Nepenthe

Personally I was entirely satisfied with that aspect of the game, but then again, I come from a morally less-repressed society.

Is this attitude a prerequisite for becoming a member of the moderation team, or is it a part of Integration?

I find the problem with the ending to be less the fact that it was last seen in DXHR, but the fact that it SUCKED there, as well. And they were better endings. I think the 200 point thing is actually the whole Salarian navy. Their advanced espionage capabilities are of very limited use towards the reapers. IIRC I got a separate STG unit, as well. + they used to eat flies...

Or the train stops at different stations on the same track, depending on the ticket you've bought. But yes, it does run off a bridge at the end, no disagreement there.

I daresay that first instance is a perfect example of C&NC - choice and non-consequence. No matter what you do, an equivalent replacement gets drafted in so the plot direction can proceed with zero effective alteration. A number of other spoilers I've read seem to indicate this is pretty much the most common way of dealing with the living/dead status of all the NPCs in the previous games - though that Wrex one seems a little bit better than the norm. (I've gone into don't-care-about-spoilers mode now and just reading freely since I've decided to just wait it out a while) The personnel changes also result in different outcomes, but, yes, I don't think there is radical branching at any point, and the ending zeroes any choices you've made, in any case. Talking with people will bring out a ton of minor differences though (like which doctor you recruit onto your ship, who lives and who dies of your former companions, occasional cases of a third door being present when all the right people are in the right place etc.)

Good point, I keep assuming it's just the Line that causes confusion, but there are indeed multiple other options (like the tech specialist being killed for a number of reasons not related to using the right tech specialist) that might not be obvious. Casey seems to channel the X-Files' Chris Carter in a lot of interviews. Should've been prophetic, I guess.

No wonder you guys've been bitching about the lack of CC in the games, you've missed all of it. There's nothing random in the suicide mission deaths. The most one often assumed to be "random" are the "hold the line" deaths, which are actually based on a fairly simple mathematic formula, where some crew members are better at holding a fortified positions (Archangel, Grunt, Zaeed), some are bad at it (at least tali, mordin and kasumi). You just have to make sure that the big guns are at the line and preferably send one of the weakest ones to accompany the crew back to the Normandy. Of course, it's possible you ran into some kind of bug I've never heard of, but by design, there are no random elements in the suicide mission deaths.

You're both right, of course, I just found it interesting I was seeing similar phases from the devs, in addition to, if not instead of.

I was the lift grenade complainer. I think we've already established that I'm nuts, so this is nothing new. I found that liara and singularity did the same thing without a limited number of charges and better targeting.

It's funny, it's like instead of fans as usual, this time it's Bioware staff that are going through the K

Someone on BSN summed it up quite well. It's like taking a journey then falling face first into dog feces. No matter how good the journey your enduring memory is the taste of feces. Very much this.

I wouldn't day1 it for the xbox, as Tigs points out above it takes pretty heavy advantage of newest PC tech and the studio has 0 console releases to their name. Sounds like a recipe for massive performance issues, if I ever heard one.

I found grenade drops to be quite plentiful in the missions, so that wasn't really a problem for me. Of course, Shepard only had the miserable lift grenades (aren't I happy they took out Amplification and replaced it with those at the last minute), so the problem only came up with Ashley's Inferno Grenades, anyway.

Almost couldn't get out of the bed this morning, and it's been a terribly inefficient day ever since. Also half asleep again. Also forgot to hit "post", wrote this hours ago.

DA2 did the same, there were a lot of "neat little touches" but if you can't get the basics right it makes no difference. I think this is kind of the opposite of DA2, the fundamentals are sound but there is a single massive ****-up in the end. While DA2 has so many small(ish) things that they become a torrent of fail to some people. No piracy reference intended.

On that account you are right, but I'm sure that SOMEBODY could've put at least one redeeming quality into the game. As it is, there are none.

Had Liara and Garrus for most of the game, first ME game where I was happy I had somebody with crowd control on the team and their abilities stack well with my sentinel. Occasionally grabbed Ashley along with Garrus for dual Revenant lulz. This was before I realised that EDI is essentially Miranda this time around (incinerate and overload, since overload now affects barriers, too). Might try Javik and EDI, if I ever recover enough to play this game for a second time. The amount of banter on the Normandy really is staggering. Just another aspect that makes their last-minute faceplant even more bittersweet (and not in the way they intended). Edit: oh yeah, Bob brought up a good point, found myself using Cryo quite a bit on my sentinel this time around.

Yes, it's unfathomable Harvey Smith could deliver a melon. *cough* deus ex: invisible war *cough* Lead Designer != Project Director, silly. Yes, means you can't let him work unsupervised.

Yes, it's unfathomable Harvey Smith could deliver a melon. *cough* deus ex: invisible war *cough*

I think that's the first time I've heard Dark Corners of the Earth and executed to perfection in the same sentence.

Pretty close. Of course, Matrix Revolutions sucked all the way through, this only comes apart on the edge of a crater. I should probably have elaborated a bit more, but I thought about WTF endings petering out a bit into technomysticism and weird stuff. Heck, Battlestar Galactica did it too Not really, I saw what you were going for. I just find it even more annoying in the ME3 case, as it was perfectly fine until the last hurdle. And then it crashed and burned. I found BSG delivered enough closure, though I understand a lot of people were upset with the ending there, as well.

Pretty close. Of course, Matrix Revolutions sucked all the way through, this only comes apart on the edge of a crater.

Would you guys do all of us a favor and stop pretending logic has a big part in the 80s scifi homage that is Mass Effect?

Took me this long to have the time to watch it, but it's right on the money.