Enoch

Well, the other issue is that Spectre status would logically take one out of Alliance chain-of-command entirely. This was played out a little bit in ME1, when some Alliance admiral wanted to conduct an inspection of the Normandy. The renegade response of "you have no authority over me-- I answer to the Council, not the Alliance" is effective in stopping him.

Isn't having more companions actually a detriment in that game? IIRC, companions' leveling up is indexed to protagonist XP, but combat damage and kills by companions produces a small fraction of the "full" XP that the protagonist would get if he/she had killed/injured directly. That particularly idiotic design decision made Charisma-heavy builds decidedly sub-optimal. (My first Arcanum character was a half-elven Debutante who gathered a crowd of Ogres to do her dirty work for her. It was a doomed character concept until I gave in and put a point in the win-buttony "Harm" spell.)

To continue my "arbitrary military rank ranting," I just noticed something-- my character sheet demotes me. Using the only non-ridiculous-looking casual outfit (i.e., the actual uniform), Shep has the correct rank insignia for an O5-- 3 full stripes. But when I look at the "Squad" screen while wearing this outfit, she's been busted down to Lieutenant, as she's only got 2 stripes. (My old-fashioned "Printscreen" method of taking screenshots isn't working, or I'd provide visual aids here.) I've gotten through Thessia. As I'm sure has been said many times already, the Leng encounter exhibited pretty much everything that is wrong with forced-failure boss fights. (Also, the actual fight part was stupid. He does somersaults in the open for no apparent reason, I overload his shields twice, and he runs back to "recharge" while his gunship shoots at me. Repeat 3 times, then he wins by artillery/cutscene, without having made anything resembling an attack.) On the other hand, I do like how this setback has unlocked "cranky bitch Shepard" as a conversation option. Telling Joker and EDI to shut the hell up and do their job was priceless.

It's a CIA plot. No, really.

I guess that's possible, but only if they switched up all the naming conventions. Shep is a Commander, which is a grade-5 officer ("O5") in a naval service (Navy, Coast Guard). The weird part is that Alenko is a Major, which is an O4 in a land-based service. I suspect that they just picked the titles that sounded coolest. Also, naval O4 is "Lieutenant Commander," so Bio probably thought it'd be confusing to have 2 folks called "Commander" around the ship.

OK, I've hit the point where all the various would-be paramours are asking me to meet up privately. Should I be ME1-level paranoid here and avoid them, or have they built in enough "Dammit, stop hitting on me; I'm your boss, ferchrissake!" options? And, yeah, the whole "Cerberus and their Space Ninja take over the Citadel" thing was really quite silly. I get that they're the only (para)military force out there that isn't engaged with the Reapers on some level, so they can function as an effective galactive fifth column. And wouldn't have even been all that hard for Bio to write their way into supporting the episode they wanted (e.g., if they just took the Presidium, through a combination of AI-driven hacking, insider sabotage, and maybe another Normandy-type stealth ship), but, as it is, it completely fails on any number of verisimilitude levels. Enemy variety is rather lacking thus far in the game. I'm getting pretty tired of seeing the same 4 types of Reaper and the same 4 types of Cerberus footsoldiers. I've been running almost exclusively with Javik and Garrus as my squadmates (occasionally Liara in place of Javik). As a roleplaying matter, I decided long ago that Shepard quietly despises Joker. (Which totally makes sense-- how many hardass marines* do you know who get along with pilots who wear the uniform despite clear physical unfitness for duty and who insist on being called by ridiculous nicknames? Not to mention that his insubordination is mostly to blame for Shep dying once already). This has contributed (in my mind) to a fundamental mistrust of EDI, so I've decided to leave her in the ship on a permanent basis. The slab of beef in the cargo hold is alright, I guess, but I don't have much use for people who I can't use to make power-combo explosions. * (I use "marines" based on Shep's role and background, and in spite of the fact that she clearly has a naval rank. I view the rank thing as a contrivance to allow her to command the ship, as well as because "Commander" sounds much cooler than "Lieutenant Colonel.")

While it sucks for THQ's employees and the customers who enjoyed their products, this is plain evidence that the company's creditors were correct-- they could raise more money by selling off properies piecemeal than they could by selling the intact company to Clearlake.

Another thing: Carth makes a big deal of how "we went through Ash's death together." While I'm sure that sucked and all, I can't help but feel bad for ol' Corporal Jenkins. Ash wasn't the only Marine NCO that the Normandy lost in the whole Saren thing!

I'm bored, so ya'll are getting more stream-of-consciousness ME3 early impressions. I've finished two more missions-- the ones with Javik and Jack-- and have stopped in to mess around on the Citadel a bit (i.e., visit Kaiden "Suddenly Beefcake" Alenko). Annoyed that the game automatically gave the booze I bought to Mr. Giantpecs. I wanted to get wasted with Chakwas again, dammit! Javik seems like he's the kind of character who is interesting for what he is, rather than for any actual character traits. Reminds me of ME1, when all the alien crewmembers were basically info-kiosks about their species. I mean, I get that this is a game primarily about sci-fi commando combat, so it makes sense that the Prothean I find is the Rambo of the Prothean Empire. And his condescention to modern species is somewhat entertaining. But Liara's reactions to him are far more interesting than anything he actually says. I do like the way they've completed Jack's character arc from ME2. Maybe this is because I never saw her romantic subplot, but her ME2 development from "unapologetic unstable bitch" to "unapologetic unstable bitch because she had an incredibly traumatic childhood" never reached anything resembling a satisfying conclusion. It was nice to see some evidence of actual character growth. The map-based minigame is alright, I guess. Although I'm not sure why they even left the planet-scanning step in there, when each planet only has one hotspot, and Reapers-in-pursuit can apparently never catch you while in orbit of a planet. Why can't I just click on a planet and pick up whatever my radar-ping detected? As a caster-Sentinel, the combat on Hardcore has been easier than I had expected so far. (And I haven't even spent any money on equipment upgrades yet.) I'm normally not one who cares much for playing games at masochistic difficulty levels (apart from Civ), so I'll probably keep it where it is. I suspect that things will get more hairy as I get further down the main plot. (OTOH, those smoke grenades that the Cerberus folks use are really annoying.) Is it just me, or does Garrus' landmine skill never seem to work? I can set the mines, but dudes seem to run right over them and they don't go off. Best of luck with the family stuff, Alan.

Ah, that makes sense, I guess. So the screen displays your overall "reputation" in white, and the higher of your two alignment scores in the appropriate color. Yeah, reputation is basically the sum of your renegade and paragon if I understand it correctly. Part of the reason for doing so, I believe, was to prevent situations where, because you didn't forcibly choose renegade ALL the time, you weren't restricted from renegade options towards the end of the game (which had higher requirements). So, the major unlockable options probably depend more on overall Reputation, I guess. And I think there are instances when I just get "Reputation" points, instead of Paragon/Renegade points-- e.g., achieving major plot points that don't involve Big Moral Decisions, like when I talked to the new Turian Primarch. But I assume that there are still some situations where your Jerk/Sap points matter, no? (Otherwise, why bother tracking them at all!) I haven't actually noticed any greyed-out or red/blue dialogue options yet, but I could have missed something. (I only just finished that bit on the Turian moon.) If I am correct that there are Reputation points separate from P/R points, it is a little odd that they're tracking both alignment totals, but only giving the player feedback on the one that is higher. By the way, I do agree in spirit with Nep, in that I'm trying not worry too much about min-maxing this kind of thing. This is more game-mechanics curiousity than it is seeking advice on gameplay. I have some compulsive tendencies in my gaming (it does haunt me that I may have missed a weapon mod or two lying on the ground when I hit the trigger point for the last dialogue on that moon), but it's not that bad yet.

Ah, that makes sense, I guess. So the screen displays your overall "reputation" in white, and the higher of your two alignment scores in the appropriate color.

Actually, another question: How am I supposed to be reading the influence bar on my character sheet? I imported a character who did ME1 rather Paragon, but did ME2 about 70% Renegade (only major Paragon decision was the last one). I see a red bar, with a slightly smaller white bar either above or behind it. Is the scale additive (which would mean I have more Renegade than Paragon), or is in an overlay, with the Renegade bar obscuring part of the larger Paragon bar behind it?

Yeah, I haven't quite figured out how much I should be worrying about the EMS points. I assume that I have a headstart by playing a ME1-ME2 import, and that the game is structured such that I'll be OK if I try to do most of the side missions and avoid screwing up any of the main missions too badly. I'm not intending to do the multiplayer, but I recall from the pre-release hype that the multiplayer missions were helpful, but not necessary to unlock all the endgame options (such as they are ). I guess I'm leaning towards taking her. It may be a miniscule amount of content, and I may find the character annoying, but when a game presents me with a choice between "presence of content" versus "absence of content," it makes it tough to choose the latter. (Unless the content in question is something that I am already certain will be quite unpleasant, like Witcher2 QTEs, or a Bioware sex scene.) It goes against my instincts as a roleplayer, but I can always just pretend that Hackett asked me to accomodate the press.

So, I posted my initial impressions in the "What are you playing" thread, but this seems like a more appropraite spot for a question. I'm still quite early in the game, but I'm wondering about one of my decisions-- what do I miss by turning down the reporter who wanted to come on-board? It seemed like an incredibly bad idea, from a roleplaying perspective, so I told her no. But if that locks me out of any interesting subsequent character interaction, it might be worth a reload. (I still might start all over from the beginning, anyway, just to raise the difficulty a peg.)

Mass Effect 3. Bought the fancier edition (w/ launch DLC) for $20 a week or two ago, and started it up last night. Only got to the point where I Rode a Tram on Mars before bedtime. So far, it's as-expected. My ME2 character import doesn't look quite right, but that might just be because I got used to her Terminator eyes. I guess my defense counsel thought that it would be a good idea to spend the Iridium to pretty Shep up in case the whole Arrival thing went to a Court Martial. Speaking of which, I'm surprised at the extent to which the game hasn't provided any exposition at all regarding the stuff in the Arrival DLC (also, to a lesser extent, the Liara stuff). If I didn't have internet meta-knowledge, I'd be totally clueless as to why Shepard is starting this game in Alliance Jail. Anyhow, the gameplay so far is familiar and enjoyable. And the additional RPG elements in ability development and equipment loadout are welcome. I did have to run to the internet to figure out what the heck it meant when one of the abilities I could select increased my weight capacity, but the answer I found pleased me-- hopefully they've found a happy medium between ME1's messy and micromanagy inventory system and ME2's "you get what we give you" approach. As for the writing, the game's early attempts at pathos are comically heavy-handed, but that's well in keeping with the series thus far. Some of the ME2 subplots did exceed this expectation-- particulary Mordin's and Samara's loyalty missions-- but those are exceptions to the rule of ham-handed "you should be sad now" moments, like the one in the prologue with the kid. It's disappointing, but it's a familiar disappointment that I've felt ever since that first chat with the Citadel Council in ME1. I didn't expect that the series would change its stripes this late in the offing, but I do hope that I can find some similar highpoints in subplots later on.

To clarify the above (as the edit deadline has passed), the "not in an especially clear or cogent" bit refers to the previous language written by congressional staff, not to my incredibly incisive re-writing. Also, bourbon is good.

Eric Dolphy was the man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-n6KzsFwx8

Today, I AM THE LAW. Roughly 18 months ago, I was part of a meeting discussing some draft legislation with a staffer for a particular congressional subcommittee Chair. I wrote up the collection of comments that I and my co-workers had on the draft bill, which included re-wording some things that the staffer was obviously trying to accomplish, but not in an especially clear or cogent fashion. As of today, a different version of that bill-- but with the legislative language that I re-wrote intact-- became a Public Law of the United States. I AM THE LAW!!

If you've waited this long, why not wait until the "ultimate" edition or whatever it's called is released, which will likely include all the DLC? That's what I usually do if I end up not buying the game within the first couple of months of its release. I don't think there's one for ME2, yet. Best reason not to wait (there probably won't be one). Not sure what the trilogy version had on PC, though. Yeah, Bio/EA doesn't appear to do the "OMFG Edition with the Game and all the DLC" thing. And, even if they did, most of the DLC I'm aware of has been multiplayer maps, which I couldn't care less about. (The tactical pause is crucial to my enjoyment of the combat, so multiplayer is probably a no-go.) I made the buy. I may not play it for a week or three, but this way I lock in the $20 price point for when I do.

So, I'm contemplating actually buying ME3 while it's still on sale on amazon. ($20 for the version with "from ashes") Talk me out of it? I've been generally spoiled about how they've ****ed up the overarching plotline, but I enjoyed ME2's gameplay and character interaction enough to be interested in seeing some more of it.

Cant has always been a somewhat sporadic guest around here, ever since the "Eldar" days. He popped up for the first time in quite a while when P:E was announced, and posted regularly for a bit, but it seems like he's drifted away again. While he's gone, we just console ourselves with the fact that all the other posters here are his alt accounts.

So it appears to be the "encore" day of the sale. I've had my eye on XCOM and Dishonored, and each is around $30. But I probably wouldn't be playing either for a little while yet, so I think I'm going to pass for now and see how far the prices drop in the next six months.

The Continental Op disagrees. (It isn't covered by the wiki entry, but he was consistently described as a short-ish guy with a little extra weight on him. And he's pretty much where the whole "hard-boiled detective" thing started.)

Ha! My best-of-2012 list is twice as long as yours: Crusader Kings 2 Legend of Grimrock (I also played Torchlight 2 and had some fun, but absent co-op partners whose company I enjoy, it doesn't really hold my interest for more than a couple hours. Pure ARPGs have never really been my thing.) I am not nearly a dedicated or genre-omnivorous enough gamer to do this kind of thing. Also, I built a new PC in late 2011 and bought a load of games in 2011 holiday sales (Skyrim, DE:HR, Witcher 2, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Shogun2, among others). So I spent much of my 2012 gaming time playing 2011 games, which means that I haven't been in any particular rush to pick up 2012 new releases. (For example, I'm interested in XCOM, Dishonored, Stacking, and Mass Effect 3, but I haven't bought them yet.)

As I understand it, Tigs hasn't been doing a pure "no-reload" run. He reloaded in event of Bhaalspawn death in BG1. And he's trying to be entertaining more than he's trying to prove was a l33t g4m1ng b@d$$ he is.