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Zoran posted:Insanity is generally trivial for anyone with multiplayer experience, but I discovered when I recently beat the game a second time that the final Marauder is by far the hardest enemy in the whole game. Took me like seven tries to take him down. He's the final boss. What else did you expect?
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Feb 2, 2014 02:35
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loving marauders, man. It's ALWAYS the marauders that get you.
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Feb 2, 2014 03:04
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Zoran posted:Insanity is generally trivial for anyone with multiplayer experience, but I discovered when I recently beat the game a second time that the final Marauder is by far the hardest enemy in the whole game. Took me like seven tries to take him down.
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Feb 2, 2014 03:19
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The thing with Marauder Shields is that you have to just hit him quickly and often, and trying to headshot your way to victory is gonna get you killed on Insanity. It also helps if you don't hit him head on; I usually shamble off to the right side well before getting to the beam and engage him from an oblique angle, for some reason this helps.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:47
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I'm playing a Vanguard in ME2 for the first time. Why have I waited so long.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:54
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^^ Vanguard is definitely the most fun experience, as long as you're not doing insanity or something, in which case it becomes a very tedious and careful experience in which you get to feel cool once in a blue moon. My trilogy playthrough has reached ME3 and this is the first time I've touched the game (outside of my ~300 hours of MP) since my original playthrough. Going straight from 1 to 2 to 3, it really is grating how much 3 takes the reins away from you and tries to show you a stupid action movie starring "Commander Shepard," who is a person who looks vaguely like the person you played for two games but otherwise requires none of your input. The initial Earth stuff is super on-rails, and then you get teleported to Mars, and then you get teleported to the Citadel, and then you get teleported to a dream sequence, and then you wake up and get teleported to the war room, and by the time you go to Palaven's moon and pick up Garrus you STILL haven't gotten to choose your squad even once. The loving game just does everything for you. I didn't notice any of that poo poo the first time through ME3 and I was generally just enjoying myself, but when you come straight from ME2, it's very obvious how much the game takes agency away from you and casts you as some weird action movie Shepard I sure as hell never played as. Anyway this is all beside the point because I only rolled up here to post this gif I made of everyone's idle animations because I find them hilarious. Femshep is loving bugging out, Liara is trying to stay cool, and Kaidan is like "stop looking at me, arrghgh." 
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Feb 3, 2014 08:26
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a slim spar posted:My trilogy playthrough has reached ME3 and this is the first time I've touched the game (outside of my ~300 hours of MP) since my original playthrough. Going straight from 1 to 2 to 3, it really is grating how much 3 takes the reins away from you and tries to show you a stupid action movie starring "Commander Shepard," who is a person who looks vaguely like the person you played for two games but otherwise requires none of your input. The initial Earth stuff is super on-rails, and then you get teleported to Mars, and then you get teleported to the Citadel, and then you get teleported to a dream sequence, and then you wake up and get teleported to the war room, and by the time you go to Palaven's moon and pick up Garrus you STILL haven't gotten to choose your squad even once. The loving game just does everything for you. I am playing through the trilogy for my first time in short order and I actually got to say that I like the direction ME3 took here. Most RPGs have the problem that your character is somebody who runs around and just asks everyone lots and lots of questions without having well.. much character on their own. They made ME3 a bit more cinematic, gave Shepard some personality and cut out lots of tedious back-and-forth running and I largely enjoy that. Its interesting how you can follow with each game how Bioware learned from past games and tries different things. For example in the first part you have this huge citadel which while pretty, is really tedious to navigate. In the second part they cut down on areas like that but a bit too much, with some places feeling a bit cramped and claustrophic. The third one strikes a nice balance. The Missions in the third one are just straightforward shooting galleries but this actually works well for how these games are. I also liked how they integrated the side missions more into the overall game, they don't feel so completely detached anymore. Same with the squadmates you get a lot more interaction with during the missions, something I found especially lacking in ME2. Also thank god they got rid of all the stupid minigames, too bad it took them until three to realize that these were terrible. I can actually see why some people don't like the third one (and I don't mean the ending) as it is a pretty different game overall.
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Feb 3, 2014 10:11
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a slim spar posted:My trilogy playthrough has reached ME3 and this is the first time I've touched the game (outside of my ~300 hours of MP) since my original playthrough. Going straight from 1 to 2 to 3, it really is grating how much 3 takes the reins away from you and tries to show you a stupid action movie starring "Commander Shepard," who is a person who looks vaguely like the person you played for two games but otherwise requires none of your input. The initial Earth stuff is super on-rails, and then you get teleported to Mars, and then you get teleported to the Citadel, and then you get teleported to a dream sequence, and then you wake up and get teleported to the war room, and by the time you go to Palaven's moon and pick up Garrus you STILL haven't gotten to choose your squad even once. The loving game just does everything for you. This is a consequence of the tighter story, and the constrains that the narrative places on the gameplay because of the Reaper invasion of Earth and your retreat from it. Your goal is clear from the start (free Earth -> get the forces necessary to free Earth). In ME1 you don't even know the nature or size of the threat, or who is behind it, so of course you have much more freedom to explore the galaxy. For all the galactic civilization ending that looms large in ME3 you still have ridiculous freedom to screw around. Fly through a few systems in search of dinosaur DNA? Have a party at your apartment? Take a break from the fight in the Rannoch system to return to the Citadel? Logically that should not be happening if the situation is as dire and urgent as it is depicted. But the game let's you have these freedoms regardless. The fact that you are railroaded in the beginning and restrained in the choice of squad members is quite consistent with the story. ME3 is the third game in a trilogy, with a galaxy wide invasion happening, which was announced in the very first game. They did not pull the Reapers out of their asses to restrict your choices. Compare it to Baldur's Gate. In the first game you have not idea what is going on and can screw around quite a bit (except that party members begin to bitch if you do not get to their quests and even permanently leave you if you take too long! Imagine that happening in ME or DA!). But you still have to do the main story quests in the right order. In the second game you knew what was up with you, although Irenicus was quite mysterious. But you knew your goal from the start (well, after the first 10 minutes): Rescue Imoen. And after you rescued her, the goal was to defeat Irenicus and take back the part of your divine soul he stole you. You still had quite a bit of freedom, but the game had much longer and more frequent parts of railroading than the BG1 (Cowled wizards prison->[optional:Saradush->]Underdark was several hours long). And in Throne of Bhaal the whole game was one huge railroad. If I remember correctly, apart from the optional Watcher's Keep, the only time the way branched was the choice who of the two evil bossed (of five) you wanted to kill first, the dragon or the drow. Everything else was one tightly told story that had little room for deviations. That is just the nature of the epic storyline. If you see ME3 as the last third of one big game, you would not be surprised by the amount of railroading at the final stretch of a game. How many games a a point of no return after which you cannot wander around in the game world anymore? Because it is the third part of a trilogy, it is not surprising that the player has less freedom than the first two parts.
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Feb 3, 2014 11:39
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a slim spar posted:I didn't notice any of that poo poo the first time through ME3 and I was generally just enjoying myself, but when you come straight from ME2, it's very obvious how much the game takes agency away from you and casts you as some weird action movie Shepard I sure as hell never played as. Don't forget the option that lets you put the cutscenes on autopilot so Gears players don't have to think too hard. At first I thought it was an interesting idea, but then when you think the first game is mostly dialogue with lovely combat tacked on as an afterthought, it's sort of sad to see it become a combat game with lovely dialogue tacked on as an afterthought. Except Javik of course. "stand among the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask them if honor matters."
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Feb 3, 2014 13:45
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I don't know if the dialogue is shittier than in ME1, opening and ending aside. Squad interaction is without doubt the best feature of ME3, and the best in the trilogy.
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Feb 3, 2014 14:11
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The dialogue in ME3 is very stilted at points, like they cut bits of the script out in a haphazard manner after they were in-game or there was a problem with the game engine or something. It's choppy and it's something you never saw in the first two games.
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Feb 3, 2014 14:23
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Everyone seems to hate on the Citadel in ME2 but I dunno I thought it was super pretty, especially the bottom area with the sushi place and stuff. The wards are way cooler than the presidium and you barely get to hang out in the wards at all in 3. Except for the part from the Citadel DLC which is baller as hell.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:33
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I don't know the wards are pretty redundant with Omega and especially Illium. The return of the Presidium was a nice change.Milky Moor posted:The dialogue in ME3 is very stilted at points, like they cut bits of the script out in a haphazard manner after they were in-game or there was a problem with the game engine or something. It's choppy and it's something you never saw in the first two games. I'm doing a replay soon so I'll keep an eye out for that.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:39
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I don't really know what people love about the Citadel so much in ME1. It's big, empty and dull. If you don't know where the side quests spawn it just means running all over the place to see if anything has changed after completing a main quest, and one of the side quests spawns in that dumb little hallway between the Presidium and the Wards that you can't fast travel to.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:44
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Kurtofan posted:I'm doing a replay soon so I'll keep an eye out for that. It's definitely something that happens, the game cutting off the final line of dialogue (like fading it down really quickly) to move the cutscene on / return control to the player kind of like as if you had pressed Space to skip it in the previous games, but the game does it on its own instead. Maybe it's exclusive to PC although I doubt it. Veotax posted:I don't really know what people love about the Citadel so much in ME1. It's big, empty and dull. If you don't know where the side quests spawn it just means running all over the place to see if anything has changed after completing a main quest, and one of the side quests spawns in that dumb little hallway between the Presidium and the Wards that you can't fast travel to. All places / hubs are comparatively big, empty and dull in ME1 but the Citadel is still a pretty unique and interesting place, gameplay-issues like access to some areas and an abundance of elevators aside. It's not the running all over the place looking for Keepers that people like about it, it's the atmosphere, dialogues, locations, art style, music, etc. Burning Mustache fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 15:45
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I really love the Noveria hub, but it's mainly because of the music and the snowstorm outside. Makes me wish my shepherd could get hot chocolate and a big blanket. 
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Feb 3, 2014 15:50
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Chexoid posted:I really love the Noveria hub, but it's mainly because of the music and the snowstorm outside. Makes me wish my shepherd could get hot chocolate and a big blanket. I've always liked Noveria, all parts of it, really, the entire atmosphere of the hub part just feels all cozy :I
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Feb 3, 2014 15:55
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Burning Mustache posted:
Replayed ME1 last week and was left with the impression that the hub locations were made before anything else, and the designers then struggled to fill them out with stuff to do. Everything seems to be much larger than it needs to be. I'm sure that, if not for the Keepers quest, I wouldn't have needed to explore more than about half of the Citadel, and there are tons of quite well-designed areas that see minimal action (C-Sec traffic control, for example). Immediately going to ME2 really highlights this, as the areas have much tighter design (the ability to sprint anytime also helps).
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Feb 3, 2014 15:56
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Veotax posted:I don't really know what people love about the Citadel so much in ME1. It's big, empty and dull. If you don't know where the side quests spawn it just means running all over the place to see if anything has changed after completing a main quest, and one of the side quests spawns in that dumb little hallway between the Presidium and the Wards that you can't fast travel to. And the Keepers quest, oh my god that was horrible. While the elevator scenes where nice, party member interaction was much better done in ME3, with even party members that are not in the active party talking to each other on the Normandy.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:57
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If we're gonna start praising ME1, let's think of Saren blundering around his ship, going "Raaaargh!!!" because Shepard didn't die when he wanted.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:58
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While the ME3 ending was pretty dissapointing... honestly, what really rubbed me wrong in the game was Kai-Leng. I just freaking hated the guy. Not even in the "GRR I MUST KILL THIS GUY" but rather in the "Who the HELL is this douche, why is he in my way, and why does he have stupid regenerating shields." His taunting e-mail later on just made me twitch. He felt like a bad-rear end self-insert character, in a story that is quite frankly about MY bad-rear end self-insert character (yes, Shepard) goddammit. It's just... such a wasted potential? Why not another character from Shepard's past? Why not a fake Kaidan/Ashley? I don't know, something better than freaking cereal ninja?
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Feb 3, 2014 15:59
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Bogart posted:If we're gonna start praising ME1, let's think of Saren blundering around his ship, going "Raaaargh!!!" because Shepard didn't die when he wanted. If you read the subtitles the exact quote is "Rargh! Argh! Rargh!" The room goes all red and it's implied that it's actually Sovereign that's mad and is channeling it through Saren, but that makes it even sillier that Sovereign would care that much.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:00
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Timespy posted:Replayed ME1 last week and was left with the impression that the hub locations were made before anything else, and the designers then struggled to fill them out with stuff to do. It certainly feels that way. I mean, I think there is actually a certain kind of a charm to it, it creates a very unique atmosphere but it's undeniably more interesting and way, way less repetitive to walk through ME2's and ME3's much more detailed environments. Timespy posted:It's just... such a wasted potential? Why not another character from Shepard's past? Why not a fake Kaidan/Ashley? I don't know, something better than freaking cereal ninja? Because Mac Walters is literally a 12 year old child who genuinely thinks Kai Leng is unironically cool and awesome. Burning Mustache fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 16:03
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Burning Mustache posted:It certainly feels that way. I mean, I think there is actually a certain kind of a charm to it, it creates a very unique atmosphere but it's undeniably more interesting and way, way less repetitive to walk through ME2's and ME3's much more detailed environments. I guess that is a matter of preferences then, I like the "smaller" Citadel much more than the ME1 Citadel. Regarding Kai Leng, he apparently played a big role in some of the comics or novels, but requiring players to have read this works to not hate him as a pointless character is bad design on Bioware's part. Edit: Typo! Torrannor fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 16:05
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^He sucks in the novels, too. A super cool hyperspy does not sneak into an Alliance Admiral's apartment just to piss in his cereal. I'm not sure that an ancient machine space ship made of a long-extinct species would express his anger that way. RE: Kai Leng. We know. Shepard and company would kick Leng's rear end if not for his ridiculous unexplained shield regen and sudden cutscene proficiency syndrome.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:06
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Bogart posted:A super cool hyperspy does not sneak into an Alliance Admiral's apartment just to piss in his  (Why do I know this, oh god help)
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Feb 3, 2014 16:54
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Generic American posted:
I always wonder what it must be like if the last conscious thought that crosses your mind before you die is something utterly trivial. Just imagine lying on your deathbed and the very last thing you will think is how Kai Leng pissed into Anderson's vase just because you read about this and spent time thinking about this at some point and now it is burned into your brain forever.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:58
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Generic American posted:
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Feb 3, 2014 17:02
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Burning Mustache posted:I always wonder what it must be like if the last conscious thought that crosses your mind before you die is something utterly trivial. Earth, Alliance, Tali...
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Feb 3, 2014 17:05
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Pee actually contains a lot of phosphates and is good for plants, maybe he was just trying to help.  I hated that guy. He had no introduction and the only reason I didn't slice his dick in two every time I saw him was because it was in a cutscene, as already pointed out. That's not so bad when it's random encounters, but the thessia temple fight with his bullshit invincishields letting him get away with a major plot point AFTER you win the fight was unforgivable. I'd forgotten about the taunting email but it came off as borderline trolling by that point. It might be alleged that it makes killing him more satisfying, but there's a big difference between vengeance and relief that an annoying twat is finally gone.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:08
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I did Citadel DLC and took Javik along to the black tie party. Make him mingle on the dance floor, you owe yourself this.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:09
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Pee actually contains a lot of phosphates and is good for plants, maybe he was just trying to help. To be fair, I have never felt better using a renegade interrupt than when my Shep crushed his sword and killed him. At least in this regard they succeeded.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:13
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I kind of treat the Mass Effect lore as just the stuff that happens in the games, and I already have my hands full ignoring some of the stupid that crops up. Taking the comics and novels into account along with it would just be overload. Didn't they release a novel without a single person at Bioware actually reading it to see if it made sense? That's the novel you're all talking about, isn't it? Really if there's one lesson I hope the ME team learned from the trilogy it's to have a goal in mind and keep to it. The changing horses mid-river thing? I know they couldn't help it in part because a key team member left, but... I'm hoping things are kind of smaller scale in this new game they're making, so they don't get crushed under the weight of expectations from game 1.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:16
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Lotish posted:
Yeah, I think that it would be neat if the first game would keep everything to one solar system. Have the overarching goal be a way to reactivate the system's mass relay or something along those lines.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:31
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Timespy posted:Yeah, I think that it would be neat if the first game would keep everything to one solar system. Have the overarching goal be a way to reactivate the system's mass relay or something along those lines. Yeah. I mean, I like these games for the gameplay (especially with Vanguard) and talking to interesting characters. I don't have to have 25 system clusters filled with largely empty planets to get that experience. A game limited to one cluster that was actually full of stuff could be pretty drat cool. Restarting the game after getting the Citadel DLC really reminded me how much I like the gameplay in ME3.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:02
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Timespy posted:Yeah, I think that it would be neat if the first game would keep everything to one solar system. Have the overarching goal be a way to reactivate the system's mass relay or something along those lines. Not sure if I want Kirkwall: Mass Effect edition.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:06
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To be fair, there are quite a few Bioware games where you can exactly pinpoint the moment the writing just comes apart. I don't know why this keeps happening to them. They are not bad at this. For me that moment in ME3 was when anime ninja showed up. See, I didn't even finish the game, saw that guy only in one sequence and still have lots of content left (I got all the DLCs and I am not that far along the plot missions) and I already know this because it's a Bioware game. They aren't even newcomers so it's perplexing this still happens to them. For something that was planned as a trilogy from the get go, it really felt like they just made the story up along the way and had no idea where they wanted to go. This is pretty unwise and probably the reason for most of the problems with the overarching plot. If you want to go for big space epic you shouldn't do call of duty style writing. You could have easily ended the reaper arc in ME1 (and it would even have made sense to end it) and throw a new threat in every new "episode" without much of an overarching plot and I actually think this would have worked pretty well for most people. People seem to say you can't do a smaller enemy anymore when you pulled out something like the reapers, but I think if they would have been left in ME1 people would have forgiven that and eventually forgotten them. They suck anyways. Nowadays writers and designers for video games seem to think their game just has to be like one of Alan Alda's directed M.A.S.H. episodes and ONLY then it can be good and be "taken seriously", but somehow they more often than not end up overreaching of what can be done in a videogame or everything falls flat because they end up inserting stuff like anime ninja or put in terrible and nonsensical plot twists/endings because ~*MY ARTISTIC VISION*~ (and college freshman level interpretation of mainstream philosophy/overall terrible writing). I don't know why they just can't do corny, but do it well. Do a corny dumb little space soap, but just do it compellingly and make the story structural sound. Even make a tribbles episode if you want. Don't keep doing crazy superlatives you never, ever can follow up with and need heaps of deus ex machinas and retcons to get out of. I have the feeling ME4 can go either way for them because from what I read the last few days, all most people really seem to want is a sequel even if they do not want to do one. I have the feeling people would be more forgiving regarding a sequel, while a completely different story just would have people point out every little mistake that just looks like a resemblance of a mistake they made in the other games. The pressure to make a game that's better than the three other ones would be a lot higher, given what reputation the third one has. Knowing EA, they just might end up being forced to do a sequel, though. I would have no idea what kind of shovel you'd need to get out of the hole they dug themselves in regarding the universe. I really think whatever the 4th one is going to be, it could go either way for them. Police Automaton fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 22:30
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If Mass Effect 4 is made without a humble understanding of where Mass Effect 3 went wrong, it will be bad. However, if it is an apology for Mass Effect 3, it will also be bad. Finally, if they try to make it as quickly and haphazardly as they made Mass Effect 3, it will be, you guessed it, bad. It needs to be confident as much as it needs to be competent.
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Feb 4, 2014 00:21
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I think we got all the apologizing out of the way with the extended endings and the Citadel DLC. I hope, anyway. edit: VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Leviathan has a ton of really cool environments, some okay combat, and what I thought was a neat little expansion on the whole Reaper mythos. I would deffo get it.
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Feb 4, 2014 00:29
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How is the Leviathan DLC? I preordered a 360 version of ME3 from Origin to get the Raider shotgun way back when, unaware that it only counted for the PC version at the time. Since the gun's in the DLC, I was wondering if the DLC or the gun are worth it.
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Feb 4, 2014 00:30
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