Board 8 > Maniac plays Mass Effect 3 for the first time

(+) Yeah! (+)

shepard would never

Maniac64 posted...

That makes a lot of sense.

Though the council would have to agree with the Spectre nomination and they would be well aware of Shepard's actual role

Oh yeah it's not all bullshit. It just helped propel whichever's career regardless. But even the second human Spectre is still an oddly politicized prospect for a secret organization.

You know, Ashley's xenophobia gets a lot of attention and hate but the actual xenophobic party member is Wrex. He is way more racist than Ashley and nobody cares.

He even likes the shitty politician right up until the guy directly insults him.

I mean, a lot of the characters in the series have racist tendencies or at least start off with them. The turians and krogan both hate each other, and you see it in Garrus and Wrex a lot (there's also the wonderfully ironic "You humans are all racists" line from the first game).

Garrus and Wrex are a lot more charming and likable. They have other things going for them. Their racism is, well, more incidental and kinda baked into their species. Turians and krogan are expected to hate each other. Really, the krogan kinda hate everyone, including other krogan.

I guess that's where my difference is. I found Ashley to be a fun and likeable character if you take out the "humans-first" stuff. So I like her despite that. I also found her moments grappling with her views to be compelling.

In fact I found her more likable and interesting than ME1 Garrus who is just a space cop. I still think a lot of non-human ME characters get a break because their species is interesting whether or not they are as a character.

Wrex is awesome either way though. He is a lovable violent asshole so the xenophobia just feels normal for him.

Yeah, Garrus as a character isn't anything special in ME1. He still has great dialogue and interactions with other characters though, particularly Wrex.

Ashley is fine. She doesn't really have anything extra that elevates her above that aspect of her character though, and I think that's the difference.

Yeah ME1 Garrus really only shines through dialogue while actively used. Normandy conversations are not where it's at for him, memes aside.

Most people do use him, though. The most popular crewmates by far are Wrex and Garrus in that game.

Personally I feel more about Tali what you do about Garrus. Like her actual plot in ME1 is a little more interesting but her commentary just isn't. But she's so much better in 2.

If course the concept of the Quarians in general is a lot more compelling when they're not just the victims, too.

Yeah I used Wrex and Garrus; Wrex was immediately a likeable character and I needed some tech to open stuff, which Garrus gave me.

Garrus' ME1 appearance is made retrospectively better by his ME2 and 3 appearances, like if you do a series replay it's cool to see him again. But yeah he's not that interesting

kevwaffles posted...

Personally I feel more about Tali what you do about Garrus. Like her actual plot in ME1 is a little more interesting but her commentary just isn't. But she's so much better in 2.

Tali also suffers from this yes. I'd have to find the old topic but I think she and Garrus were next to each other in my ranking.

She just falls into character archetypes I like/find more interesting.

So we are officially over the minimum war assets. Yay!

Then it was time for another trip to the Citadel. Where Cerberus has taken over the Citadel and nearly assassinated the council. Guess they should have kept C-Sec run by Turians lol.

We meet an annoying new enemy type and the ME version of Raiden from metal Gear. He is a cyborg Assassin and almost kills the Salarian leader before Thane shows up and fights him off. Tragically he gets stabbed in the process.

My top three crew going into this game were Mordin, Wrex, Thane. I'm glad Wrex seems to mostly be done so he can survive at least.

Udina is a traitor. And we do the classic trope of not communicating so that Kaiden can be suspicious of us. Like we could have yelled down when on top of the elevator to let him know it was us and we were fighting off cerberus troops. But nah, let's walk out pointing guns at a Councilor.

We talk Kaiden down and then Udina exposes himself, after which I happily do the Renegade prompt and shoot him dead. Suck it Udina.

Maniac64 posted...

and the ME version of Raiden from metal Gear. He is a cyborg Assassin

wow this is so insulting towards raiden

Hot take: I really hate Kai Leng.

And by hot I mean frigid.

Hot take: Kai Leng does fine for what he's designed to be, which is be someone you want to kill

Leonhart4 posted...

Hot take: Kai Leng does fine for what he's designed to be, which is be someone you want to kill

Yeah I don't mean it like that, to be clear. That's what is intended to be felt. I mean like I'm rolling my eyes whenever he's around.

Oh he's definitely a lame guy

But I still wanted to kill him

Even if he were a better character, formally introducing "the rival" halfway into the final entry of a trilogy is just a baffling decision. There is no graceful way to do that.

(I don't give a shit if he was in comics, it still stands.)

Also tbf regarding comparing him to Raiden they are both Quinton Flynn.

kevwaffles posted...

Also tbf regarding comparing him to Raiden they are both Quinton Flynn.

Kai Leng is Troy Baker actually

Quinton Flynn voices some NPCs though

Oh shit, why'd I think that?

Although now I properly (I think) remember he's Thane's son, but that's apropos of nothing.

Yep, he is Kolyat.

Man the last scene with Kolyat and Thane was great. With the prayer for Shep and sending Thane off. Really nice scene.

Also the biggest twist of the whole series: Conrad wasn't completely useless. We find him promoting Cerberus (because of course he is) and allowing them to do bad stuff. I thought we had finally straigthened him out and found him something to do but nope. He is honestly remorseful at least and realizes he screwed up.
Then the shocking reveal. Conrad might actually be book smart and has a crazy education. He calls in a favor to get some useful information for us (and we got to use those Asari writings we collected and a store license). I could not believe it. Never saw it coming. Of course we later discover the joke is still on Conrad as he is only worth a measly 5 points as a war asset, the smallest of anything.

But that wasn't all. Conrad identifies his Cerberus contact for us then jumps in front of a bullet for a heroic sacrifice. But it turns out the undercover lady from ME1 was here and emptied the clip before. So not only does Conrad survive, he and the undercover lady walk off with clear romantic interest.

Like I said, most shocking and unexpected series of events in the whole series lol.

That Thane scene was the first thing in a video game that ever made me full on weep, fantastic moment

And yeah, Conrad is surprisingly great in ME3!

Did you exhaust Conrad's dialogue after the encounter? There are some gems in there too.

Thane almost beating Kai Leng is still hilarious

Kai being such an annoying little bitch kinda worked for me, I'm with Leon there

kevwaffles posted...

Did you exhaust Conrad's dialogue after the encounter? There are some gems in there too.

Probably? I'm usually pretty thorough on that but I don't remember what he said.

We also go to have a nice chat with Jack (then went to dance), avoided romance with Cortez, and told Joker to go for it. He even went to go dance on the dance floor where Edi was just standing around watching everyone.

There was some interesting dialogue chains around. An Alliance person who didn't want to go fight Cerberus because her brother had joined them. A Salarian who was excited telling his friend about this great new armor that was sent to him by mistake, only to eventually figure out the friend sold her car to buy him the armor in secret because he had gotten hurt and she worried about him. And a smuggler who was not willing to smuggle medical supplies away from the refugees. ME is really good for these.

Finally we met Kaiden before leaving and chose to have him rejoin our crew. Based on how people talk about him/Ashley I'm guessing most just make him a war asset. We are happy to have him though.

Also want to mention how I love that the crew isn't always in the same place. We walked in to Garrus up front with Joker trading racist jokes back and forth. Joker was especially thrilled to learn there was a joke about him specifically.

I'm not talking about everything, we got so many sidequests and conversations here.

My favorite conversation chain is the PTSD Asari in the hospital. Don't know if you've exhausted that one all the way, but I would highly recommend you do so. The story itself is actually tangentially important to something later on.

Maniac64 posted...

Finally we met Kaiden before leaving and chose to have him rejoin our crew. Based on how people talk about him/Ashley I'm guessing most just make him a war asset. We are happy to have him though

Nah i kept him/her every time. If nothing else it opens up more dialogue options and stuff. I don't think their presence makes either 1 or 3 worse, they're just hilariously overshadowed.

Nah, I'm not passing up on another squadmate.

I like Kaidan anyway, and he has some good conversations with Shepard in ME3.

Of course I'm taking the party member.

Glad to see i was wrong on that assumption.

Leonhart4 posted...

My favorite conversation chain is the PTSD Asari in the hospital. Don't know if you've exhausted that one all the way, but I would highly recommend you do so. The story itself is actually tangentially important to something later on.

That was a good one as well. I generally make a point of getting the full conversations, though I'm sure there are some interesting didn't realize we're multiple part.

We chose not to give the lady with severe PTSD a loaded weapon in the cerberus options. Because that just seems like a really bad idea.

Another sad one like that we just saw was the teenager waiting for her parents in the docking bay and the kind CSEC agent that keeps checking on her.

Yeah, if you give her the gun, she (sadly predictably) kills herself.

Yep, that or her shooting someone by mistake were the obvious outcomes.

Yeah, I don't think anyone passes up on a party member, even if they don't like them and will never use them, for effectively nothing in return. One small War Asset is meaningless.

Maniac64 posted...

Probably? I'm usually pretty thorough on that but I don't remember what he said.

The biggest things I remember is that's how you confirm he never even had a wife and that he has a small, "tasteful" Shepard shrine. Because of course.

kevwaffles posted...

The biggest things I remember is that's how you confirm he never even had a wife and that he has a small, "tasteful" Shepard shrine. Because of course.

Ok I don't think I got those.

I'm going to have to go back and talk with him.

We found out Udina wasn't the only one connected to Cerberus. The Volus Ambassador has made the mistake of supporting them when they were fighting the Collectors. Now that they are fighting everyone else he regrets it. He is captured, but one of the merca is Zaeed, so when we make contact he saves the ambassador instead of turning him in. It's fun how you never know when someone will show up in this game.

We have a nice chat/play some chess with Traynor. She is fun,m better than Kelly imo. You can be super forward in this but we didn't take those options (I suspect she is gay and would have turned us down anyway). Then we talk with Jacob about how he got an offer to become N7. We have some similar history with losing a squad we were leading while completing a mission. In the end we help him decide to do it and he gets a tattoo since the official process isn't really going right now.

We also have a chat with Kaiden and my wife finally gets her wish to start a romance with him. It's a very nice scene and start to their relationship. Sorry Tali. I know it won't be in our game at this point, but I'll still imagine her and Garrus end up together.

Finally we go to the temple where Ardak-Yakshi stay because of a distress call. I expect to run into Samara there and sure enough she has come to rescue her remaining daughters. We fight Banshees which are super annoying. It's too late to save one of her daughters who holds off indoctrination long enough to sacrifice herself to blow up the temple and the Banshees. It's a sad scene only hurt by Samara never showing her emotions. After we get out Samara says the code requires her daughter sie since the temple is gone but chooses to shoot herself instead. We stop her and her daughter offers to stay on the planet so neither of them have to die. Samara decides to go right on the front lines, Samara is the first character to make me like them less with their appearance in this game. She is a super serious example of the Lawful Stupid type.

Banshees are the worst

That scream still haunts me to this day

Best worst thing about Kai Leng is the time he broke into Anderson's apartment, ate some of his cereal, and peed on his houseplant.

Best thing about Kai Leng is how Board 8's own SaveEstelle got a book declared non-canon by Bioware because of how bad it was.

I actually don't know how much of that falls on Kai Leng vs the rest of the book but I like to think it was Kai Leng's fault.

Thorn posted...

Best thing about Kai Leng is how Board 8's own SaveEstelle got a book declared non-canon by Bioware because of how bad it was.

I'm pretty sure there's actually an oblique reference to this in ME3 too

But I'd need user @SaveEstelle to come in here to confirm it

Thorn posted...

Best thing about Kai Leng is how Board 8's own SaveEstelle got a book declared non-canon by Bioware because of how bad it was.

LOL yeah that was a thing.

Leonhart4 posted...

I'm pretty sure there's actually an oblique reference to this in ME3 too

But I'd need user @SaveEstelle to come in here to confirm it

Gosh, I really hate to say it, but... I don't remember. It's been that long since last I played the game.

Needless to say, I do remember the book decanonization movement itself.

I know it was in a random datapad and my mind is telling me it involved an electric toothbrush

...Oh, that does sound familiar...

This will now motivate me to get my wife back to that ME Trilogy playthrough just so we can find that datapad

There are worse reasons

...I can't think of many but

Thorn posted...

Best thing about Kai Leng is how Board 8's own SaveEstelle got a book declared non-canon by Bioware because of how bad it was.

I actually don't know how much of that falls on Kai Leng vs the rest of the book but I like to think it was Kai Leng's fault.

Thats the same book I was referencing, yes. (And yes, the rest of the book was also that bad.)

Stay alive

Oh right, I didn't update last weekend.

Miranda found out where her sister is but doesn't want our help. She just left a message at the Citadel and told us she is being hunted.

Then we did the quest to save Cerberus scientists where we found Jacob. He is dating one of the scientists and helped movltivate them to leave. Kasumi will be bummed to hear he is off the market. Jacob is still his usual self making dumb decisions. Also the asshole from Project Overlord is here. At least he is sorry for what he did to David and chose not to do it again.

It's obvious Cerberus was working on something big and bad. So much so they killed their scientists whenever they completed their part of the project. Whcih is a really short sighted plan.

Lastly we did the Omega DLC.

Aria is an interesting character. And we met a Turian lady who she used to date. This led me to realize how few female Turians we have met/seen in this game. It's kind of weird honestly. I don't feel like I remember anything in their culture that would cause it.

Anyway, we join with the Turian lady's drug runner turned freedom fighter team. Would love to learn how she reformed all of them and made them so loyal.

The Cerberus dude here is a Russian tactician who plays chess. Real Bond villain energy. Aria gets mad at us for not taking his bait when it would cause a bunch of people die if we don't stop a bomb, because it meant putting Aria and her girlfriend at risk. Even though they both lived so it was obviously the right decision.

Cerberus is making their own Reaper monters that turn other people to multiply. They're nasty. Turian lady has some trauma from them but i never figure out why. Maybe because i interrupt Aria when she is yelling at her for being freaked out. She eventually sacrifices herself to kill a bunch of them. I feel like this character was a bit wasted by being DLC. She seemed interesting and had potential but there just wasn't enough time to flesh her out and make her sacrifice be as meaningful as it should be.

But it does piss Aria off enough to fall into Russian dudes trap. We have to save her ass in a really annoying battle. Then we finally beat him. He reveals that he let Aria leave alive when he took over and asks for the same treatment. Aria backs down because we have been a good influence in her.

The guy brags that being an Alliance POW isn't bad and I desperately wish I could hand him over to someone else. Imagine responding with; "Who said I was giving you to the Alliance? I'm handing you over to the Krogan. I'm sure Wrex will be able to get all the Intel we need from you." That would be so satisfying as a way to shut this cocky dude up. Also he would probably start talking right then just to get me to give him to anyone else.

Yeah, she's the only female turian you meet in the trilogy. That was actually a selling point of the DLC when it first came out. It's probably my least favorite of the ME3 DLCs, but the gameplay was still pretty good.