Let's Play Mass Effect: the Xeno-Poly-Nepo Adventures of Tammy Shepard

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davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Hi! You more likely than not know what Mass Effect is, and if you don't, this is going to be very confusing.

To me, Mass Effect is a series of strangely compelling chapters of a kind of derivative space opera. A universe of mostly hard sci-fi that depends on scientific explanations, but leans heavily on pillars of the fantasy genre � doing almost the opposite of Star Wars, in a way. It's a universe of contrasts. On one hand, its story is poorly thought, and many of its characters are goofy archetypes that largely serve to prop up your Jesus harem anime fantasy, but on the other, its art direction is (often) fantastic, immersing you in a wonderful atmosphere of beautiful vistas, great music and fun interactions with characters that grow on you and are wonderfully brought to life by their voice actors.

Ever since the Legendary Edition of the game was released, packaging all three games together and giving them a bit of a glow-up, I've been toying with the idea of doing some kind of Let's Play with it. But I've been wondering how to go about it. For all three of the games, I've done the �play it by ear� playthrough, where I go about the trilogy picking Renegade and Paragon options by whim, and I've done playthroughs of the first two games with one character fully Paragon no matter what, and one character fully Renegade. I've seen other people do an all-neutral playthrough, or for instance striving to get as many characters killed as possible. What's left?

But I've been thinking, even in my all-Renegade playthrough of the games, I still strove to cling to as many characters as possible, getting as many interactions as possible. And if I didn't like an outcome, I generally savescummed my way to get optimal results. I don't think I've actually seen what a partial, incomplete playthrough looks like. For that purpose, I created Tammy Shepard.

Tammy is a screw-up, and a xenophobe. She loves her own human kind, but loathes aliens, and will go out of her way to avoid interacting with them. So much for the power of cooperation saving the galaxy.

As Tammy, I'll try to judge each dilemma while taking in mind her three priorities:

1 � Loyalty to humanity
2 � Disgust w/ aliens
3 � Uncanny instinct for screwing things up
4 � (CLASSIFIED)

Where her priorities conflict, I'll rely on a coin toss to make my judgment.

This might be a terrible idea. I'll be the first to agree with you that the aliens in Mass Effect are way better written and more interesting than the humans. I always shove Ashley and Kaidan on the reserve bench once I've recruited Wrex, Garrus and Tali. And avoiding alien encounters might make this LP comically short. But this isn't a challenge run, I'm just doing a silly gimmick. For instance, off the top of my head, I don't think there's any human vendors for weapons and armor in the game aside from the Alliance Requisitions Officer on the Normandy; I may hold my nose and off screen shop for a few items if things get too dire. My challenge is more to see if I can make this fun to watch.

This LP is a bit out of my usual MO, anyway. Normally I try to show as complete a game experience as possible, for the people who are totally unfamiliar with it. In this one, I'm not only going out of my way to avoid content, I'm also editing the videos to trim as much fat as possible (running around, uninteresting conversation bits, inventory and stats management), while still hopefully maintaining a coherent story. You be the judge, I guess.

davidspackage fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Mar 25, 2024

# ¿ Dec 5, 2023 18:55

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:56

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

I've installed a number of mods. Some are for quality of life changes, some are for convenience, some are for cosmetic changes. This will be my first time seeing most of them in action.

Mass Effect mods are roughly divided into regular mods and texture mods. Regular mods can be conveniently installed using ME3Tweaks Mod Manager. This robust mod manager lets you make a backup of your game files, allowing you to easily revert to an unmodded state if things go wrong, lets you load in, modify, enable and disable mods, and even keeps track of when mods are updated on the Nexus. While the installation order can matter with some mods, nothing stops you from installing mod 1, finding out when installing mod 2 that you actually needed to install that one first, and then installing mod 1 again after. There is also a great deal of synergy among Mass Effect mod makers: often you'll find that mods have compatibility notes or options with other popular mods.

Pure texture mods are a little trickier and less pliant than regular mods. They are installed using a tool called MassEffectModder, and while it's simple to use, the pain is that you need to hold off on texture modding until you've installed all your regular mods. When you start installing texture mods, your game gets a �texture modded� status in ME3Tweaks, and at this point the program recommends you don't install or update regular mods without first reverting the game to a vanilla state, to avoid conflicts. So, that means any change to your mod layout means first reverting, then reinstalling all your regular mods, and finally reinstalling your texture mods, every time.

A handful of these weren't installed yet when I started the LP; I added the LE1 Diversification project after the Council meeting, because at the time of recording, it had a conflict with the Saren Stages LE mod, which has since been fixed with updates. I also held off on installing A Lot of Textures/Videos until later videos because those packs are massive and I was a little worried my PC couldn't handle it.

Listed in installation order:

LE1 Community Patch: A collection of all sorts of fixes for ME1 LE, probably mandatory for everyone running the game.
LE1 Sideloader Framework: Required for a series of mods.
Mako Squadmate Banter: When you take the elevators on the Citadel, you often hear a news report, but occasionally your two squadmates will exchange some banter. The problem is that since everyone gets tired of the elevator rides, you start using the Citadel transit to get where you want to go and never hear all of them. This mod periodically plays the squadmate banter while you're driving around in the Mako, depending on who you have with you. It makes so much sense, I'd recommend first time players install this too.
Unlimited Sprint and Boost: Bit of a misnomer, this greatly lengthens the amount of time you can sprint on foot or use the Mako's boost before it runs out. There are a few varieties of this mod around, might be one that actually makes it unlimited.
Same-Gender Romances for LE1: This mod allows Femshep to start a romance with Ashley, and Broshep with Kaidan. Doesn't exclude the option to still pursue a cis relationship with either. It will, however, switch around who Shepard rescues from the beacon. In my first videos, it conflicts with one of the other mods, which is why you still see Tammy push Kaidan out of the way, then have Ashley thank her for pushing her on the ship, but that has since been fixed.
Pinnacle Station DLC: As you may know, someone hosed up and the Pinnacle Station DLC files were not around anymore when they were making the Legendary Edition. This mod restores it for the LE. It's mostly for whoever really enjoys the shooting sections and is kind of skewed towards Soldier characters, but it gives you a fairly nice reward to sink your excessive credits into.
Saren Stages LE: Probably my favorite mod. In the vanilla game, Saren looks like a freak when first seen � Geth arm, tubes and tech sticking out of his everywhere, glowing eyes and tech jaws. Yet neither Nihlus nor the Council seem to notice. It was always intended that Saren goes through a few stages of development from regular Turian to Geth-enhanced cyborg, but it was abandoned for lack of time, and nobody bothered to fix it for the Legendary Edition. This mod lets you de-Geth Saren until it's thematically appropriate, and lets you choose whether you want his first appearance to be in armor, or in kind of religious-looking black robes, based on a piece of concept art.
Easier Feros Persuasion Check: On Feros, you normally run into a Paragon/Renegade check that is unusually difficult to pass, which is why people often leave Feros for later. It seems like kind of an oversight, which this mod fixes.
No Inventory Limit: This should fix the annoying late game issue where your inventory is constantly filled to capacity because you're getting more loot than you handle. But, I think during my last playthrough, it didn't work. Might have a conflict with another mod.
Skip Minigames (LE1): Another important quality of life mod for replays, this reduces the omni-gel cost for skipping the tedious hacking minigame to always be 0, letting you skip them for free.
Galaxy Map Trackers: Adds trackers for missions that are available, but you haven't found yet, on the galaxy map. Obviously not for first playthroughs, but convenient on a replay, even if it makes the map a bit crowded.
Charted Worlds: Marks the points of interest on planets (elements, item pickups) so you don't have to go around covering the whole map in the Mako to find them manually. Very welcome on replays.
Casual Hubs for LE1: Lets you give yourself, Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus and Wrex 'casual' outfits to wear on the Citadel, instead of their combat armor. For you and your human companions, it's the uniform they also wear on the ship. I've installed this for Shepard, Kaidan and Ashley only. Note that guns will still appear on your back, until you've completed all the quests on the Citadel that can involve shooting.
Even More Hairstyles (LE1-LE2): Adds a series of terrible looking hairdos, which you have to use the Trilogy Save Editor to give to your character. Might use this for fun at one point.
No Skill Check Required For Loot (LE1): Another quality of life mod for replays � normally, you have to have a squad member with you with sufficient Decryption skill to even attempt to open the various containers, mummified corpses and elements you find on planets. This slightly breaks the mechanics since the Decryption skill is largely unnecessary, but it beats feeling obligated to always bring Tali.
Replenish Grenades LE1: Always thought it was weird that your grenades don't get replenished when you get back to the Normandy. This adds a grenade dispenser on the ship after you buy the first grenade upgrade.
Dr. Heart Experiments: I won't be seeing this one in this playthrough, but it changes the appearance of the zombies on Garrus's �Loyalty� mission so they look like a more unique type of zombie, instead of just being Husks. I think the appearance is based on unused textures present in the game.
Morlan's 'Famous' Iconic Armor Shop: This lets Morlan's shop in the Wards sell you a series of hard or impossible to find armors, I think? Probably won't be seeing it in this playthrough.
New Casuals for Femshep: This lets you pick from a series of uniforms and outfits for your character, but you have to make your choice upon installing the mod � the default choice is the ME3 Alliance uniform, which I think fits nicely with Tammy's severe vibes. Compatible with the Casual Hubs mod.
Halcyon Hairpack: Like Even More Hairstyles, adds some silly styles. Required for the LE1 Diversification Project. Again, you have to edit your save to change to one of these styles.
Advanced Weapon Models for LE1: Adds in more different looking models for the weapons, using models from ME2 and ME3. Also required for the LE1 Diversification Project.
Matriarch Benezia Biotic VFX Fix: Apparently, in the Legendary Edition, some graphical effects during cutscenes don't play properly. This one fixes one during your boss fight with Benezia.
Alternate Feros Claw Cutscene: Changes the cutscene on Feros where you disengage the Geth ship's claws from the building (haven't seen it in action yet).
Black Market License (LE1): Gives the Alliance Requisitions Officer on the Normandy the option to sell you a Black Market license, which will apparently reintroduce a series of weapons and armor that were unavailable in the Legendary Edition? Since I'll be forced to deal mostly with the ARO, we'll see.
Combat Communication (LE1): Increases the amount of combat banter from your squad, which is normally quite sparse. To my great pleasure, the mod seems to do the same for enemies, which means ENEMIES EVERYWHERE GO GO GO I WILL DESTROY YOU again.
Paragade Persuasion: Normally the game heavily incentivizes going all-Paragon or all-Renegade in order to beat alignment checks, but this mod changes the checks so that they count up your Renegade and Paragon points to bypass checks. Seemed useful for this playthrough.
LE1 Diversification Project: A collection of modifications to the game that adds a bunch more aliens to the Citadel to make it feel more lively, restores some lost content and adds in a few new things. I actually haven't looked much into what it does, I figure I'd let it surprise me.
Children of Rannoch (LE1): Since I'm not going to use or interact with the alien squad members much, I thought I'd give a mod that gives Tali a bit more of a face a try. Most Quarian mods give them fully human faces, this one has kind of a cool humanoid-but-alien face that I found more interesting. I just don't like the weird and overly bright eyes, I'd like to see a version where the eyes are just glowy and opaque like how they normally seem.
Keepers Finders (LE1): Another small quality of life mod, adds the locations of Keepers to your map when you're trying to find them for Chorban. Tammy won't be doing that.
Saren Virmire Biotic VFX Fix: Like the Benezia VFX mod, this fixes a missing effect in a cutscene on Virmire.
A Lot of Videos for LE1: Replaces the game's cutscenes with ones that have been upscaled for 4K. I'm not playing or recording at 4K, but supposedly they even improve image quality at Full HD. We'll see. Notable about this mod is that since it only affects the cutscenes, it doesn't matter when you install it, even if you've already installed texture mods.
Normandy Rapid Transit (LE1): In the base game, tediously, there is no quicker way to get to the Normandy on the Citadel than by fast-traveling to C-Sec, taking the elevator to the docking bay, going through the decontamination scene in the airlock... this convenient mod adds the Normandy as a fast travel location for the Rapid Transit consoles. Only thing that might've made it better would be adding a function that would let you choose a destination of the Citadel the moment you disembark from the Normandy.
Flycam Keybinds (LE1): I was looking for a way to record video of the alien planet vistas, unspoiled by my own character planted in the middle of the screen, and there are console commands left over to enable a free floating camera, but they require finagling with scripts to actually control it. This helpful little mod takes care of that for me!

Texture mods:

Improved Static Lighting: A texture mod that, in tandem with ALOT, should make the game look better. Hadn't used it in the first videos because these mods are quite big and therefore take a while to install. This particular one takes me up to like 30 minutes to install, but I think it does fix some rather obonoxious broken-looking shadows in people's faces.
ALOT (A Lot of Textures): Should make some of the game's textures look better. I wasn't sold on it by the screenshots on the Nexus, but I thought I'd give it a try. I thought at first that it was kind of a length install, but it seems to be relatively quick, unlike the Improved Stat Lighting mod.
Custom Makos (texture mod): Plain and simple, a few color variations to change the look of the Mako. I went with yellow and red.

davidspackage fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Feb 5, 2024

# ¿ Dec 5, 2023 18:55

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

I did a space racist Shep about 8 or so years ago. I think I only got halfway through 2 before I realised I was cutting out a LOT of content and wasn't sure if I could even finish the game (before learning that Zaeed can hold the line all his own in the suicide mission) so I gave up.

My Shep for that was male, and there was an interesting through-line in Mark Meer's delivery of a lot of the renegade dialogues that actually made the racist aspect come off a little too familiar to people I knew

I'm only a little way into ME1 right now, but finding there's not that many opportunities to be spacist in dialogue. I can't even agree with Ashley about her reservations on having aliens onboard! Still, it's kind of funny going around just speeding past most encounters with aliens. I'm not even racking up many renegade points so far. I don't know if I'll make it to ME2, let alone ME3, but I assume I'll eventually have to compromise Tammy's morals to make it through. We'll see.

coleman francis posted:

Tammy has such pouty lips they look like they're going to fly off.

I don't know how far ahead you record but would it be possible to lower the game audio a bit more when you're speaking? It's probably a Me problem but I sometimes can't make our what your saying. (no biggy if thats not possible)

I'll try to watch out for that, thanks. The only other time I've tried recording live commentary while playing was Limbo of the Lost, but sometimes I slip into mumbling a bit, I've found. After recording, I'll add some bit of commentary here and there in post. Me playing an Infiltrator, and the sniper rifle probably being the loudest gun in the game doesn't help keep things audible. Will work on that!

# ¿ Dec 8, 2023 19:14

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy has a talk with her crew, meets the 'Bass, Udina, and has an embarassing audience with the council.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 18:23

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Beatrice posted:

Tammy choosing paragon almost seems the opposite of what I expected.

This is kind of an issue I ran in when I did a first attempt at recording this LP: I pictured Tammy as a bitchy soccer mom, Home Owners Association, "I am a MOTHER" type, who would only be nice to her own (human) crew members, but that quickly turned into a bog standard all-Renegade playthrough. So, while still trying to make her an unpleasant person, I figure she sucks up to authority, is trying to get into everyone's pants, and is charitable strictly to other humans.

anilEhilated posted:

They really didn't, though. This is at least the third game in a row where they put them in (fourth if you count KOTOR 2). At this point, they were desperately trying to market paragon/renegade as something completely different to the good/evil choices they had before.

It would've been interesting if paragon/renegade had been more about nudging Shepard's decision making between aggression and caution, decisive and deferential. But half the time it still feels like a choice between Kiss Baby and Eat Baby.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 19:55

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy goes down into the Wards to find "Nasty" Harkin, and has her "no aliens on my crew" beliefs severely challenged when Wrex and Tali force themselves on her.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2023 20:47

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Yeah, my initial reaction to seeing the eyes in action was a bit strong, I still rather like the actual alien-ness of the face. But I would like some options to customize the eyes (right now, the mod has four options to make the face shield more opaque or translucent).

I don't mind the nose plug, I imagine the suit has to be plugged into the actual Quarian body in a few spots to dispense antibiotics and stuff.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2023 23:24

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Merry Christmas LP forum! I had a lovely time getting together with my family, and now I'm chilling at home with rain pattering down the window and me getting a nice buzz on with some wine while watching movies.

In today's surplus length episode, Tammy is given the nebulous honor of becoming a Spectre, and starts lording her superiority over others. I finish up the remaining sidequests on the Citadel.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2023 21:17

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

coleman francis posted:

Off to a great start as a spectre Tammy. Surely the council won't live to regret this.

Lol, some of these scenes are so hard to watch. I haaaaaate roleplaying a bad guy

I'm honestly surprised sometimes by how mean some of the Renegade options are for ME1, and then later disappointed when I don't really get any good renegade options.

By the way, happy 2024! Finally we are living in the future of flying cars and telekinetic powers. In today's episode, Tammy ticks off a few sidequests and then heads off to the human colony on Feros to see what's up.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2024 20:12

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

got a good laugh out of the megaphone bit while in the Mako. Also, is the new colour scheme on the Mako a mod? I must've missed if you mentioned that in the video

Yeah, I mentioned it briefly, it's a texture mod, Custom Mako. Lets you pick from a few different color schemes.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 19:09

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy takes the kids for a trip on the Skyway, gives herself a tour around the ExoGeni facility, and has a bit of an altercation with one of the employees!

# ¿ Jan 8, 2024 18:29

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy faces a dilemma with the colonists, roots out their problem, and has a delicious vision. As an epilogue, some chatting on the ship.

I had a mild bout of covid over the holidays and didn't manage to record anything for a few weeks, which I guess left me a little rusty, as I just finished a two-and-a-half hour recording session where I neglected to hit Start Recording in OBS before starting. loving oops. Guess I'll have to give Noveria another go.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 20:40

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

I think I read somewhere that one of the Mass Effect developers made the goopier bits of the Prothean vision at home with some cheese pizza(s) and computer parts.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2024 16:12

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Getting some sidequests out of the way. Tammy fights a computer on the moon, defuses another situation with some violent biotics, sorts out some thieving monkeys, and causes several incidents on the Citadel.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 20:46

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

I mapped out the available missions prior to recording, so I wouldn't stumble into missions I wanted to avoid, like the one where you find Wrex's family armor, or Nassana Dantius' sister's gang. But when you do it like that, it does start looking like Hacķett's constantly on the phone asking you to pick up milk and eggs while you're out.

The Council has to regret their Spectre policy, right? You give a non-Council race one Spectre and their military immediately starts having them serve human interests all over the place.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2024 12:48

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Our lady and Shepard meets an old friend of her mom's, settles up with upstanding citizen Helena Blake, and pursues a few more rumors that lead to defusing a bomb, hunting some straggling plant zombies, and becoming a little more familiar with a shadowy little organization called Cerberus.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2024 19:16

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

dang, I must've never made a Shepard with the background where your mom's still around, I'm seeing new content for a game I've owned for over a decade

There's nothing big, but I'm definitely running into some ways to resolve quests I've never tried before.

One mod, I'm not sure if it's the LE1 Community patch or the LE1 Diversification project (probably the latter), is moving some of the Citadel NPCs around, like Conrad or Emily. They appear in spots that perhaps make slightly more sense now, it's fun. I can't really get used to seeing the funky hairstyles the Diversification project introduces, though.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2024 21:27

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy sets foot on Noveria, planet of managers and snow. Despite her best efforts, she has to make common cause with some aliens, and takes a trip to the besieged Peak 15 in pursuit of the evil temptress Benezia.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2024 19:57

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy meets the Peak 15 workforce and heads down into the Hot Labs to catch the sexy but evil Benezia.

After editing this, I googled What Is Up With Benezia's Weird Teeth. I kind of wonder if she might've been a character that was designed very early on, which is why she only has a row of bottom teeth and they're gigantic. She has like four teeth total.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2024 18:44

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

coleman francis posted:

Is there anyway to prevent ventralis from killing everyone?

On my first attempt to record Noveria (where I found out I hadn't started my recording software), I misremembered that Benezia IS in the Hot Labs, but by going through the back way, you take a safer route, so I never caused him to kill everyone.

Second time through, I immediately went to the Hot Labs since that's the first thing he suggests, and came back to find everyone dead. It's set up kind of weirdly.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2024 07:33

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Fresh from her Noveria adventure, Tammy evaluates the crew, throws The Enemy Of The People a bone, and finishes up her business on the Citadel.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2024 19:35

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

coleman francis posted:

I saw a show on the history channel that said it was the protheans that built the pyramids at Teotihuacan! It just makes sense!

# ¿ Feb 20, 2024 20:36

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

who's the Turian that was staring at nothing? Is that a dig at ignoring Garrus?

Yeah. I figured it would get annoying to show in the videos, but it's kind of silly when you don't recruit Garrus and return to the Citadel after each mission, and you see him still standing there like a sad sack, hoping you'll cave.

Tammy remembers she should probably check in with that distress call from Admiral Kahoku, and checks with an asteroid that's flying towards a human colony at an alarming speed.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 18:57

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Tammy Shepard travels to remote Therum to swallow her pride and recruit the daughter of Benezia. But she's not gonna be happy about it.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2024 18:45

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

wow, I forgot how much of a wet blanket Kaiden is. Then again, the overarching story of Mass Effect is that "Shepard was right, everyone else is wrong (except in Mass Effect 2 where TIM is also right?!)" and that this isn't a time to be tip-toeing around

I've come to appreciate Kaidan a bit more as a guy with a dramatic moment in his past, that came out healthy instead of letting it screw him up. That's unusual in fiction. Though his dialogue is written very tediously with constant bland metaphors and figures of speech. He could use more of an edge.

I'd hoped to get a bit more appreciation for Ashley in this playthrough where I'm hanging out with the two of them constantly, but while I think Ashley's bigoted tendencies get overblown... she's such a drag with the poetry and God stuff, man.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2024 19:25

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Time to clean up all those pesky sidequests left, before Tammy goes to save the universe.

In this compilation, Tammy cleans up some geth bases and some husk-infected outposts, fumbles the two missions you get when you max out your alignment scores, saves some space marines from the Rachni (one of my favorite missions), and hunts down the dregs of Cerberus to avenge admiral Kahoku. Next week, the penultimate video before the endgame.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2024 19:47

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Aces High posted:

when playing through ME1, I never really understand why they decided to make Cerberus such a big organization, one that is capable of bringing Shepard back from the dead and rebuilding the Normandy into a bigger, better version. It's like how every Star Trek series after DS9 took away the wrong message about Section 31

I still think it would've been way better to have the geth rebuild Shepard. At least you can imagine they might have preposterous technology developed in secrecy and isolation.

Time for the big moment: let's hit Virmire.

I mention the Virmire Survivor mod in this video, I haven't actually tried it out myself. I figured it just cut surreptitiously around the deaths of either Ashley or Kaidan, just cutting out moments of dialogue that would affirm either's fate. But then I saw this video last week, that briefly covers the post-mission briefing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr1_YnHUQ-I

The comments say it's done with unused dialogue already present in the game, no voice synthesis, Bioware just decided it sucked out the drama if you could save both. I'm just very tickled by the crew doing the equivalent of "*sudden cut* Brilliant Baldrick, how you pulled that off, I'll never know."

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 19:03

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

Time to end this little game. Tammy bypasses the Council, heads to Ilos, and chases Saren back to the Citadel for the final confrontation.

And that's it for Mass Effect 1!

Despite the ending message, I don't expect I'll be covering Mass Effect 2. I had fun making these, but I've gotten the impression nobody really liked the gimmick for my Shepard but me. Right now I'm working on an LP of a different game, so if that works out, you'll see it in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for your attention, we'll talk later.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2024 18:25

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

There's still a good Mass Effect thread going in Games if you're looking for advice:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3957741

# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 07:32

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:56

davidspackage: May 16, 2007; Nap Ghost

I might come back to it eventually, but I think I'd play a bit in advance to see if it turns out funny. ME2 specifically feels like a game thst assumes you're already friends with all of these wonderful aliens and will be difficult to roleplay as a bigot. But I do have a bunch of mods for that one as well I'm curious to see in action. We'll see! But again, thanks for watching.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2024 07:32

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