Nepenthe

I dunno, the extra banter IMO more than made up for fewer actual conversations for all other party members than Ashley. I have a save with Kaiden I'll do at some point, if they do something about the ending so that it no longer makes me suicidal (over the amount of times I played ME2 to get different kinds of imports). Ash's near-death did absolutely nothing to me, but Mordin's and Legion's sacrifices as well as the quantum farewells at the end do result in a slight lump in my throat.

Ashley is a lot worse than the others in that regard, though. Shorter lines and fewer of them. Too bad, since she was one of the better set up characters in ME1, with dialogues regarding her beliefs and views of other species (and changes in them brought about by, say, Shepard's death) apparently being cut at a very late stage.

See I didn't get that at all from any of the endings. The series makes a point to tell you that galactic civilization is only possible because of the relays. This is actually wrong, the point is that the relays shape galactic civilization to be a certain way, not that it wouldn't be possible without them. The relays just mean that nobody else than reapers ever has had to develop longer-distance FTL.

That's the first real thing that's gonna be an actual improvement. Although I really liked the old compressed voices in obviously low quality with gurgle noise. There was something about it. Yep, though I asked about it earlier and he said (then) that they didn't have original audio assets for _everything_. So we might get occasional cases of terribad compression. Again.

Yeah I know. Different people have different preferences regarding who they take on ground missions (I'm pretty sure Bioware has the numbers somewhere). The main point was that it felt like their attention to NPC's had been stretched a bit thin. I even forgot Tali because she shows up relatively late in the game. Personally, I wouldn't have minded somebody like Jack and Wrex/Grunt in the party instead of some of the others. In a full scale war on the front lines, you need "bad ass" characters, not prom dates. I once said that I would forgive any sins this game has, if I could have even one mission with Wrex, Miranda and the Revenant LMG. I only got the final one of the three, and this game has plenty of sins that could use forgiving. S'yeah, write me down as another wrex-wanter.

Meh, game descends into abject absurdity from the moment you hear the citadel has been kidnapped. Been thinking a bit about some improvements (with the benefit of hindsight)... Drop all the pointless Fed-Ex quests. All of them. They add nothing to the game and adds to the sense of bad pacing. No trace of those quests would add more to the game than it lose. Drop Vega, Ashley, Liara and EDI as party members (Kaidan was actually surprisingly tolerable when you play a male Shepard and can ignore romatic pursuits). Reallocate those resources spent to one or two interesting party members. Drop Kai Leng. Adds nothing to the game. Put a stop sign at the outskirts of London and tell people 'To be continued' and then find a decent way to wrap up the game. Meh, disagree re: Liara, think that Ashley could be a lot better if she didn't have Zaeed's ME2 line budget. Tali could've got the chop without me noticing, but she has essentially an extended cameo so it doesn't trouble me. Apart from that, mostly agree with you. SubZero and Miranda could've been good with little effort (that part I don't expect you to agree with)

You shouldn't try to be funny, it doesn't come out right.

Actually, never mind. (edit)

I'd definitely chip in for that, as well.

"Personal" has nothing to do with railroading or lack of it, though.

For the record, the different type of story was probably THE principal reason why I liked the game and felt it fit the setting very well. Now we're going to be seeing Blight-type scenarios in the world from now on due to that bs - hell, the even the canceled DA2 expansion was called "exalted march"...

Dunno, a while back my answers would've been Baldur's Gate and Deus Ex, but both of those are getting some attention already. I'd cough up for any Infinity Engine game made by the right people (Obsid, ex-Bioware) and probably also for a Warlords game. The first one was always my favourite strategy game.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the third-most common complaint on DA2. "It wasn't epic enough."

This grates particularly on me as well, but I can't separate by Yvonne Strahovski fanboyness and my distaste for "talimancers" from my opinion, so... We got Jimmy Vega instead of her.

And it's not like he's known for creating a multitude of interesting characters. He's milked the same ~6 for, what, two decades now? Meanwhile, I'm doing my second playthrough of ME3 (currently at Rannoch) and slipping in a multiplayer match at the beginning and end of every gaming session. Leveling up my Krogan and Turian Sentinels for possibly trying higher difficulties later and infiltrators to get another promotion to GaW.

Bah, you're still controlling the story (well, as much as they give you the option to) if you do combat on easy, so the differences between gaming and movies are important. For example, I've beat the first two Mass Effects on Insanity, but didn't particularly consider it to be an enjoyable experience. Generally play them on normal/the one right above it, where I generally waltz through the game without dying as long as I follow some basic tactics. Never have found uber-challenging combat where I have to micro incessantly enjoyable at all.

While I agree with you in principle, I literally laughed out loud at the irony of you of all people saying it.

Yet, it was the thing that was most complained about right after the recycled areas. (Ok, maybe not right after, there might have been a pretty large gap there, but it was still definitely the second most-whined-about thing) Still doesn't change the fact of it's irrelevance to me. Another case of the bio boards focusing on the little things. Wasn't (just) the bio boards. In fact, along with the complaints directed at ME2's experience model it was one of those things that showed me that most "crpg fans" don't know **** about RPGs in general and believe that any departure from a list of tired clich

Yet, it was the thing that was most complained about right after the recycled areas. (Ok, maybe not right after, there might have been a pretty large gap there, but it was still definitely the second most-whined-about thing)

You're suggesting that the people who designed P&P D&D had seen a Durex pack? HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAH

The score is the best thing about this game, and certainly one of the major "fixes" from ME2 after that bland orchestral "phoned it in" effort. Now it's a ME score again. Also, while I agree that the near-total sidetracking of the ME2 crew in this game was the other colossal mistake made in the development of this game (in addition to the ending), there are two sequences in this game that are completely unparalleled in the franchise (or any Bio game, really) so far, Tuchanka and Rannoch.

I wish you'd told me this a couple of years ago, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Also, my best wishes on all future endeavours.

... but it would still be illogical, no amount of "fitting" would allow for the changes you described.

The zoom should, of course, allow you to view it at original scale as well.