****MASS EFFECT : ANDROMEDA****

[Curunen]

Hmm, considering picking up ME1 as I only had it on Xbox but I remember it being rather clunky and of the three much more RPG and Stat heavy. Still worth playing on PC?

Stick it on casual difficulty (don't go higher than veteran).

For a single playthrough, put points straight into charm/intimidate for conversation - because playing on casual (or normal/veteran) you have no need for upgrading skills too much. Also unless you can be bothered using the paragon/renegade glitches to increase charm/intimidate over 3 playthroughs I'd recommend to do it the other way.

Follow through quests naturally - either as they come up in your journal or you feel the urge to explore somewhere. Whatever you do, DON'T systematically scour every planet, system by system, because it might make you want to throw the game and your computer out the window.

Be sure to either play a class with electronics/decryption or take squad members and level those skills - allow you to unlock anything you come across while exploring.

Above all, play combat casually, enjoy story/dialogue, explore naturally.

In ME2/ME3 you can go straight to min/maxing on insanity, because there's no bull**** like immunity and enemies soaking up stupid amounts of damage.

 

[MissChief]

Will consider it, thanks Curunen. Downloading ME2 and 3 again just now.

 

[Idleman]

If you forget the **** poor ending, then the 'journey' is still good.

I've completed the original Mass Effect five times (4x on Xbox 360, 1x on PC)
Mass Effect 2, three times (Twice on Xbox 360, 1x on PC)
Mass Effect 3, Twice (Both on Xbox 360)

They are really good games and the universe they made is really interesting. If ME4 is truly set in another Galaxy, surely we shouldn't even be seeing Turians, Krogan etc?

You did't like it that much then.

ME1, played 4 times.
ME2, played through(including all DLCs) all difficulty modes(normal and upwards) and all classes, always the good guy.
ME3, same as 2. And all endings.

I enjoyed 2 and 3 more so than 1. Vanguard being my favourite soldier class.
I can over look certain things like dodgy dialogue and the fact, some decisions did'nt count for much in the next sequel. But overall, I enjoyed all the games for there entertainment value. Great characters(except Jacob, Alenko and Ashley), great story and the combat was fantastic.
In regards to ME4, I'll just wait until it gets nearer to production and then see what direction it will go in. Not one for speculating or wishful thinking, that way I'm never disappointed. I'll just wait and see.

 

[TonyTurbo78]

To be honest, I found the Mass Effect series very over hyped.

The graphics where poor (or am I miising the point, in that at the time they where out it was good?)

Look forward to four tho, as not saying it wasnt fun.

wait....can you repeat that please???? ME graphics poor, graphics for ME have been fantastic through the series..ME1 still looks glorious today IMO, and don't forget thats like a 6 or 7 year old game now.

Few pics I took from my game, certainly doesn't look poor to me

 

[Curunen]

Ashley was one of the best written characters in ME1 - they proceeded to gut and kill her character in ME2 and ME3, where I'd hands down say she was one of the worst characters... Total waste of a character.

Kaidan actually got better through the games.

But yeah JZ "The Prize" Taylor takes the prize, although tbh I found Miranda incredibly annoying with a poor side story. I'd rate Jacob > Miranda, simply for the comedic value and dialogue.

 

[Idleman]

Ashley was one of the best written characters in ME1 - they proceeded to gut and kill her character in ME2 and ME3, where I'd hands down say she was one of the worst characters... Total waste of a character.

Kaidan actually got better through the games.

But yeah JZ "The Prize" Taylor takes the prize, although tbh I found Miranda incredibly annoying with a poor side story. I'd rate Jacob > Miranda, simply for the comedic value and dialogue.

Ashley was to Xenophobic for me. So, no love interest there. Only ever used her when the game dictated, never chose her otherwise.

Kaiden was a whinner, always kept waiting for him to break down in tears. Also thought he had the hots for Shepherd(male).

Jacob I just wanted to shoot him. He just annoyed me.

 

[Pighardia]

Ashley was one of the best written characters in ME1 - they proceeded to gut and kill her character in ME2 and ME3, where I'd hands down say she was one of the worst characters... Total waste of a character.

Kaidan actually got better through the games.

But yeah JZ "The Prize" Taylor takes the prize, although tbh I found Miranda incredibly annoying with a poor side story. I'd rate Jacob > Miranda, simply for the comedic value and dialogue.

Miranda is part of a strange trait in recent BW writing where they seem to fill her dialogue and segments with certain key words/phrases and they think that that somehow constitutes some kind of depth in story....'DYNASTY....LEGACY...blah, blah, blah'

If you had told me 2 years ago that ME4 would be on the horizon and that I would have this little enthusiasm for it, I would never have believed you! Show me you have improved the overall structure so that the importing of saves can actually work and we will talk.

 

[Zethor]

Say what?

1. Recycled interiors and enemies meant 90% of the side quests were pointless after doing a few of them. I still recall how dissapointed I was when I reached the Earth's Moon base, only to find a room I had visited about tree times already, populated by the same types of robots I have been destroying for hours.

2. Items were mostly irrelevant as they had little gameplay impact other than +extra dmg etc.

3. Tactics were nonexistant (randomly use cooldowns, aim shoot, repeat).

4. Exploration was pointless for the most part(this is related to 1.), scanning was a chore.

5. Console inventory.

Overall, the strong point of the game was the writing, which I admit was good (particularly in the 1st one). The franchise later devolved into an action shooter with RPG elements and the story elements started lacking too.

Definitely overhyped.

 

[Freddie1980]

My only major criticism of ME1 at the time of its release was I felt the game was a bit short the main plot line and most of the side content took about 20 hours to get through. Compared to the Witcher which came out around the same time you could easily get 60 hours out of it without trying to hard to find things to do.

 

[Pighardia]

Tbh, the biggest problem with the trilogy overall is the suicide mission. Whilst I actually think it is one of the real high-points of the entire series, which is excellently executed, it just messes with the whole series in terms of structure....they created a trilogy where your saves carry over, then half way through had an event where pretty much any character can die. It was a very poor design choice, and was always going to mess things up. As well as that, it pretty much renders ME2 pointless, as the whole point is building an incredible squad of really good characters that you get attached to...which works very well imo, but then it has an event where they can all possibly die, which means their roles in ME3 are all far too superficial, as they probably won't even be returning in most people's games.

The suicide mission is fine in theory and execution, but there is no way it should be half-way through the trilogy. Having it at or very near the end would have been much, much better and made more sense.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Show me you have improved the overall structure so that the importing of saves can actually work and we will talk.

I keep hearing about this - I never had a problem importing any of my ... (*counts*)... nine saves.
The only slight issue is that the faces would change slightly each time, due to newer options in the sequels.

 

[Pighardia]

I keep hearing about this - I never had a problem importing any of my ... (*counts*)... nine saves.
The only slight issue is that the faces would change slightly each time, due to newer options in the sequels.

See my previous comment. If you want to carry saves over, don't do things like make it possible for everyone to die halfway through....If you are going to have seemingly big decisions that need to be made, actually follow through with it, and don't reduce everything to a poor mechanic like EMS. They backed themselves in to a corner, and never had a chance of creating something with structure.

 

[Idleman]

When you complete all your Loyalty missions in ME2 and all your squad is loyal, then you don't lose any members. I've played ME2 umpteen times and the only time I have lost a squad member is when I made a bad decision and lost their loyalty. But when I've gone into the Suicide mission with a 100% loyalty across the board, I have never lost one single member.

 

[Pighardia]

When you complete all your Loyalty missions in ME2 and all your squad is loyal, then you don't lose any members. I've played ME2 umpteen times and the only time I have lost a squad member is when I made a bad decision and lost their loyalty. But when I've gone into the Suicide mission with a 100% loyalty across the board, I have never lost one single member.

I know. I have played it many, many times. That is not the issue. The issue is that anyone could die in ME2, which meant that they all had reduced roles in the next game apart from Tali and Garrus(it is actually amazing that they were in it as much as they were tbh), as many people would be importing saves without certain characters. BW created extra work for themselves by needing two versions of each bit, for example, a version with Tali for the whole of Rannoch, and one without, where I believe she is replaced by some random Quarian.

They aren't going to give characters big parts in the game if they aren't going to be in most people's games....Almost a whole new roster of companions, Vega, Liara, EDI, Javik, one of the two survivors. They didn't have any ME2 squadmates return as companions for ME3 other than Garrus and Tali(seriously, who is going to import a playthrough without one of those?!)

PS. I usually manipulate it so that at least one, sometimes two characters die at the suicide mission anyway, otherwise it is a bit underwhelming.

 

[Curunen]

Ashley was to Xenophobic for me. So, no love interest there. Only ever used her when the game dictated, never chose her otherwise.

Kaiden was a whinner, always kept waiting for him to break down in tears. Also thought he had the hots for Shepherd(male).

Jacob I just wanted to shoot him. He just annoyed me.

Oh I don't particularly like Ashley - however in ME1 she had way more depth in writing and character than Kaidan (not as bad as people make him out to be), Tali (walking encyclopaedia), Liara (one dimensional) and arguably even Garrus (one dimensional).

Only Wrex was better written as a squadmate.

This was of course restricted to ME1 - Garrus/Tali/Liara all became vastly better in 2 and 3, Ashley became an awful character, and Kaidan became reasonably decent in ME3.

Edit: Jacob is Kanye in space - really poor character but with some of the best one liners in the game.

Miranda is part of a strange trait in recent BW writing where they seem to fill her dialogue and segments with certain key words/phrases and they think that that somehow constitutes some kind of depth in story....'DYNASTY....LEGACY...blah, blah, blah'

If you had told me 2 years ago that ME4 would be on the horizon and that I would have this little enthusiasm for it, I would never have believed you! Show me you have improved the overall structure so that the importing of saves can actually work and we will talk.

Miranda whines more than Kaidan, and that's saying something.

Having said that, I actually like Kaidan as a character - some decent sense of humour and a bit of depth in his background.

 

[Curunen]

Tbh, the biggest problem with the trilogy overall is the suicide mission. Whilst I actually think it is one of the real high-points of the entire series, which is excellently executed, it just messes with the whole series in terms of structure....they created a trilogy where your saves carry over, then half way through had an event where pretty much any character can die. It was a very poor design choice, and was always going to mess things up. As well as that, it pretty much renders ME2 pointless, as the whole point is building an incredible squad of really good characters that you get attached to...which works very well imo, but then it has an event where they can all possibly die, which means their roles in ME3 are all far too superficial, as they probably won't even be returning in most people's games.

The suicide mission is fine in theory and execution, but there is no way it should be half-way through the trilogy. Having it at or very near the end would have been much, much better and made more sense.

Yeah this is a very good point - again one which highlights they didn't think the entire trilogy through at all and just fixed stuff as they went along.

I am biased against the suicide mission in any case, because I think the Human Reaper reveal is worse than all of ME3's endings. I hear MJ's "Bad" playing in my head whenever seeing the Human Reaper scene - with the lyrics taken literally.

 

[Pighardia]

As you are a Jacob fan....

Spoiler

 

[Curunen]

HAHAHA!

Like sneaking into the Captain's PC chair... Heavy risk...

 

[ttaskmaster]

but then it has an event where they can all possibly die, which means their roles in ME3 are all far too superficial, as they probably won't even be returning in most people's games.

Does that not make you miss them even more, though?
I spent my first ME3 playthrough wishing Garrus was still around and the emptiness of the whole warzone atmosphere felt all the stronger for it.

 

[Pighardia]

Does that not make you miss them even more, though?

Yes, absolutely. As I said, I usually manipulate it so that a few characters die, but having this event halfway through the trilogy negatively impacted the way 3 was developed. That is the problem.