Blue_Mike
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Meet Hanako At Embers
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Post by Blue_Mike on Feb 20, 2023 15:45:52 GMT
I'm there for a game based on the mining mini game in 2.  |
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Post by simple on Feb 28, 2023 9:42:28 GMT
Finished the main questline last night 77 and half hours in. Completed all the Companion and Heleus missions and most of the Tasks. Any that were tracking down or scanning unmarked items got ignored or only finished by coincidence when I was doing proper missions. Its not a polished game but in its current version, playing on a PS4 Pro, it still handled really well. In terms of jank I’ve seen worse in almost every big Bethesda game since Oblivion. The characters all really grew on me. Admittedly Drack and Vetra are basically Wrex and Garrus reskins and Peebee is Liara with manic pixie dream girl energy in place of mystical breathiness but with each squad mate having three or four character specific missions you can get a real feel for them over time. The combat is fast and fun, you’re never pinned down behind cover for long and the jetpack and powers add a lot more variety to tactics than Shepard had. Although I never once felt the need to switch combat profiles despite that being a big gimmick for the game. Exploration was fun, none of the sandboxes felt too big and there was a decent amount of stuff to do in them. Although generous fast travel and a rocket car helped a lot with that. The Nomad felt really nice to drive after the Mako and Hammerhead in the trilogy. The main quest and villain were a bit forgettable. I think the whole colonisation and terraforming thing worked well as a context for the other missions but the Archon didn’t really feel like an immediate threat. Again, quite like a Bethesda RPG, its perfectly possible to do dozens of hours of story driven missions and sidequests without touching the main quest. Which is how I played it. I make this comparison a lot but the way the missions were structured and game is paced it does feel a lot like semi-serialised television. Like sure the Dominion are at the door but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bunch of episodes trapped in the holodeck, taking vacation on Risa, or finding out why the replicators on deck 12 have malfunctioned. The UI is a bit of a cluttered mess to begin with but once you settle in and realise you can ignore two thirds of it it becomes a lot more manageable. The missions being split into four tiers for example was confusing at first but very useful once it came to working out what was worth doing. My biggest two niggles are the load times, both long and frequent, and theres the SAM companion quest that feels like it should be very important but seems unfinished in an annoying way. Its either setting up the sequel or they just abandoned their plans but apparently no one cares the leader of the Initiative was living between the walls before being murdered and Ryder doesn’t bother telling anyone?! I suppose more options for armour types and civilian outfits for Ryder customisation would’ve been nice too. Overall I had a very good time with this and its a shame it was so broken on launch that they couldn’t continue the story. |
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Feb 28, 2023 9:46:05 GMT
Despite my mixed feelings towards Andromeda, I hope ME5 doesn't ignore it altogether - there was a good foundation there, beneath all the stuff on which I wasn't keen, and I'd rather the next game built on that than revert to Shepard et al for the sake of scoring cheap nostalgia points.
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Post by simple on Feb 28, 2023 12:15:22 GMT
Yeah it’d be a shame if they just wrote it out of history. The execution isn’t perfect and it obviously had a troubled development and horrible release but there are a lot of good ideas and concepts in there.
That said, I’m glad it was a more structured game like this than their initial No Man’s Sky concept. Character and story are what separate’s Mass Effect from the pack and chasing that plan could have turned it to procedurally generated soup.
I think if I was being more objective about the systems I’d probably score it lower but I liked the good stuff a lot.
Removing the paragon/renegade was something I liked a lot as it gave you a more fluid character than Space Jesus or Mega Dick. Even if quite often the options didn’t seem super distinct and having a romance button was a bit obvious.
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Blue_Mike
Full Member
Meet Hanako At Embers
Posts: 5,364
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Post by Blue_Mike on Feb 28, 2023 12:26:01 GMT
My biggest two niggles are the load times, both long and frequent Kadara Port doors. |
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Post by simple on Feb 28, 2023 13:55:45 GMT
My biggest two niggles are the load times, both long and frequent Kadara Port doors. Getting from the Tempest to the sandbox should never have taken that long |
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Blue_Mike
Full Member
Meet Hanako At Embers
Posts: 5,364
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Post by Blue_Mike on Feb 28, 2023 20:44:48 GMT
The whole game is a much more enjoyable affair with the bug fixes and QoL improvements from the mod community, including those infamous doors behaving normally. It's shame that Bioware didn't have some kind of Creation Club style thing for mods on consoles, as per recent Bethesda stuff
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Post by The12thMonkey on Feb 28, 2023 20:47:21 GMT
Finished the main questline last night 77 and half hours in. Completed all the Companion and Heleus missions and most of the Tasks. Any that were tracking down or scanning unmarked items got ignored or only finished by coincidence when I was doing proper missions. Its not a polished game but in its current version, playing on a PS4 Pro, it still handled really well. In terms of jank I’ve seen worse in almost every big Bethesda game since Oblivion. The characters all really grew on me. Admittedly Drack and Vetra are basically Wrex and Garrus reskins and Peebee is Liara with manic pixie dream girl energy in place of mystical breathiness but with each squad mate having three or four character specific missions you can get a real feel for them over time. The combat is fast and fun, you’re never pinned down behind cover for long and the jetpack and powers add a lot more variety to tactics than Shepard had. Although I never once felt the need to switch combat profiles despite that being a big gimmick for the game. Exploration was fun, none of the sandboxes felt too big and there was a decent amount of stuff to do in them. Although generous fast travel and a rocket car helped a lot with that. The Nomad felt really nice to drive after the Mako and Hammerhead in the trilogy. The main quest and villain were a bit forgettable. I think the whole colonisation and terraforming thing worked well as a context for the other missions but the Archon didn’t really feel like an immediate threat. Again, quite like a Bethesda RPG, its perfectly possible to do dozens of hours of story driven missions and sidequests without touching the main quest. Which is how I played it. I make this comparison a lot but the way the missions were structured and game is paced it does feel a lot like semi-serialised television. Like sure the Dominion are at the door but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bunch of episodes trapped in the holodeck, taking vacation on Risa, or finding out why the replicators on deck 12 have malfunctioned. The UI is a bit of a cluttered mess to begin with but once you settle in and realise you can ignore two thirds of it it becomes a lot more manageable. The missions being split into four tiers for example was confusing at first but very useful once it came to working out what was worth doing. My biggest two niggles are the load times, both long and frequent, and theres the SAM companion quest that feels like it should be very important but seems unfinished in an annoying way. Its either setting up the sequel or they just abandoned their plans but apparently no one cares the leader of the Initiative was living between the walls before being murdered and Ryder doesn’t bother telling anyone?! I suppose more options for armour types and civilian outfits for Ryder customisation would’ve been nice too. Overall I had a very good time with this and its a shame it was so broken on launch that they couldn’t continue the story. Nice summary, and I'm glad you managed to focus on and enjoy the gameplay aspect of it, rather than the story. Wasn't something I was able to do myself, but I knew there was an enjoyable experience to be had under there. |
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Post by simple on Feb 28, 2023 23:39:28 GMT
Polished off the epilogue this evening along with the movie night quest. It gets a bit Return of the King in not wanting to draw a line under things but its a nice goodbye, I’m glad I saved movie night til last as its a lovely little send off to the crew. Almost like panning out from a final shot of a poker game. Its pretty obvious they were setting up future DLC or sequels in a way that the original trilogy never did. The Kett watching on the view screen, the Quarian ark, terraforming Habitat 7, its all very conspicuously dropped in. Pity we’ll never seen any of it. Ultimately I think giving us a broad, low stakes game, whether by design or not, was the right movie after how tightly wound the original trilogy was. Obviously Legendary Edition is the Mass Effect experience but just being given this big playground to live in is nice too. |
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Blue_Mike
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Meet Hanako At Embers
Posts: 5,364
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Post by Blue_Mike on Mar 14, 2023 10:47:10 GMT
Someone released a fix for something in Andromeda that always bothered me:
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Post by simple on Mar 14, 2023 13:00:09 GMT
That was a real “we took massive short cuts / this game isn’t finished” tell and immersion breaker once I noticed it
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Blue_Mike
Full Member
Meet Hanako At Embers
Posts: 5,364
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Post by Blue_Mike on Apr 4, 2023 20:40:31 GMT
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Post by harrypalmer on Apr 6, 2023 8:22:58 GMT
Man, I am absolutely loving Mass Effect 3!
Think I'm about halfway although I mistakenly started the Citadel DLC which is amazing but a bit out of place given how many quests I still need to do!
I'm easily enjoying this as much as 2 so far.
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Post by richyroo on Apr 6, 2023 12:13:04 GMT
Man, I am absolutely loving Mass Effect 3! Think I'm about halfway although I mistakenly started the Citadel DLC which is amazing but a bit out of place given how many quests I still need to do! I'm easily enjoying this as much as 2 so far.
The Citadel DLC is amazing, its a love letter to the fans of Mass Effect. It is best played right before the final mission.
Mass Effect 3 got some bad rep at the time, mainly due to the ending (which isn't as bad as some make out, I actually liked it). I used to like ME2 the best in the trilogy, but over the years I have grown quite fond of ME3 and I hold it in the same regard as ME2.
Overall, its the best trilogy of games ever made.
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Post by rockavitch on Apr 6, 2023 13:48:58 GMT
If you want there's a definite cut off point in the Citadel DLC where you can leave it and come back later. Mission is called Party so you can do the first half and come back later for the second and it works better. |
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Post by simple on Apr 6, 2023 23:08:44 GMT
ME3 surprised me with how good it was during my recent replay. The patched endings are all decent as well so that plus time has let the bad taste and hype die down that soured people first time around.
Legendary Edition is an astonishing piece of work to pick up for the prices it goes for nowadays.
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Post by harrypalmer on Apr 17, 2023 12:52:24 GMT
Mass Effect 3 - 9/10
Much better than I was expecting, almost as good as 2. In fact, some things are even better: the story is very compelling and propels you to the end (which I had no problem with), the citadel gets some great content, the military strength concept is great and really gives everything you do a sense of urgency and purpose, all the hacking and mining shite is gone!
But the combat is ridiculously easy, I never died or healed, which is mad. But I’m in these games for the characters and story, and BioWare delivered on those big time.
A truly memorable story in it's own right, and the trilogy has a whole is sublime. Definitely the best gaming trilogy, as someone already mentioned.
I do wish they’d kept more of the planet side exploration from 1, but it was boring and terrible so I can see why they ditched it, just wish they could of found a way to make it good.
ME1 8/10 Although I think the story is the best, it's super janky!
ME2 9.5
Going to wait a bit before jumping into Andromeda, but I'm very excited to do so, just to be back in the universe. Only came to these games 15 years late! I've also never played KOTOR, so might get that done first.
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Post by simple on Apr 17, 2023 14:15:49 GMT
Which ending did you pick?
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Post by harrypalmer on Apr 17, 2023 14:19:31 GMT
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that. I fucked up the ending and picked Synthesis by accident! I wont go into details but I AM an idiot. Although I quite liked it and it actually felt in character. I think I could have got the 'best' ending though so I'm going to go back to my last save.
Basically I only looked them up after the fact, and thought I had to walk towards the light and then make the choice, which is incorrect!
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Post by RadicalRex on Apr 17, 2023 14:54:12 GMT
You can always have the best ending, just use your gun
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Post by harrypalmer on May 7, 2023 5:51:52 GMT
Started Andromeda. The opening is rough! Shooty shooty shoot shoot and wise cracking dickwad squad: ‘I think I really pissed that guy off! Maybe cos I shot him in the face!’
Not exactly what I want from mass effect.
Strange how similar to Returnal the controls/traversal is. There’s potential here if I can get a good squad together.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 31, 2023 4:26:21 GMT
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Post by simple on May 31, 2023 13:26:39 GMT
I enjoyed Andromeda plenty but 90 hour working weeks? Fuck that
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Blue_Mike
Full Member
Meet Hanako At Embers
Posts: 5,364
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Post by Blue_Mike on May 31, 2023 18:59:35 GMT
The day we have all waited for is here:
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Ulythium
Full Member
Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Jun 15, 2023 7:28:40 GMT
A weird piece of ME merch:
A classic EG article thereupon:
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Post by baihu1983 on Jun 15, 2023 11:27:14 GMT
Thought the entire thing was an overreaction. Sheps death at the start of 2 was a major story moment.
Those that didn't like it simply didn't have to buy it. From the looks of things a lot of people had ordered it only to be told to now submit a refund.
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Jun 15, 2023 12:14:03 GMT
baihu1983Totally agree - sure, it's an odd choice for a collectable, but not so odd as to be offensive in any way! I did find it vaguely amusing that The Old Place (TM) was so quick to go, "That molehill should be an even BIGGER mountain!", but that's a whole other can of worms.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Jun 15, 2023 13:43:14 GMT
It's offensively shit
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Post by Jambowayoh on Jun 15, 2023 13:52:26 GMT
Let people spend their.../checks price...eeesh, 300 quid on some statue of a video game character and wank over it in peace.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2023 14:12:10 GMT
In one article: creepy sexual death figure is creepy
in the next article: let’s thirst over this Star Wars droid!
It’s really gone to shit since Oli quit.
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