist!

Bubba

07-27-2016, 03:05 PM

Oh, there was one more thing on the Normandy. I found Kasumi's sleeping quarters in (right next to the bar, good girl) and had a good chat with her. I really like her so far! She's a cool character. She told me about all her possessions that she's 'acquired' over the years. She has a fascinating back story and subsequently is on my team for the next mission to Omega!

Also, on the galaxy map screen, what's the deal with probes and fuel? I've topped them all up but I honestly have no idea why. The first planet I came across I sent about 20 probes down to gain materials. This may have been overkill though. The next planet I just sent them down when there was a particularly large spike on the element detector.

AMIDOINITRITE?

Slothy

07-27-2016, 07:07 PM

Yes, you're doing it right in the second case. And fuel is only used when you fly between star systems in an area (as in connected to the same mass relay. Fly to the edge of whatever system you're in and you'll see).

Freya

07-27-2016, 07:09 PM

Yeah you're doing it right, what he said.

Also I think there are like two or three missions that come from omega so you may spend some time there!

Randy

07-28-2016, 06:24 AM

Don't read this Bubba.
Seriously Bubba: don't do itHow many times do I need to warn you?This is just getting ridiculous.Fine. You can kind of doom the Batarians to death by destroying the mass relay and the planet filled with hundreds of thousands of people

Do they then not appear in ME3 at all? Or does it have no effect as it's assumed a lot of them were off-planet at the time?

Bubba

07-28-2016, 02:25 PM

Yes, you're doing it right in the second case.

Yeah you're doing it right, what he said.

Awesome, good to hear. I seemed to figure this out quicker than the bypass circuit at any rate.

Also I think there are like two or three missions that come from omega so you may spend some time there!

Well I better get cracking then! Made a little bit of progress yesterday so here beginneth my adventures on Omega!

Oh my word. Omega is the coolest place ever! It's basically an asteroid that has had its body hollowed out and converted into some kind of space station. It's now a wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

I was expecting an ME1-style siege straight away but it was actually the opposite. A friendly Salarian dude called Gutrot gave me a very pleasant welcome and I thought to myself "It's got a bad rep this place but it seems OK so far!" That optimism lasted roughly seven seconds as a grumpy Batarian called Mocolate shooed him away and was very unpleasant. Fortunately, my conversation options had a blue response. Oh yeaaaaah... time to turn on the old charm, sweet-talk this dude then take him out for a nice steak dinner. Nope. He was having none of it and said I needed to stop being a bitch, get my arse over to Club Afterlife and speak to Ariel. My... my charm powers failed me. This has seriously knocked my confidence for my personal sidequest to pork my way through the entire Normandy crew.

There was a bit of a queue outside Club Afterlife. Being British, I joined the queue and waited. After about 20 minutes with the queue going nowhere, I decided to approach the bouncer and see if my Spectre status gave me enough weight to go straight in. The bouncer said Arial was expecting me and I was free to enter. God damn me and my English manners! Twenty minutes I just waited! I didn't really do this There was another pain-in-the-arse Batarian called Kylie in the tunnel leading to the club. My confidence had a slight boost as I was able to charm him into putting his weapon back in his pants. Hopefully my charm will be at a sufficient level to have the opposite effect when I meet up with Kaidan again :jokey: God, what is wrong with me? Anyway, back on mission.

Club Afterlife was bouncing. I went straight to the bar and had another four drinks. You know, just as a warm up. I was hoping to have a bit of a scout around before bumping fists/fins with Arial. Unfortunately, I initiated the meet too soon and before I knew it we were shooting the breeze. Hope she doesn't smell the alcohol on my breath. So she is clearly Top Dog here on Omega. The Alpha of Omega, if you will. See what I did there?! Ahem. Anyway, she informs me this scientist dude is over in the quarantine zone looking after sick people. How very noble of him. We'll get to you in a minute, dude.

A little scout around led me to the VIP section. It would be rude not to order another drink or two. It would seem that Shepard is a lightweight though and he collapsed and woke up in an alley outside the club. Christ man, we need to build up your alcohol immunity. As it transpires though, I was actually poisoned by the prick bartender Forlan. His mates were killed by humans so now he just poisons every human that orders a drink. I could feel a rare renegade action coming for this guy. When I got back to the VIP bar though I bottled it and went paragon. I was happy though as they guy stood next to me at the bar shot him in the face instead. Cheers pal.

It was that moment that a one-year-old child crawled into my gaming room repeating "Daddy did it!" Wondering with fear as to what I could possibly have been accused of, I left my ME adventures there.

Tune in next time when Shepard turns up wasted to his AA meeting and sprints naked round the room singing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.