Board 8 > Mass Effect Legendary Edition Part 2 *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Guess that's what I get for not reading Codex entries.

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I haven't yet look at any codex entries with the narrator voice.

I should have, I always liked those.

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Murphiroth posted...

Gotta disagree here. They cut ties with the Council well before the series started and retreated to Batarian space where they broadcast nothing but propaganda. Of course you're not going to see them when you're not hitting Batarian space, they're Space North Korea.

It is slightly surprising that for all the various tasks you complete in ME1, you don't actually see them apart from in the DLC. But not like a plot hole or anything.

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I will also say that the combat themes for Overlord and LotSB are awesome.

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I forgot how awesome Javik was.

Just kidding, how could I ever forget?

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TheRock1525 posted...

I haven't yet look at any codex entries with the narrator voice.

I should have, I always liked those.

Yeah, my wife has barely paid attention to them. She'll skim the Planet entries, but I don't think she's even opened the Codex since we left the Citadel the first time.

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Also another hot take:

Priority Earth to Priority Mars to Priority Palaven is the high point of ME3. Not that I don't really like the rest, but those three missions back-to-back-to-back I absolutely love. Plenty of good missions still to go, but between the action, music, and cut scenes its probably my favorite.

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Wait...Batarians aren't in ME1?

Were they just in a DLC or something?

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greengravy294 posted...

Wait...Batarians aren't in ME1?

Were they just in a DLC or something?

Yep, they only appear in Bring Down the Sky.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Also another hot take:

Priority Earth to Priority Mars to Priority Palaven is the high point of ME3. Not that I don't really like the rest, but those three missions back-to-back-to-back I absolutely love. Plenty of good missions still to go, but between the action, music, and cut scenes its probably my favorite.

tbh I think the high point of ME3 is everything up until Thessia

The last 4 story missions aren't so good, but everything on Tuchanka and Rannoch as well as the opening is good shit

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Leonhart4 posted...

Yep, they only appear in Bring Down the Sky.

Oh jeez....guess that kinda makes sense now.

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I also prefer unique looks like ME2 and 3 instead of a gazillion different armors that 95% of them looked horrible (especially on Liara).

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I wonder what's the best times to do Omega, Leviathan, and Citadel.

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I did Citadel after the Cerberus invasion, mostly to get access to the Armax Arena and the armors you get for scoring 9999 points.

Obviously you do the party itself right before the point of no return but actual mission slots in fine there. And you can go to the Silversun Strip on and off to do the interactions there throughout the game instead of all at once.

Yeah, I do Citadel in waves since new content unlocks all the time and then save the party for the very last thing.

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Very tempted to try Flare over Energy Drain on my Infiltrator since Cloak would cancel Nova's long cooldown buuuuut Energy Drain is super useful on an Infiltrator.

I'm gonna do LotSB as soon as I get it because of the bonuses

Citadel I'll do what Leon did

Arrival last probably

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I was laughing so hard when I found the ad for Elcor Hamlet
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We encountered the ad for Elcor Hamlet in ME1 in the elevator last night. One of the best random things in the series.

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Wrong Sounding Mordin makes me sad.

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Alright, back in the game. I just finished Leviathan *real* early (the last main mission I did was recruiting Garrus on Palaven) and feel like jumping immediately into Omega. Hope doing the DLCs this early doesn't make the rest of the game seem weird.

Btw, is it just me or does ME3 seem, uhhh, bereft of life compared to ME2? I know that the developers obviously needed to focus the narrative on the Reaper invasion (it's the last game) and the mood isn't supposed to be upbeat, but the complete lack of humor/witty dialogue I'm seeing so far is a bummer after the last game hit a home run on those points.

I've heard that the Citadel DLC may address those issues - here's hoping!

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I dunno, I feel like ME3 has a lot of life compared to ME2, at least on the Normandy itself.

The fact that your squadmates interact with one another instead of all of them only talking to Shepard is one of my favorite things about the game.

Murphiroth posted...

The fact that your squadmates interact with one another instead of all of them only talking to Shepard is one of my favorite things about the game.

Yes, I love when games do this, and ME3 does it so well

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True, great point. I haven't actually noticed much of that in ME3 (probably because I'm still in the early game as far as main missions go), but I definitely noticed a lack of that in ME2. I laughed at how they tried to cover it up in certain scenes by only showing Miranda, Jacob, and sometimes Mordin.

Still, ME2 definitely strikes me as superior not only in humor, but in general dialogue (again, so far). Shepard in particular seems bland in ME3.

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I haven't done the Citadel DLC besides the main mission, but I always felt ME3's lack of hubs made the world feel barren.

It's hard to want to save the universe when the universe seems to be comprised of one place and a ship.

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Yeah, the Normandy in particular feels super lively in ME3. You can find something new after pretty much every mission for the entire game.

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Also I kind of appreciate that ME3 has a sense of urgency about it considering the situation. You can really only relax on the Normandy (and during Citadel, but that's really more of a series victory lap even if it's technically set during the game). The lack of real dedicated hubs outside of the Citadel never bothered me that much.

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This Omega DLC is loooong. It's making me appreciate the traditional gameplay structure of Mass Effect, where individual missions are broken up with casual spells aboard the Normandy or Citadel. Omega, in contrast, just drags, and it probably doesn't help that you're dealing with Aria (whose boss bitch act gets tiresome) the whole time.

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Yeah, I didn't think Omega was that great, and I'm not a big Aria fan to begin with.

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I like Omega but I like Aria a lot and she's great in combat.

Also has best batarian Bray. Should've been a squadmate at the end of the DLC!

If the new game does actually come out I'm curious to see what they do with the batarians as their goverment getting outright obliterated and their society being completely shaken up is implied to be leading to a shift in their culture.

So what's considered better in ME2 Overload upgrade? They both seem great. My Miranda has it as AOE to begin with so I'm leaning towards the other branch (I'm a sentinel)

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IMO AoE is almost always better than damage.

Overload more than doubles its radius with the Area upgrade vs only an extra 40 points of damage with the Heavy upgrade.

However in ME2 it's not quite as important because tech bursts aren't a thing yet, so going Heavy isn't gonna ruin you or anything.

https://youtu.be/ZPbB4qfsA14

I did this and Garrus is now wrecking shit.

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TheRock1525 posted...

https://youtu.be/ZPbB4qfsA14

I did this and Garrus is now wrecking shit.

Yeah he's kinda nuts in ME3.

Zaeed, Thane, and Garrus can do something similar but not quite as OP in ME2 with the Incisor and their huge weapon damage buffs.

Now playing "how close can I get to the level cap before seeing Tali."

Currently at 51.

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I'm playing a full paragon FemShep, but I'll be damned if not revealing the Shroud sabotage and going full renegade until the very end (i.e. not using the renegade interrupt) isn't tense and awesome as fuck.

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TheRock1525 posted...

https://youtu.be/ZPbB4qfsA14

I did this and Garrus is now wrecking shit.

I fucking love this video and will use this in my insanity run if nothing else

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Lmao

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During the Maw Hammer run I just watched him mow down Brutes like it was going out of style.

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I forgot how good the Virmire battle music is

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This hijacker trophy is about to drive me batty. I must have done it back in 2012 but I can't remember how. I'm rocking a sniper (on a freakin Vanguard) specifically to make this trophy easier to get. I'm purposely killing my squadmates so they don't damage the Atlas's armor... nothing. Maybe a sniper rifle is a bad idea?

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We may have already discussed this, but the way ME3 pushes uncompromising support of C-Sec as the "Paragon" choice looks pretty bad a decade later lol

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I mean, Mass Effect deals a lot with C-Sec's corruption over the course of the series, too, so I don't think it's a one-sided slant overall.

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Leonhart4 posted...

I mean, Mass Effect deals a lot with C-Sec's corruption over the course of the series, too, so I don't think it's a one-sided slant overall.

Bailey even admits corruption in Thane's loyalty mission.

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Whew, my wife finished Mass Effect 1.

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Congrats, Mrs. L4!

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cool, now she can charge shit

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I asked her to rank the characters (as per B8 tradition) and this is what she came up with:

Shepard > Wrex > Anderson > Garrus > Kaidan > Liara > Tali > Joker > Ashley > Udina

I think Ashley is the only squadmate she outright didn't like (so you can guess who she sacrificed on Virmire). She just didn't think Liara or Tali had enough screentime to warrant a higher ranking. She romanced Kaidan because she found the idea of an alien romance a little too weird but maybe she'll change her mind in 2 or 3.

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I applaud her for ranking Anderson high. He's pretty slept on as a character.

Also, I always, and I mean ALWAYS

[Miss on purpose]

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I think Anderson punching out Udina sealed the deal there

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