Club409

Promised and delivered:

Mass Effect the whole thing so far: 2008 is when I started the first game. Bought the xbox360 and Mass Effect because with the home theater job I now had a little disposable income. And Arif had just bought the TV. Before that I was so broke I didn’t even carry around a wallet anymore. It’s 2015 and I finally have completed the series DLC and all. So Mass Effect came with me across some pretty significant life changes. I think it’s the pinnacle achievement of this last gaming generation and if you can’t find something to like about it you are dumb.



I think I’ll talk about my experience with the series then critical thoughts. Bioware released Mass Effect in 2007 ME3 came out in 2012. Bioware was known for many other RPGs but I hadn’t played any of them. Prior to the release of ME1 I remember the promo material piquing my interest with the promise that the decisions you made in this game would carry over into the next as they came along. The combat and environments looked interesting also. I believe space adventures appeal to nerds because who knows what’s out there and how will you solve the problems you encounter along the way? I thought ME would scratch this itch.

I can’t remember when I actually took the time to play the first one. I guess it would have been anytime someone else wasn’t using the TV in 4503. Even though I can’t remember when I was playing I remember getting pulled into what they were selling pretty easily. In the first game the atmosphere and tone is just a little weird. I recall someone saying they were going for an 80’s space opera vibe. The synth music and the film grain video overlay definitely helped. And once I started getting into it the level of thought they gave to most things became apparent. I was listening to all the conversations I could and reading all the journal entries to learn more about the galaxy. The biology history science and politics were very deep for something that’s just make believe. And I enjoyed picking conversational responses with the conversational wheel. I tried to choose the options that I thought I would choose if I were in the scenario. Generally the “paragon” (nice) responses were at the top of the wheel and the “renegade” (jerk) responses were at the bottom. Mostly I ended up in the middle response: I’m not going to kiss you and make it better but you haven’t quite earned a punch in the face either. I do remember when I felt the situation called for some of the more extreme choices. For example there was a side quest and these two guys had you running all over the place and they couldn’t get their stories straight and you get to a point where one of the dialog choices is “[sigh]” and this vocalizes as Shepard (your character) saying “I should just kill both of you guys” and it was a perfect response because that’s how I felt he should’ve responded. Anyways so you’re out running around trying to solve a galactic mystery meeting people along the way and killing other people along the way. The sense of scope I got was great. I enjoyed talking to aliens figuring out why they’re the way they are. I liked how when you had a mission on some planets you got dropped off in an area of a few square miles and had to drive around. Made the galaxy seem like a big place. I could open the galaxy map on my sweet ship and fly around and check stuff out. People/aliens seemed to be going about their daily lives and it was fun to see how we got to current status quo: genocides wars science trade mysterious infrastructure etc. In playing the game I thought the combat was finicky at times and the systems weren’t explained very well. The inventory was especially clunky and it was a chore to keep organized because I was always picking up random crap. But the combat and inventory wasn’t what I was here for so I wasn’t disappointed at all. So you investigate kill things punch/hug people lose teammates and get into shenanigans which leads to probably one of the most satisfying endings in all of everything. The immediate threat is defeated but more is to come. Over the next 2 years I played through the game 3 more times 2 of them were different classes and levels of nice/badass. There was the nice sniper lady and the cranky biotic user. I enjoyed seeing how things happened differently with the different Shepards. We moved to PMC I got my current job and all the achievements for ME on the xbox360 including the DLC. My last playthrough was with the same Shepard as my first playthrough doing what I thought I’d do but you can play through again and keep your levels and money. I finished this playthrough to set up the game I would be using going into ME2.

ME2 came out January 2010. I took time off work to play this game. This time off was pretty soon after the cruise so I pretty much did not work in January 2010. I had heard that EA bought Bioware right before ME1 came out so I was wary. Would the EA overlords impose some lowest common denominator gameplay? The Bioware people said they were going to stay true and I hoped they were right. I figured a lot of the ME2 work would’ve been done before EA really got involved but I was on the lookout. I picked up the game midnight at the Gamestop when it came out. I didn’t preorder soon enough so even though I wanted the collector’s edition I got the regular edition. I got back home and finished up the last couple hours in the ME1 playthrough I was going to use for my first ME2 run. It was about 3 am when I finally started ME2. That opening sequence tho. It’s like “FUCK” and I’m like “FUCK DUDE I KNOW”. It was the most grab-you-by-the-ballsiest scene in movies TV video games that I had ever experienced and I think it might still be. I played for a few hours until I passed out because maybe I might’ve gone to work the a few days before just to save one vacation day. Anyways I woke up a few hours later in the morning. I didn’t start playing though; I went to Best Buy in search of a collector’s edition. They had one and I bought it. Didn’t concern me at all that I owned two copies of the same game. Over the next two years I did the same thing: 4 playthroughs. Two as actual Shepard one as nice Shepard and one as cranky Shepard. The sense of discovery and mystery wasn’t as prevalent but that makes sense since the first game you figured out what was mostly going on. But every once in a while I’d run into something new and I was pulled right back in. I noticed some things I thought were dumbed down and I suspected EA. I found I could blame EA for most of my concerns. At moments it felt like the game was speaking directly to me like making jokes that only a fan would get. I felt like they were sticking it to EA because this was not mass appeal material they spent time on. Anyways had fun going through it the next couple of years got all the achievements including the DLC stuff. My playthroughs were ready for ME3.

I put myself on media blackout for ME3. I wanted to just know the release date which was January 2012. I didn’t want to see any trailers which characters would be coming back anything about the combat or whatever. I did catch wind that there would be multiplayer. EA!!!! [shakes fist] I was like a lot of internet people who were not interested this at all and was offended that resources would be spent making this instead of working on ME3 proper. Oh well nothing I can do about it except be sad not like I won’t buy the game. So I’m back at Gamestop at midnight this time with a fiancé. I took some days off work again and she had made me my favorite beef stew to last a few days (married her). I put off preordering again so I’m getting a regular edition instead of a collector’s edition (dumb). I get into it a little bit with the clerk because he wasn’t being clear on what I was buying. (He asked if I wanted the DLC and I figured he meant the weapon that was included with a Gamestop preorder and I was like yes. He’s like OK great that will be $WrongAmount. I’m like what and he’s like the DLC is $Money. He was talking about this story DLC that I was planning on getting later because I was going to find a Collector’s edition later which included this DLC. He flips me off behind a piece of paper (passive aggressive bitch) and I don’t pay for the DLC but I get it anyways.) So I shake it off get home and start playing. ERROR CANNOT IMPORT YOUR CHARACTER. I’m sitting in the leather theater recliner almost in shock. How can this happen? EA!!!! [shakes fist] The interwebs says other people are also currently having this problem. An hour or so later I figure I can import all my characters stats and decisions I just have to recreate his appearance from the default. Ugh I get it pretty much right but that deflated me a lot. But I shake it off and get into the game over the next few days. It’s good. I enjoy some dramatic moments where things that have been going on for centuries come to a head. Then it ends. It didn’t really make a whole lot of sense and there were some glaring plot holes. The interwebs had an aneurism and so people felt confirmed about the EA fears. Had the multiplayer inclusion taken away from the core experience? Sure seemed that way. I finished and I put the game down having just one playthrough. I was glad I had the whole experience but I was disappointed and felt no desire to go through my other playthroughs.

2015 and I’ve got some free time. I’ve gotten married and moved twice since I played any Mass Effect. A few DLC packages for ME3 have been released including a free one that they call “extended cut” which is supposed to make a better ending. I’m all set up in my man cave and decide to give ME3 another playthrough all DLC included. I start it up and it feels good to be back it’s been some years. I remember why I like this series as I get to playing. I save the DLC for points in the story where I think it will make narrative sense (they are limited somewhat as to when you can access them anyways). 80 hour playthrough and it’s over. The DLC gives an ending that makes much more sense. I wish my first ME3 playthrough could’ve been that. I don’t necessarily believe it was a nefarious plot by EA to squeeze out DLC money but I can’t see playing ME3 without them. One of the DLC’s Citadel is pretty much a fan blowout. It’s lighthearted and designed to just have fun being in the game with your characters. It was the last piece of DLC and the true send off for the series. The whole experience motivated me to write this ridiculous retrospective/review. I’m questioning why I don’t have a few pieces of ME apparel and will probably rectify that in my birthday/Christmas present requests.

So now I’ll talk about how I view the series critically. I’ll say this up front: ME1 is my favorite. The atmosphere and sense of exploration is unmatched. How do you feel when looking at the ME1 start screen? Things seem alien and the galaxy seems big. There’s a mystery out there for you to investigate and you’re given a cool ship to do so. Some of the stuff was janky but after a while these things became inside jokes for the series (I WILL DESTROY YOU). A lot of the side missions were samey because you kept going through the same types of buildings which makes sense if you think about it. The pre fab planet colonies aren’t going to be marvels of architecture. The landscapes were mostly barren rocks but that’s probably the type of planets that are out there. Other nitpicks include texture pop-in (quicker loading) boring elevators (for loading became running joke) and lame mini games. Whatever who cares. You’ve got a ship and a galaxy and you’re making friends and enemies. Awesome.

For ME2 the combat was better than ME1. It was cover based and that has its own set of issues (oh interesting a room of chest high walls and crates I wonder what’s going on in here *gets attacked*). The inventory system was more manageable so that was a relief. There was this baffling resource collection mechanic. It was tedious and I could’ve done without that. The environments weren’t as atmospheric. They took away the film grain ? Narratively the situations were usually dire so it really didn’t feel like the game wanted you to explore as much. The atmosphere is supposed to be darker and Shepard visits the seedy underworld place a lot but that angle doesn’t really make an impact. The whole story actually seems like a side quest for the whole series. The new characters were fun but big picture wise the story could’ve gone from 1 to 3 with a few details filled in. One thing I really liked: your ship is different this time and now you’ve got a space loft. You can select the music for your pad and I usually went with this track. Barbie was practicing a counseling technique with me one time. I had to close my eyes and visualize my ideal day no limits. It started out where she told me to imagine waking up wherever I live. Then I go through my morning routine to get ready for my day. I go to work and I visualize the sort of things I’m doing today. I visualize the wind down at the end of the day and I return to bed. She tells me to open my eyes. The exercise is to illustrate what my I should do with my life. She asks me and I tell her we were flying around on the Normandy checking out planets and systems relaxing in my space loft looking out the space window directly above our bed. Ballin. Now I just have to make it happen. A nitpick: in ME1 you navigate the galaxy map by moving a cursor around where you would like to go. Makes sense because the captain would say where to go and the helmsman would then drive there. In ME2 once you get to a system you have to move a tiny version of your ship around. My guess is some EA dweeb was like “durr this map part is not engaging hurr” so they put in a little ship to drive around. It seems silly:

You might’ve noticed a shapely butt going across the image there. Yes things got sexed up in ME2. EA doofus: “hrrrr males with disposable income like butts *drools*”. Whatever still named my truck after her cause I think she’s cool.

ME3 just referring to my DLC positive experience. Narratively the situation is bad maybe you can tell from the start screen music. I think at my funeral I’d like this track to be playing on loop as people are being seated. Most of the gameplay is the same as ME2. The resource thing is gone which is good. Things are sexed up a notch again EA!!!! [shakes fist]. I’m sure the sales numbers are higher but I don’t have to like it. Exploration and atmosphere aren’t really the focus now; it’s action and drama. The levels are smaller and some ongoing issues get resolved storywise. There’s a couple hard decisions to make. Nitpicks: these are actually a little more significant than the previous. The dialog options are usually limited to 2 choices: nice or less nice. Sometimes I felt like neither really captured what I wanted to say. Also the game would bug out. Eyelids would be missing dialog would skip but sometimes it would give you pretty dramatic flair:

It’s kind of funny mostly but it did ruin a couple moments. Oh well I mean EA!!!!![shakes fist]. They also changed the space loft music to lame stuff. The story has an ending. What is it? I guess that’s up to you. But however it ended Shepard solved the problem you were up against for the last few years. It’s good to have closure.

I can’t imagine playing this series without the time to go through it and take it in. There’s so much good stuff that’s so easily missed. You know the EA twerp is like “hngh why spend time and effort on things that only [SPOILERS] 3.8% percent of players will see gurgle”. They did it anyways. I remember a few times when I found the obscure stuff I felt like it was a nod to me being a fan. Thanks. I say all that but actually it might be pretty interesting. Most of my playthroughs involve most of my buddies making it out unscathed because I put in the extra effort. If I have the inclination and time I might like to do a bare bones playthrough all kinds of buddies dying left and right because we’re just getting by on the skin of our teeth/mandibles. Would be pretty dramatic. Overall Mass Effect did give me what I was looking for back in 2008 and more. Cool spaceship places to explore stuff to figure out stuff to kill space bros space hos. I don’t know how else a game series could have been more for me. I mean it wasn’t perfect and could’ve been better but like I said it scratched me right in my nerd itch.

I should go. (spoilers)

sometimes i'd forget to feed my space fish in my space aquarium and they space died

Any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive gaming headset? I need to get with the program

watched more vids for kerbal space program demo and it still looks like fun and it's in full release so i thought i'd give it a try unfortunately the laptop can't quite handle it boo

The Banner Saga has piqued my interest there's a f2p multiplayer and a paid story campaign single player turn based strategy game with vikings nice looking hand drawn animation and runs great even on my laptop tried a few rounds of multi haven't gotten the single player yet we'll see how it goes

 

edit: it's on PC and also iOS and android don't know if there's any crossover play

My clan mates from counterstrike introduced me to Tabletop Simulator, which has about 1000 games (some you have to pay more for), but many of them are free.  The game itself is $20.  It can be a little quirky, but it's awesome to be able to play board games with friends remotely.  From Cards against humanity, to life, or settlers of catan, and some other weird ass games, it's pretty awesome.  There's a game called Secret Hitler, which is basically assassin, where people are randomly (and secretly) assigned to be a liberal, or a fascist, and one person is hitler.  The liberals try to assassinate hitler, or vote in 5 liberal policies.  Fascists try to get Hitler elected to chancellor, or vote in 5 fascist policies.  It's pretty fun.

ANYways, you guys should get it and we should setup a game night!  I know most of you have kids to tend to, but would be awesome if we could make it happen.  Miss you guys!