Mass Effect Trilogy

[Rosbjerg]

Old thread here.

 

 

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.")

Cerberus
and their "manpower" actually get a fairly cool explanation down the
road. It's just a pity that it doesn't get teased at all, in fact the
opposite: everybody seems to think that Cerberus having that type of
ability is perfectly normal.

 

US military is actually
fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the
navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

 

 

[greylord]

Old thread here.

 

 

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.")

Cerberus

and their "manpower" actually get a fairly cool explanation down the

road. It's just a pity that it doesn't get teased at all, in fact the

opposite: everybody seems to think that Cerberus having that type of

ability is perfectly normal.

 

US military is actually

fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the

navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

 

 

 

 

I think I missed It where they state how Cerberus get's so many men.  If needed spoilers...how did they get what appears to be basically one of the most massive armies in the galaxy?

[HoonDing]

I already forgot the entire plot. Was there even one?

[Zoraptor]

I think I missed It where they state how Cerberus get's so many men.  If needed spoilers...how did they get what appears to be basically one of the most massive armies in the galaxy?

 

Big refugee camp, Cerberus using modified indoctrination on the refugees to turn them into soldiers, fairly large mission set with Miranda vs her dad/ Jim Robinson/ a NZAus actor who seems to have been a bad guy on every US TV program in existence over the past five years.

 

[Serrano]

What he said.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Serrano

[Enoch]

 

US military is actually fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

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. 

[Orogun01]

 

US military is actually fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

 

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. 

You do realize that you are trying to attribute sense where there is none to have.

[Serrano]

I think it's more of a pop culture thing and where they wanted to go with the character. After all those years of watching MASH a Lieutenant Commander is going to be perceived as lovably incompetent whereas a Major is going to come across as either whiney or a potential love interest. The real question is how humanity ever got anything done without a Captain or a Corporal as part of the main cast and perhaps explains why the alliance and council races do very little throughout the series.

 

And before anyone says it, yes I know the flaw in my argument I'm just hoping that nobody will point it out.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Serrano

[Zoraptor]

Henry Blake (God Rest His Soul) was a Lieutenant Colonel, not a Lt. Commander?

 

Coming from a generally brit background it's always a bit weird seeing 'army' ranks used on board ships, was for BSG as well.

[Malcador]

I guess they decided to mash up Air Force and Navy ranks, like Wing Commander with Captains commanding Colonels, Majors, etc.   Should have done it like SAAB, I think that ship was USMC throughout.

[greylord]

 

I think I missed It where they state how Cerberus get's so many men.  If needed spoilers...how did they get what appears to be basically one of the most massive armies in the galaxy?

 

Big refugee camp, Cerberus using modified indoctrination on the refugees to turn them into soldiers, fairly large mission set with Miranda vs her dad/ Jim Robinson/ a NZAus actor who seems to have been a bad guy on every US TV program in existence over the past five years.

 

 

 

 

 I remember that mission, but didn't seem to be able toget the numbers from that liite settlement.  I killed everything there anyways and they still had more!!!!

 

[Zoraptor]

I'm fairly sure that they were talking about it as being the largest refugee processing centre in some of the incidentals leading up to the mission, so it was probably tens of thousands potential, minimum. That wasn't really shown in the mission itself, but scale is a difficult thing to communicate effectively- in a similar vein the Krogan cloning from way back in ME1 didn't seem to be on that large a scale either.

[Enoch]

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. 

[NOK222]

 

US military is actually fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

 

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. 

I made a huge thread about this on BSN last year, it didn't go well. For one thing, there was one guy that kept arguing that it was totally possible that in the future left handed salutes are totally appropriate despite the fact that it was just one guy that did it on board the Normandy in ME2 at an inappropriate moment. He couldn't get it through his head that right handed salutes are so ingrained in military culture in every single military in the world (even the N. Koreans) that it would never change. But nop, I was a silly fascist. 

 

I never wanted to punch someone in the **** so hard.  

[Nepenthe]

 

US military is actually fairly unique in the sense that "marines" aren't simply a part of the navy. Shep is definitely a marine, just in a a military of that type.

 

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. 

I was under the impression that at least for me1-me2 shep was an lt. commander and just addressed as "commander" as some militaries do for lt.coms. and lt. colonels.

 

What I said above is as far as my caring went, so I bow down to your superior thought given to the matter for the rest.

[NOK222]

 

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. 

Probably, technically the wiki says Shepard herself is a LT. Cmdr. IDK no one can get their ranks right these days. 

[Malcador]

Huh, so Williams has the same rank as Shepard after her meteoric rise

[Nepenthe]

Huh, so Williams has the same rank as Shepard after her meteoric rise

Not really, as shep seems to have become a full commander off-screen.

[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. 

[TSBasilisk]

I think technically Shepard would be considered on detached duty while carrying out Spectre duties; while still active in the Alliance military, he's been reassigned to serve under the Council. The same likely holds true for any Alliance military serving with him, and also extends to his ship. Despite this, he still retains his rank and some obligation to the Alliance, which with his new status is met by carrying out special ops.

 

When Shepard was declared KIA at the start of 2, he was effectively removed from the Alliance roster and thus their chain of command; as such he couldn't be charged with dereliction of duty. He also doesn't have any authority other than what he can possibly get by being reinstated as a Spectre.

[AGX-17]

 

 

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. 

Probably, technically the wiki says Shepard herself is a LT. Cmdr. IDK no one can get their ranks right these days. 

 

Bioware and its fans can't, anyway. (Insert jab at Canada's military prowess here.)

[Humanoid]

I never even knew "commander" was being used as a formal rank - always just assumed, at the very least in terms of ME, that it was used more in a literal sense, like calling your office manager "boss". I was used to being called "commander" in Strike Commander, where the latter case held true - it was just a substitution for the player name, which isn't defined canonically by the game.

 

I also always salute left-handed - only as a casual conversational gesture obviously - probably purely because I'm a leftie.

 

 

But yeah, Wing Commander also mashes up ranks a bit, but in game context it's fairly logical in that navy ranks are used for capital ship commands, and air force ranks for fighter pilots. And it's relatively consistent as well in that Halcyon in WC1, Angel in WC2, and Blair in WC3/4 were all 'air' force colonels - vaguely recall Prophecy broke from this though - but I don't really recall much of Prophecy at all. Likewise in the parallel track you had admirals (Tolwyn), captains (Eisen) and commodores (Blair). (EDIT: ah, here)

Edited January 29, 2013 by Humanoid

[Raithe]

And now even more dlc is being teased out..

 

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/mass-effect-3-dlc-teased-6403021?tag=nl.e607

 

 

 BioWare producers Casey Hudson and Mike Gamble today tweeted two "teaser" images for unannounced content for the action role-playing game.

 

The first image (at right) depicts a colorful casino setting. Hudson teased, "Looks like a nice place for some R&R…" The second image (below) shows an armored Krogan creature wielding a heavy melee weapon. Gamble said of the image, "Does not like a guy you'd like to mess with…"

In December, BioWare teased the next single-player expansion for Mass Effect 3, saying it will be "all hands on deck for this one." Additionally, Mass Effect chief composer Sam Hulick has revealed he will contribute to the new content after no involvement with the game's Leviathan and Omega DLC.

Also set to make a return for the mystery content is film and voice actor Seth Green (Family Guy, Austin Powers). Green has performed the voice of Normandy pilot Joker since the series first took flight.

 

[Nepenthe]

"Well, it'll be an interesting change from the original and amended endings, which were more like ALL HANDS ON ****!"

 

 

 

*sigh*

[Raithe]

At some point I'll have to get around to picking up the Omega dlc to see what it's like....