Mass Effect 3

[Kageru]

That is one long thread... 221 pages.

I guess I should thank EA for making it easier for me to boycott them without having to do anything about it, since I only really buy games through steam.

[TripleDES]

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/8975536

So basically it seems that ME3 is going to require Origin exactly the same way Skyrim requires Steam.  A one time online activation, no install limiit and no need for an internet connection unless you're playing the multi-player part.

I don't see much to be indignant about here.

Because EA is the sort of entity I trust to keep their word or honesty.

[Kageru]

From reading some of that thread the main reasons, that have some basis in a reality I recognise, are:

1. The Origin client is willing to have a look around your system for information not directly relevant to its purpose. They've already been dinged for this in Germany and no one really trusts EA not to do it again or control their use of the information.

2. They're not a relatively neutral vendor in the way that steam is and a multitude of producer specific on-line shops fragments and weakens the PC platform.

3. They're exclusive in that they will not allow their product to be sold on steam as well as their own shop allowing purchasers to make their own decision. They could certainly come to an agreement with steam if they cared to.

None of this is illegal (where the first point is they will adhere to the letter of the law), EA is well within their rights to do it, but none of it works in the consumers favor. 2-3 applies to Blizzard's shop as well though. I would expect it to continue though, for these companies the cost of setting up a web-shop is almost certainly less than the lure of keeping every cent for themselves.

I was also wrong about the thread length. It got to 221 pages before they locked it and started another thread to continue the argument.

[Kitsune]

It only just occurred to me tonight in conversation about ME that most of the characters have fairly big daddy problems.  Miranda, Jacob, Jack, Tali, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, and Grunt all have fathers (or mother/fathers in Liara's case) who are estranged, insane, dickbags, dead, or all of the above.  Thane is a walking daddy issue for his idiot kid.  And Shepard is daddyless.

[Sjofn]

Hm, the spacer background Shepards may only talk to Mom, but I don't think it indicated either way about his/her dad being dead or whatever?

I'm not sure I'd say Jacob has daddy issues exactly. I mean yes, his mission revolved around his father but it mostly seemed to stress that even though his dad HAD issues, and indeed is a giant douchebag now, that Jacob isn't messed up by it. So I'm not sure it counts? Basically, Jacob is too boring to have daddy issues.

What daddy issues does Liara have?

[Reg]

Liara's dad isn't an off-worlder and that's considered weird and perverted, right?

[Rasix]

Liara's dad isn't an off-worlder and that's considered weird and perverted, right?

Liara has two mommies.

[Sjofn]

But that doesn't make it a specific daddy issues sort of thing. "Daddy issues" generally invokes the stupid "I have to be super perfect so my aloof father will love me and/or wish he loved me BEFORE" thing, not "any problem, ever, that vaguely might involve someone's father." Tali has daddy issues. Miranda has daddy issues. Thane caused daddy issues for his son. Liara has weird asari racism issues.

And Grunt doesn't have daddy issues. He could not possibly give less of a fuck about what his "father" would think about him.

[Kitsune]

Hm, the spacer background Shepards may only talk to Mom, but I don't think it indicated either way about his/her dad being dead or whatever?

I'm not sure I'd say Jacob has daddy issues exactly. I mean yes, his mission revolved around his father but it mostly seemed to stress that even though his dad HAD issues, and indeed is a giant douchebag now, that Jacob isn't messed up by it. So I'm not sure it counts? Basically, Jacob is too boring to have daddy issues.

What daddy issues does Liara have?

Liara's mommy/daddy tried to help genocide the galaxy?  I figured that would probably count.  And as long as I'm thinking about Asari mommy/daddies, Samara and her relationship with her kid is pretty twisted too.  For his part, most every bit of dialogue where Jacob is talking about his life involves bringing up his dad.  And Grunt's doing his utmost to live up to that whole 'ultimate Krogan' thing that the scientist was making him for, though whether he's doing so for motives other than the typical Krogan desire to be a badass is unclear.

[Sjofn]

Yes, Liara's mom (the bartender was the 'father'  ) was a bad guy in ME1, but Liara doesn't have issues from it. She isn't driven to be perfectly perfect so her mother's sins are forgiven, or so her absentee father would be proud of her, or whatever. She just had a shitty mom (who was reaper'd, which mitigates it somewhat), that doesn't automatically equal "daddy issues."

Miranda or Tali are much more typical "daddy issues" characters. Miranda has her perfection hang ups, but she seems pretty driven to get to a point where her daddy will be SO SORRY he didn't love her, take that you bastard! Tali also tries to be the perfect admiral's daughter, in the hopes daddy will love her. Those are major driving forces in why those two do the things they do, act the way they do. Jacob, on the other hand, will bring up his father, but nothing he does is to prove himself to daddy or anything like that. His arc with his father is more "Shit, he's alive? He IS my father, I should. Like. Check this out." Then he turns out to be a cock, and the whole thing is basically dropped, because Jacob was over any potential father issues he had ages ago. The deepest thing he has to say about it is essentially "Yeah, that kinda sucked. Oh well." A far cry from Miranda's EVERYTHING I DO IS TAINTED BY DADDY thing.

And as for Grunt, like I said, he didn't give a fuck about Okeer. At all. He didn't give a shit about being the perfect krogan, either, until he actually had a clan or anything worth fighting for. His motivations don't have much to do with Okeer. He exists because of Okeer, but that's about where it ends for Grunt.

[UnSub]

ME2 has an issue in that the personal story arcs happen, then they are barely mentioned again. I know that the idea was those arcs help rid the characters of some kind of baggage, but in a lot of cases you'd suggest it would add to them (e.g. Jacob's dad has set up a rape camp).


Liara can help you kill her mother and then gets over it relatively quickly. (I know, I know - mind control - but a little more emotion would have been appropriate.)

But yes, now that you mention it, there are a lot of ME2 characters who have parent / child issues.

[lamaros]

It's deep and meaningful adult writing, duh.

[Hoax]

Grunt? What are you guys talking about?





OH! You mean that piece of Krogan trash I never took out of storage and if I had I would have jettisoned into space? That thing is called Grunt? Who knew!

Man I love my version of Shepard.

[HaemishM]

You actively hate fun. 

[UnSub]

I played ME1 with my actively-alien-intolerant Shepherd and Wrex was the only character I could actually keep off my ship.

Keep meaning to start ME2 with the same character. Grunt stays in the box, Legion is shipped off as parts and no non-human will get a loyalty mission completed (and even the human loyalty missions will be done under extreme sufferance).

[rk47]

How could you hate Grunt? you could've taught him many things. Many good, sweet things.



Edit by Trippy: View at your own risk, NSFW

[Stormwaltz]

 

[Ironwood]

Oh Dear God.

[Surlyboi]

Oh Dear God.

I may need to scrub the memory centers of my brain after that one.

[calapine]

I'll swim against the stream and say I like the possibility shown in the artful drawing. It invokes confusing but pleasant feelings!

[tmp]

That particular artist had done more drawings on that subject, incidentally.

The more you know...

(and yeah, when playing ME2 my general impression was that majority of those personal quests revolved around dealing with family members in one way or another. To the point in started to feel repetitive, in a way)

[koro]

In other news, there's a set of Mass Effect Skylanders figures rolling out this summer.

The catch?

Each one contains a code for Mass Effect 3 DLC, exclusive to North America, and only for the PC and 360. It will cost somewhere in the $130 range to obtain this DLC. Have fun!

[Merusk]

Every announcement seems to make it easier to ignore this game.
Who'd have thought EA would overreach on the DLC grab-bag! I'm shocked! 

[Sjofn]

I'm always surprised at the amount of sleep you guys apparently lose over DLC.

[caladein]

Every announcement seems to make it easier to ignore this game.
Who'd have thought EA would overreach on the DLC grab-bag! I'm shocked!  

Because new announcements for this game have almost no upside.  (The notable exception would be patching in the gay.)

It's ME3.  It'll probably be brilliant and we knew that much before it was even officially announced.

E: Less fanboyishly, if you didn't like the first two very much, announcing a radical departure from those two games would be a good thing.

[Ratman_tf]

In other news, there's a set of Mass Effect Skylanders figures rolling out this summer.

I'll buy the Miranda figure.

[eldaec]

In other news, there's a set of Mass Effect Skylanders figures rolling out this summer.

The catch?

Each one contains a code for Mass Effect 3 DLC, exclusive to North America, and only for the PC and 360. It will cost somewhere in the $130 range to obtain this DLC. Have fun!

This will almost certainly be cheat mode gear DLC, not actual content DLC that you might care about.

[UnSub]

I'm always surprised at the amount of sleep you guys apparently lose over DLC.

It depends on what it is and if anyone outside of the specified areas can get it.

[rk47]

pirate bay will fix it.

[Merusk]

I'm always surprised at the amount of sleep you guys apparently lose over DLC.

Because it reminds me that I'm poor and a 2nd class player who simply has to trudge through shit tuned for DLC items rather than paying to win.

[Tebonas]

Luckily up to now it was tuned for normal players and DLC items were a "put coins here to win" option.

But yes, the possibility for it to be the other way round is certainly here.

[Fabricated]

ME2 felt fine to me without DLC weapons...shit, the most broken weapon in the game to me was the awesome assault rifle you get from the Collector ship. Hits hard, has a mile-deep clip, tons of ammo capacity.

Wait, was the nuke gun a DLC item? I know the arc gun and freeze gun were "DLC" items but they sucked generally.

[Ingmar]

Nuke gun was not DLC I am pretty sure.

[Rasix]

M-920 Cain

    Cost: 25,000 Iridium

    The effectiveness and efficiency of mass-effect-based weapon technology has rendered large-scale deployment of highly explosive weaponry all but obsolete in infantry weapons.

    Normandy's scientists have prototyped a modified version of traditional high-explosive rounds that is applied to a 25-gram slug. When accelerated to 5 km/s, the round is devastating. Though a technically inaccurate label, this prototype weapon is nicknamed the "Nuke Launcher," and its high-explosive matrix generates an archetypical mushroom cloud on impact.

    Inflicts high damage with large area of effect. Very effective against armor, shields, and barriers.

    Note: Unlocked after 3 Heavy Weapon Ammo upgrades.

[Stormwaltz]

Useless trivia: The Cain was not (as many assume) named after the biblical figure. It was named for Fallout designer Tim Cain.

<--- Guy who named the Cain