Tale

Just beat the game. The ending was better than expected. In that it was pretty and the music were terrific. The events and choice were precisely as dumb as expected. There seems to be three groups of complaints about this ending.

A lot of people just consider it cheap emotional manipulation. They tried writing Shepard as traumatized this time around. Seeing the death of the kid and the nightmares represents that. I can kinda see why they did it. It makes Shepard more of a character, when he hasn't really developed at all throughout the games. But I'm firmly in the opposition camp.

Same. I knew they'd have to honor it, but feared they may try to 'forget' it. So I contacted them yesterday and got a guy who seemed troubled by english. I figured I'd wait until the ninth and here they are.

IGN is making a strange mistake if they're listing all of that as DLC. They're the same ones saying there's 16 endings.

You can get the item before you get the quest. If you do, then you get the quest that way and it tells you that you need to find someone who can use it.

Allers doesn't seem to have anywhere near the content of a squad mate. She's so completely detached from content it seems she was only tossed together in the last minute. I've seen soda pop promos with more content. She'll make a general comment towards her little bot after every mission and a short dialogue at the act resolutions, but that's all she seems to get. I'm doubtful that there's a romance there at all. I really like him. He's a regular in my squad.

Shoot a guardian through the slot in his shield.

I have an armor piercing mod on Javik's particle beam rifle. It makes me feel sorry for those Guardians. Their shields don't even seem to matter.

Probably better to blow them up. I've never managed to get a mech other than the Grisshom one that's handed to you. You practically need sniper rifles or cover piercing ammo.

No. MP does affect SP. But you're supposed to be able to get the best ending without MP. Which is at 4000 EMS and a condition.

Really am loving it. I stand by my previous assessment of combat. Still too easy with the enemies lacking protections. But it's still fun. Love the new weapons and how they have such variety, love the weapon mods, love the weight system. I carry around a sticky grenade launching pistol. My squadmate has a cover piercing sniper rifle. My other squadmate has a rifle that uses ME1's overheat system and ramps up damage the longer it's fired. Am intimidated by the number of weapons I can find and then upgrade.

They have female primary and secondary characteristics. They describe themselves as monogender, which means one gender. They identify as female, use female titles (matriarch), and pronouns. That they assign genes differently is academic. And for all we know, they had male Asari once, but it got bred out due to being unnecessary. That would certainly explain some things.

It's never stated that Asari can be male or female. They're always female.

Wasn't the ME2 tie-in iOs game crap?

I'm pretty sure it does matter to the developers. That's probably why the romances are so prominent. Because it's where they get consistent constructive feedback. Bioware is clearly trying to adjust to fans when it can see issues that aren't hidden by belligerence. Weapon modification in ME3, the larger weapon list and progression, backing off daddy issue missions.

Nepenthe had it right. The SNR with Bioware games is pretty ridiculous. DA2 had problems. So how does the internet react? Does it say what those problems are? No, it makes fat jokes about developers. The human race will be destroyed by GIFT.

In my free time I like to hunt down the X-Men.

I found out the hard way that there's way too many cutscenes you can't skip. Replaying a section for any reason? Using that restart mission button? Uh-oh, you'll find yourself seeing the ending cutscene from the last mission with no way to make it go faster. I'm not sure how I feel about the gameplay. It's faster, it's more hectic, it still feels easier. Biotic detonations seem easier and with a larger boom. All I need is Liara to drop a Singularity, then I'll use warp and it's like a bomb went off. Or I can warp, wait a second, throw, and same effect. The loss of protections on hardcore make this really noticeable. It's just singularity/warp all day every day. With an occasional overload. Enjoying it despite those minor issues.

Bioware has restricted it to registered owners on release going back a long way. I seem to recall Neverwinter Nights. Even KOTOR on the 360. And that was just a UPC that everyone shared.

Aside from Jade Empire, which I have recently gained a newfound respect for, I've never thought a Bioware plot to be stellar. But the dialogue, presentation, and characters are usually pretty fun. I can think the ending is absolute crap. I can hate the transparently forced attempts at provoking emotion with the kid. But I get a bit of chill at Garrus in the trailer saying "go out there and give them hell. You were born to do this." Yeah, it's cliche, but the delivery is perfect, the music is an excellent choice, and I've become attached to that chitin covered monstrosity.

The close the door segments. Now I remember those. It was pretty sparingly used.

There might have been infinite waves on those Geth flying things in that area on Tali's recruitment.

Okay. There's no part of ME2 that did that, however. I think there was one planet scan mission with 188 droids. That you could end early by getting to the shuttle.

For ME2, it has fun characters and gameplay. Grunt, Mordin, Garrus, Legion will be fondly remembered by many. And regardless of if you think the gameplay is whack-a-mole, it's still fun for whack-a-mole. If you like TPS games, at least. ME1, I'm the last person to answer what was good about it.

I didn't like the first. The second is one of my top games of the past few years. The only negative I've heard about the third is the ending being terrible. It's still one of the better franchises of this generation.