Mass Effect Just for Fun

[Drecq]

So I decided to redownload ME1 on my XBONE and will install the other 2 of the series in a while when I get closer to ending ME1. SO I thought it would be kind of fun and neat to start a group chat thread to see who still plays it, who's playing through it now, what game you are going through, did you import from a previous version, what are you going for Paragon or Renegade, etc. Despite how you feel about Andromeda I think we all agree the first 3 games had their fun moments and good stories.

This is just a general chat thread I'm not trying to get opinions on the games, though if someone has a question maybe some of the other posters can answer them...like the one question I have.

I had all the DLC on my Xbox360 but when I redownloaded the game to XBONE I was only given one DLC to DL...is that normal or is there something I can do to get the others?

As for this playthrough, I have chosen a Male Shepard that is focused on Renegade and romancing Ashley. I have actually romanced her before in the first game but in the second game I left her ass and went with Tali...and in stayed with Tali. This time I am thinking I may go with Ashely all the way through and see how that goes.

[JackofTears]

I have played the entire trilogy about 8 times, almost exclusively with FemShep. I tried playing through once a ManShep but could only barely manage through the first game; after doing my first playthrough as FemShep, the male character felt wrong to me and I could never manage to get through the later games with him.

Because of that, I was forced to romance Liara as my lesbian relationship, which is fine insomuch as Liara is a fantastic love interest but I really wanted to romance Tali! Sadly, Bioware got gunshy and denied us that option so she remained my Shep's unrequited lesbian crush.

The best way to play the series is to import your saves all the way through, I love seeing all the references to the first two games and your choices show up in the final. Unfortunately, they dropped the ball in a couple places in ME3 and the Rachni and Collector Base decisions meant nothing. The less said about the end of the game, the better.

I always play FemShep as Renegade. I did one playthrough in which I evolved her from Paragon in the first time, to Renegade in the second (to reflect her response to events), and that was fun. Typically, though, my Shep only cares about the people in her crew and saving the galaxy, she has no time for other people's shit (or Jacob, that potato).

Andromeda was a decent game, it was just the worst of the Mass Effect games and that did it no favors. I bought the game on release, after playing the 10 hour demo, and never felt ripped off even if I couldn't manage to play through it more than once.

I think it is definitely time to give ME a break for a decade, though, as it was getting worn through as Bioware clearly didn't know what to do with it heading forward.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

I had the exact same impression.

So I played ManShep as a Paragon and FemShep as a renagade, so I wouldn’t have dialogue overlap to really drive how wrong ManShep sounded.

[Blackman]

Same thing here. I played with default Shepard - you know, the dude on the boxart - and after completing the trilogy 2 times with him it just feels "wrong" to play as a female version of him. I ended up doing it anyway for my third playthrough on PC, but it's just not the same. Your first playthough kinda dictates what's "normal" and given the focus on the story, it's hard to change all that imo. Not like Skyrim where it doesn't matter at all how your character looks. You'll never notice. You can make out the gender on the grunts, I guess.

Played the patched-up Andromeda with their default character (the girl) and won't be playing that one again, especially not with a different character. Didn't feel ripped off, it was just an average, underwhelming experience, but I guess we have the excellent trilogy to thank for that .

Funny how I got all DLC twice (PC/XBOX). Still worth it though.

[Drecq]

I've played through it probably about 4 times with 2 males and 2 females and on my females, I usually went with Garrus as the love interest. Males I either went Ashley or Tali. I have also played both on Paragon and Renegade and like you said some of the later choices don't seem to feel like they made as big of an impact as you would think and then some that you wouldn't think had made hardly any actually made more. I think for the time that the game came out it was still a taboo subject matter. I can remember reading the stories of how it allowed you to have homosexual love interests and how some people were out there saying it would ruin gaming. Now if you don't have homosexual love interests your a bigot so it is an interesting swap of affairs.

I think BioWare had a plan...I just think that over time things got diluted behind EA's marketing idealism. I saw a video once that showed an excerpt from them talking to Steve Job's and despite what you think about him and thought about him he was a brilliant person in his own right. But he made a comment that I think is impacting "Gaming" now more than ever and it was about how companies that once focused on Customer Product and Research have now hired and went to people that are more "Business Product and Research" and are more geared to selling and not supporting the consumer. Which has translated into EA and other mainstream Triple-A publishers focusing on the dollar signs and not its consumer base which is leading to what we have now...consumers fed up with them and the publishers drowning.

[N7DARKBEAST]

In my opinion ME1 was always the best one in the series and the rest were average at best and I will not include that abomination called adromeda that was just piss poor and that's being nice.

[JackofTears]

I thought ME1 had the best story, ME2 had the best cast, and ME3 was the best game overall.

[Thomas_JCG]

The Mass Effect trilogy is one of my favorite game franchises of all time. I always played as the default male Shepard, War Hero and 80% Paragon: if you are 100% paragon you are too naive and if you are 100% renegade you are an ass. I romanced Ashley, and was loyal through all the games.

Unfortunately, they dropped the ball in a couple places in ME3 and the Rachni and Collector Base decisions meant nothing. The less said about the end of the game, the better.

I quite agree about the first two, but the ending gets more criticism than it deserves, specially after the Extended Cut. The idea of building a weapon that could destroy or control the Reapers was pretty cool and in line with the series, and Synthesis was just an amazing idea. The problem was solely in the execution, that is, the "pick a color" moment.

[JackofTears]

I feel that the "Leviathan" DLC added some much needed context for the ending of the game. If that mission had been in the game on release it would have cushioned the ending and transformed it from Terrible to merely Mediocre. Combined with the Extended Cut, it would have been almost acceptable. Still a terrible way to end a game all about character agency and the repercussions of your choices, but better than the ending it shipped with.

[Drecq]

Not going to deny that I have gotten 100% on both Paragon and Renegade...and yes my goal was to approach that as you said...on one be completely naive and on the other hand an ass...I find the game is fun that way too at times. Plus I wanted to see what I would get out of it. And at the end, I have done all three choices and out of all three...Synthesis was my favorite I think it was a unique idea to have that in there.

[MadMummy76]

Believe it or not, when I first played Mass Effect I hated it. The gunplay was awful, the inventory was awful, and the part where you "investigate" on the citadel seemed extremely boring to me. To some peer pressure I picked up the game for a second try, and managed to get to the point where you get command of the normandy, and that was the moment when my perception of the game suddenly did a 180. It felt awesome to be able to command a starship and pick which planet to go to in what star system. I felt like I was in my personal star trek episode each time I picked a planet to land on. But I still had an aversion to the shitty inventory. So much so that I refused to use it. Believe it or not in my first playtrough I finished the game without swapping equipment once during the entire game, so I finished the game with level I weapons! After that the game felt like child's play even on the insanity difficulty level. Since then I finished the game at least 8 times (I have the saves still from those).

But my favourite of the series is ME2, which I started with 17 different characters, and played 10 of those to completion.

ME3 I finished only 3 times I think, thanks to it's horrible ending I had little incentive. But I did start numerous characters for the sake of the Citadel DLC so I can experience it with different characters and various LIs.




My favorite commander shepard is Long Shepard, he's kind of a joker, doesn't take things seriously, but when shit gets thick, he always does the right thing.
Jack Shepard is my original shepard, the first one to get trough all 3 games, tried to make him look like me, but failed.

All of my other plays were with various femsheps, Siobahn is the only one who made it trough the entire trilogy. But even though I had much more female characters in the game I still preferred maleshep, because that's the only way to romance Miranda.


And I'm one of those people who liked Andromeda as well. It's different, but it's not as bad as it was painted. I especially liked how it handled the ending. It had a proper epilogue, a wind down, where you could re-connect and reflect with the squad.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

I don’t how many times I’ve played ME 1 - 8-9 times. ManShep as a solider, and always as a damage dealer - not a Tank. The third was really made to make the damage dealing Soldier. I would have the AP bullet enhancement, and it was like a stream of metal death emanating from Shep’s gun - clearing paths in a matter of seconds, lol!

FemShep was an Adept, but maximum carnage. I loved Warp, especially in the third game when you could have Javik doing his creeping doom power, while Edi was spreading incinerate and then you do a warp for maximum biotic explosive carnage.

[OzzieArcane]

I've completed the Trilogy to completion twice on Xbox 360. Once as a Paragon playing solo. Another time was playing mostly as Paragon while streaming for friends on Hitbox, but I did a lot of Renegade interrupts on that Paragon playthrough. Second playthrough was my first time doing a lot of Mass Effect 3 DLC since most of that was released after I had already moved on originally.

As for this playthrough, I have chosen a Male Shepard that is focused on Renegade and romancing Ashley. I have actually romanced her before in the first game but in the second game I left her ass and went with Tali...and in stayed with Tali. This time I am thinking I may go with Ashely all the way through and see how that goes.

I tried doing this on PS3 after previously playing Paragon Fem Shep on Xbox 360. But when I get to ME 3 I started encountered way too many frequent game freezes and vowed never to play the series on PS3 again. I still need to complete a Douchebag Shep run sometime.

[Thomas_JCG]

Taking that Renegade interrupt to headbutt a Krogan was easily one of the best moments in the franchise.

[Drecq]

@Thomas_JCG
Reminds me of the bar fight scene in Andromeda which to me was one of the funniest scenes in the game. But yeah headbutting a Krogan was to me one of the better scenes lol.

[Murray]

I played through Mass Effect 1-3 but after having reached the ending of 3, I pretty much never played Mass Effect again. Save for 3's ending, the series was pretty damn good.

[Drecq]

Currently the playthrough I'm doing this time I have a Male Shepard as a Soldier who is all Renegade...ok he's had some Paragon moments though few. I pretty much made him the ass of the galaxy for the most part but he's got a soft spot for Ashley (seeing as I am making her my romantic interest). I have been doing mostly side quests at the moment to get resources and funds to get better gear and of course finding better gear as I go along. I usually have Ashley in my team and mix the other spot up with either Garrus or Tali for their Tech Abilities in unlocking things. I pretty much have the "xenophobic" angle going with a pretty much dead set on being anti Citidale. I pretty much have all the crew members at this point so still trying to talk to everyone an get the stories going.

[Garrett]

ME1 has best exploration and roleplaying aspects. ME2 has best missions and ME3 has best combat game mechanics. For years I couldn't stand playing ME2 or 3 because of the atrocious "Press E for Everything" control scheme but fortunately I found a mod for that. Yeah, a PC port that is so bad that you need to mod it to give it acceptable controls.

My last Renegade Vanguard Femshep+Liara was probably the most fun playthrough I've had. Minus the game-breaking bug that prevents you from continuing if you ever revisit the Shadow Broker ship in ME2. I had to jump through several hoops to betray Cerberus at every turn and make sure that nobody from that organization survived the collectors and everyone else did. Thanks for the ship, Miranda and Jacob. Rest in piss. I had to quit my most recent Ultra-Paragon Adept MaleShep+Tali playthrough when I realized that there's tons of story DLC for ME3 that costs more than I ever paid for the main game. Now to wait for a discount.

Also, Ashley is a piece of shit and I regret all those times I saved her and not Kaidan. And Am I alone in thinking that there are no good endings in ME3? Not as in well made endings, but happy endings? There is no victory there. Let's take a look: You either have to destroy all synthetics in the galaxy because the Reapers say so and the control of synthetic evolution is their main MO. You can eradicate all biological matter in the galaxy and fuse it with synthetics because the Reapers say so and the control of syntheric evolution is their main MO. You can destroy yourself and take dictatorial control because the Reapers say so and the control of syntheric evolution is their main MO. Or you can get killed by the Reapers along with all galactic civilization because you didn't do what the Reapers said. No matter what choices you made, you can only lose, lose, lose or lose. Saren was always right. You literally can't defeat the Reapers.