The Official Mass Effect thread

[Zenien]

I refuse to replay it, because then you realize that whatever you say has no real impact on the conversation 95 percent of the time, and that typically the top right and middle selections have you actually saying the same exact thign or elisiting the same exact responsive dialogue from the NPC. The side quests are by in large cookie cutter, not developed at all and largely just copy and paste scenarios, the 'planets' are cooky cutter padding. For all the talk about having acess to the entire Galaxy you never even visit a colony that's remotel realistically colonized. The main game content can be completed in under 15 hours, none of your party members have interesting character specific missions. THe menue system is TERRIBLE, and easilly inexplicably bad when it won't even tell you what an item does when you first pick it up, or actually sort them or stack them in your inventory. The money system is unbalanced, ebcause when you first start out you just get better stuff from dude, and can't afford anything that is better in the shops, but once you get the Rich Achievement you just have all this money and nothing to realistically spend it on aside from Specter weapons, etc. Really it's the marriage of TPS with 'RPG' in their cool setting with their presentation and writtng, that's what makes the game good. If you look at it objectively, this isn't exactly a well made RPG or a good TPS.

But I still love it. The thing about it is the world is really cool, and it does a great job of allowing you to feel like you're playing your own character, without actually giving you much leeway. That's fine, and honestly works perfectly for this game, because at the end of the day I felt like my SHepard was a unique individual, despite the actual restrictions placed upon my actions and the restrictive cause and effect that was in place to maintin a cohessive narrative, so mission acomplished as far as Bioware should be concerned. I love the action combat, and my, limited' abilities as an infiltrator, and I totally got into the story, and loved blasting me some geth. Problems and all, this is my favorite game of the year (haven't played Orange Box), I mean really, aout my only real complaint with Mass Effect is that there isn't more of it, or that it won't allow me to play a completed save from the end of the game, to go around and do more missions.

 

[Master Chief]

O snap, most of your complaints were just minor issues for me, lol. Just turned a blind eye to them and went on my way. The only one that consistently bothered me was the inventory system.

But yeah, I can't go back to play it through again right now either because of the dialogue system. I got pretty far but I stopped. I really want to beat it again as a Renegade on hard, I just don't have the time to sit through all the conversations and this is the kind of game where I don't like skipping them over.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

You replayed Half-Life 2 time and time again, despite being a completely linear game, yet won't play Mass Effect because you might hear a conversation differently.

Amazing.

 

[El Bastardo]

I love this game. Beautiful, fantastic, yum.

 

[Zenien]

O snap, most of your complaints were just minor issues for me, lol. Just turned a blind eye to them and went on my way. The only one that consistently bothered me was the inventory system.

But yeah, I can't go back to play it through again right now either because of the dialogue system. I got pretty far but I stopped. I really want to beat it again as a Renegade on hard, I just don't have the time to sit through all the conversations and this is the kind of game where I don't like skipping them over.

Well I'm the same way really, they didn't bother me because the story, presentation, and raw gameplay are just so naturally written, well done, and addictive on a basic level of being just plain enjoyayble, respectively. It was only really after that I sat down that I was like "yeah". It that wasn't as though I suddenly appreciated it any less, I freaking love Mass Effect.

Yeah agree, the first time through it's like 'omg!' when you're doing dialogue, but if you replay it you can see the cracks. That a part of why I refuse to play this game (or it subsiquent sequels) more than once. The first time through I made this character, I embued her with a certain personality. To me, Alexandra Shepard is my ME character, and whatever happened, happened. If I go out and make some new character, it's suddenly just a game and not my characters story.

Ok so maybe our reasons are different, but the thought of replaying through the game, and having to deal with all the slogging through dialogue for things I've already seen, or god forbid completing all the sidequests (the ones of the Citadel rawk though!), isn't really appealling. LOL

Oh yeah WHF, I hope I addressed your statement in there somewhere.

DUDE/MasterChief: Put some spoler tags up and tell me about some of the stuff you did 'yo'.

 

[El Bastardo]

The dialogue system isn't bad at all. It's still new and rather ingenius, even if some of the lines wind up the same. And that's no big. The way I've looked at it, the little options we have are, in a way, "thoughts" - the first sudden thing your brain, even at a subconscious level, triggers upon hearing something. And then the character says something intelligent to further conversation. If it's the same, it's because it's the same, and the reason we still make a choice is for an immersive feel, and because I don't think the main character ever talks without the player making a choice. Not once. And if Shepard ever did, the user would suddenly lose control, and then what's the point of the dialogue at all?

Where it matters, lines of dialogue change appropriately based on choice.

I've beaten the game twice, and I'll play it a third time, and probably a number of times after that. Is it the best RPG ever? Well, no, I probably wouldn't rate it number one. Is it the best RPG I've played in awhile? Yeah, but then, I think I have a heavy leaning toward "American" RPGs anyway. Of course, that said, I still think the Suikoden series is the bee's knees. Suikoden V, Mass Effect, man, hard choice. I'd just add genres to them and mark them the top of each category, ha.

And I'm not even factoring "morality." Paragon and Renegade are so glaringly different it makes a whole other playthrough. That said, I'll never play through as a Paragon again.

I had fun with the side quests. I don't care if it's "blah blah, barren planet, here's a quest" for a lot of them. It makes a certain amount of sense. This is not a traditional RPG we're playing - we don't walk around cities asking people if we can help them find their shoelaces. It might have been done better than being stumbled upon, but that makes sense. The Alliance, in specific the Fifth Fleet, are monitoring the commander almost constantly, and when he/she pops up in a certain system, hey, we have something he/she can do there. Go get on it, chump. You're still in the Alliance.

I had absolutely no problems with the menu. It's streamlined. Organization is hardly needed unless you like carrying 100+ items and constantly running out of room. And the upgrades do organize themselves - best ones at the top, crappiest at the bottom. Makes it slightly annoying to omni-gel weaker things, but that's fine.

But yeah, the money thing. But then, how is that a problem? Just about every RPG often suffers from that problem. Or even if you do need to buy stuff, you still have more money than you know what to do with. Mass Effect isn't much different. Spectre weapons, and better armor. And the Medigel and Grenade upgrades. The equivalent of each is all that would be bought in another RPG, really.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Mass Effect's dialogue system won so much praise, and now Zenien's bashing it for some reason.

 

[SouLeSS]

I killed every person I could and on the second playthrough I didn't kill anyone and the game was totally a different experience so...what the hell is he talking about?

 

[AshtonFoster]

To me, Alexandra Shepard is my ME character, and whatever happened, happened. If I go out and make some new character, it's suddenly just a game and not my characters story.

I hear that. Thats why I didnt wanna play it again...it would almost feel like tainting the first experience....you're right. And if thats how you feel, dont play throught it again

But I did anyway.

Second time round, playing the game selecting all renegade choices, and the bottom right text option on the dialogue system, you do get alot of new reactions from game characters. This second time round though, its not really so much an experience as much as I just want to see what happens when I do this...or do that. Im not going everywhere, or doing every mission....I skip alot of the dialogue.

My first play through will always my MS definitive experience, but playing it again has made it more of a "game".

Game still rocks though

Im at level 58 on the hardest difficulty....Im too powerful!!! MWUHAHAHAHA!!

 

[Zenien]

Hell yes it rocks!

Spoiler

Scalling the Citadel Tower was amazing!

No one should have to read a lot of text, El Bastardo, responses contained within.

Spoiler

The dialogue system isn't bad at all.

I never said the system was bad, it is in fact quite good, but when you replay it, the limitations of the execution of the idea (often all 3 choices will not effect the flow of the conversation at all, as it will still continue to the exact same point regardless) are there, it's no longer "ohhh I'm choosing what my cahracter thinks" it's "Watch as what my character thinks and says doesn't reall matter 75 percent of the time. The system itself is awesome and it's sucha s imple tweak to tradtional dialogue trees that makes a world of difference.

Where it matters, lines of dialogue change appropriately based on choice.

To some degree, certainly if you play as a renagade you end up killing more people/ I'm not saying the system is bad or that it should allow you to totally veer the main plot, but when 2 of your 3 options are actually the same voice clip, and when a lot of the time your Renagade answer doesn't yeild a different result (most of the time not all of the time) the system isn't actually as detailed as it was originally made out to be, but that's common place in game development adn it makes for a great first playthrough.

And I'm not even factoring "morality." Paragon and Renegade are so glaringly different it makes a whole other playthrough. That said, I'll never play through as a Paragon again.

They're more so just an extension of the top or bottomdialogue choice with the caviate being that they're an automatic win button for the scenario. THough I don't doubt playing as a Xenophobic ******* will give you a distinctly different charcter who went about somethings things differently.

It comes down to, do you want to play the 'good guy' or the 'racist xenophobic *******'. I don't understand people who are like 'I play as Paragon/Renegade, I meanwhy make your character that 1 dimensional. Your background is referenced in like a total of 4 or so lines in the entire game. That not to say that you can't have a unique experience playing as the Renagade, but it's not to say it's like an entrely new experiene with amazing new quests or anything. It's no more Unique than playing through with something taht isn't a pure Renegade. Mass Effect does incorporate a lot fo ways to bend your exprience by having a certain stance with your character.

I had fun with the side quests. I don't care if it's "blah blah, barren planet, here's a quest" for a lot of them. It makes a certain amount of sense. This is not a traditional RPG we're playing - we don't walk around cities asking people if we can help them find their shoelaces.

It's just something I'd like to see them work on in the sequel, I mean they were saing things like "You can visit an amazing number of planets in the game", which sort of led you to believe that some of them might have been colonized, and not just a bunch of copy and paste wastelands for you to do ultimately usless things in like surey a mineral for some more near useless money.

Well actually people ask you to scan things and tie shoelaces just like any other RPG, it's just in the context of the Citadel, or a mission where we have to shoot things. I really enjoyed a lot of the character oriented side quests dealling with NPCs on the Citadel, I just wish we got to see, I don't know, a Turian settlement, or an Asari city, or something. This is a galaxy with many established races and colonies afterall, the Codex says so.

It might have been done better than being stumbled upon, but that makes sense. The Alliance, in specific the Fifth Fleet, are monitoring the commander almost constantly, and when he/she pops up in a certain system, hey, we have something he/she can do there. Go get on it, chump. You're still in the Alliance.

That's stuff is fine. It would just be nice if the sidequests were better than what you might see in an unremarkable MMORPG.

I had absolutely no problems with the menu. It's streamlined. Organization is hardly needed unless you like carrying 100+ items and constantly running out of room. And the upgrades do organize themselves - best ones at the top, crappiest at the bottom. Makes it slightly annoying to omni-gel weaker things, but that's fine.

Shrug, organzing everything by name, and then stacking items would solve a lot of the problems with it, there's no reason for the game to have an inventory system from 1975. I didn't haev a problem with it, but it's sure as heck broke compared to the norm.

But yeah, the money thing. But then, how is that a problem? Just about every RPG often suffers from that problem. Or even if you do need to buy stuff, you still have more money than you know what to do with. Mass Effect isn't much different. Spectre weapons, and better armor. And the Medigel and Grenade upgrades. The equivalent of each is all that would be bought in another RPG, really.

Maybe this is someting more Unique to Western RPGs but you rarely have the sort of problems in other RPGs that you do in ME. A big part of it is really the total removal of traditional items aside from things like free medpacks. You never have to stock anything, and the game is so easy that you hardly need to worry about ever equiping the best equipment. Earl game you can't afford anything, and You get better equipment out in the feild than you can buy in stores, and then you get the rich achievement and suddenly you can afford anythign to your eharts content, but even still most of the things in the stores aren'ta s good, or it's just the specter weapons. In stuff like FF, the armor, weapons, all that, in stores, is always kept at a level to scale properly as you advance from through the game. The commerce of Mass Effect is mostly useless, stores don't even really serve any function aside from buying dirt cheap updgrades like 'carry more medpacks' and there are very few of those.

 

[SouLeSS]

You obviously havn't played through as a renegade 100%, or you'd know that the game is SIGNIFICANTLY different in terms of quests and such.

 

[Zenien]

My bad, though I won't be playing the game again, so eh. :P I know

Spoiler

that you can kill the council, shoot Wrex, etc. Wrex is dead in my game because I felt the "we can work this out!" answer fit my character better for the spur of the moment. Unless I'm missing some other big stuff. You can't unlock any alternate way of achieving a goal that really has any ramifications within the plot as it progresses, even the big stuff (like the Council) just occurs right as the end of the game. It will be up to the Sequel to make all the non main game and endgame choices mean something, to a greater degree. Because the quests usually just end, and once they have it's like they never happened in the first place, most of the time.

.

I'm interested to see how they account for all the different choices the players have made in ME1, when ME2 rolls around.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

so shut your yap.

 

[Zenien]

One more word out of you and I'll have Ashley 'deal' with you.

 

[Jerry!]

I think I am going to replay after I finish it just for the fact that I chose to play as a soldier the first time through. The second time I want to use the biotic powers instead of having my squad mates use them. As far as the top and middle lines of dialog being the same, I really haven't noticed that all too much. It happens every once in a while, but not any where close to the amount where it would make the dialog system seem meaningless.

I remember during one of the earlier missions where you had to find Fist, I had Wrex in my party when we confronted him and [BLACKOUT]before I even had the choice of whether I was going to let him go or kill him or whatever, Wrex abruptly just shoots him (as he was his bounty). [/BLACKOUT] Those kinds of differences I think warrants at least one other play through.

The inventory and item organization is a problem though, an annoyance to me anyway. I also wish that when you are on the Normandy you could equip everyone from the menu system instead of having to go from locker to locker.

 

[Master Chief]

Well I'm the same way really, they didn't bother me because the story, presentation, and raw gameplay are just so naturally written, well done, and addictive on a basic level of being just plain enjoyayble, respectively. It was only really after that I sat down that I was like "yeah". It that wasn't as though I suddenly appreciated it any less, I freaking love Mass Effect.

Yeah agree, the first time through it's like 'omg!' when you're doing dialogue, but if you replay it you can see the cracks. That a part of why I refuse to play this game (or it subsiquent sequels) more than once. The first time through I made this character, I embued her with a certain personality. To me, Alexandra Shepard is my ME character, and whatever happened, happened. If I go out and make some new character, it's suddenly just a game and not my characters story.

Ok so maybe our reasons are different, but the thought of replaying through the game, and having to deal with all the slogging through dialogue for things I've already seen, or god forbid completing all the sidequests (the ones of the Citadel rawk though!), isn't really appealling. LOL

Oh yeah WHF, I hope I addressed your statement in there somewhere.

DUDE/MasterChief: Put some spoler tags up and tell me about some of the stuff you did 'yo'.

Yeah, I think that's why I can't go back right yet. It feels more like a chore now than an experience.

Anyhoo I beat it like a week or two ago so I can't really remember much. I played the game as a good guy who loathes the Council, so, that's the biggest highlight. There are only like, two or three decisions that you had to make that really hit me.

Spoiler

On that ice planet when you meet the Queen of those bugs, and you have to decide whether to kill it or set it free. Ugh, I must have sat there for like, 20 minutes trying to decide. I set it free, even though I was trying to score points with Ashley and might have lost some there. Still got to bang her though, HOT!

Then there was that bit where you're setting the bomb to nuke the planet, and at the halfway point between saving the other person, the bomb area you just left gets swarmed by geth and you have to decide who you're going to save. I was always going to go with Ashley but I really wanted to save Kaiden too, even though he was such a bland character. It made me sick when I had to decide between one or the other.

The smaller stuff that I had no problem with tho were talking Wrex down, shooting that Fist dumbass in the face [didn't have Wrex in my party], and shooting that other psycho guy on that planet with the plant, lol. Didn't have a problem letting the Council die either, they brought that s**t on themselves.

A lot of the side missions were pretty fun too, although not deep. There's one where bandits trap you in one of the mining things with a bomb, and you have to defuse it. Then once escaped, I went down to their camp, sprinted to my stolen Mako and f**king raped them with it, lol. Amongst all the same ol' same ol' is that little spin that makes a few of them memorable. :heart:

 

[El Bastardo]

No one should have to read a lot of text, El Bastardo, responses contained within.

Spoiler

I never said the system was bad, it is in fact quite good, but when you replay it, the limitations of the execution of the idea (often all 3 choices will not effect the flow of the conversation at all, as it will still continue to the exact same point regardless) are there, it's no longer "ohhh I'm choosing what my cahracter thinks" it's "Watch as what my character thinks and says doesn't reall matter 75 percent of the time. The system itself is awesome and it's sucha s imple tweak to tradtional dialogue trees that makes a world of difference.



To some degree, certainly if you play as a renagade you end up killing more people/ I'm not saying the system is bad or that it should allow you to totally veer the main plot, but when 2 of your 3 options are actually the same voice clip, and when a lot of the time your Renagade answer doesn't yeild a different result (most of the time not all of the time) the system isn't actually as detailed as it was originally made out to be, but that's common place in game development adn it makes for a great first playthrough.



They're more so just an extension of the top or bottomdialogue choice with the caviate being that they're an automatic win button for the scenario. THough I don't doubt playing as a Xenophobic ******* will give you a distinctly different charcter who went about somethings things differently.

It comes down to, do you want to play the 'good guy' or the 'racist xenophobic *******'. I don't understand people who are like 'I play as Paragon/Renegade, I meanwhy make your character that 1 dimensional. Your background is referenced in like a total of 4 or so lines in the entire game. That not to say that you can't have a unique experience playing as the Renagade, but it's not to say it's like an entrely new experiene with amazing new quests or anything. It's no more Unique than playing through with something taht isn't a pure Renegade. Mass Effect does incorporate a lot fo ways to bend your exprience by having a certain stance with your character.



It's just something I'd like to see them work on in the sequel, I mean they were saing things like "You can visit an amazing number of planets in the game", which sort of led you to believe that some of them might have been colonized, and not just a bunch of copy and paste wastelands for you to do ultimately usless things in like surey a mineral for some more near useless money.

Well actually people ask you to scan things and tie shoelaces just like any other RPG, it's just in the context of the Citadel, or a mission where we have to shoot things. I really enjoyed a lot of the character oriented side quests dealling with NPCs on the Citadel, I just wish we got to see, I don't know, a Turian settlement, or an Asari city, or something. This is a galaxy with many established races and colonies afterall, the Codex says so.




That's stuff is fine. It would just be nice if the sidequests were better than what you might see in an unremarkable MMORPG.



Shrug, organzing everything by name, and then stacking items would solve a lot of the problems with it, there's no reason for the game to have an inventory system from 1975. I didn't haev a problem with it, but it's sure as heck broke compared to the norm.



Maybe this is someting more Unique to Western RPGs but you rarely have the sort of problems in other RPGs that you do in ME. A big part of it is really the total removal of traditional items aside from things like free medpacks. You never have to stock anything, and the game is so easy that you hardly need to worry about ever equiping the best equipment. Earl game you can't afford anything, and You get better equipment out in the feild than you can buy in stores, and then you get the rich achievement and suddenly you can afford anythign to your eharts content, but even still most of the things in the stores aren'ta s good, or it's just the specter weapons. In stuff like FF, the armor, weapons, all that, in stores, is always kept at a level to scale properly as you advance from through the game. The commerce of Mass Effect is mostly useless, stores don't even really serve any function aside from buying dirt cheap updgrades like 'carry more medpacks' and there are very few of those.

Yeah, I agree. No one should have to read a lot of text, because reading is the devil and the precursor of stupidity, and so I didn't bother reading any of that.

Except that I did, but you don't really seem to know what you're talking about with most of what I read, if only because you haven't experienced much more than an initial scratch-the-surface playthrough, and so I don't think it necessitates much more of a reply than this.

 

[Zenien]

I played through most of the game on the intial playthrough, it is very transparent as to what the Renagade choices are and through other boards I know a ton of the Renegade choices. But hey I'm fine with leaving it at that.

My first playthrough was no mere scratch the surface, so eh. I didn't play "Paragon" or "Renagade" either, and according to the faq Im looking at, got most of the content in the game done aside from the more useless survey oriented things.

Heck go to the Mass Effect forums, I just did, and you can find a lot of people saying the same things I have. heck go to neogaf and watched the people who sunk 100 hours into the similarly unbalanced FFXII bring these things up. I know what I'm talking about with regards to the money/equipment system.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I haven't played Mass Effect yet, but I'm pretty sure Zenien is wrong and I will hate her for it.

 

[AshtonFoster]

The menu system does suck from the point of view that its list items in terms of power, and not name. That sucks....especially when selling items. I find myself going back up and down to see if I have a specific item that is more powerful....Its a joke!

 

[Jerry!]

Yeah thats pretty much my one real problem with the game. And Zenien does have the dialog thing kinda twisted, don't worry about it, its great.

 

[Zenien]

Yeah thats pretty much my one real problem with the game. And Zenien does have the dialog thing kinda twisted, don't worry about it, its great.

There's nothing twisted about objecting to the fact that a lot of times you'll run into an instance where 2 distinctly different lines of questioning appear, and have your character saying the exact same thing.

Here's an example

My character gets blackmailed for being a former gang member. I tell the blackmailer to go away. I end up talking to the Jailer who's holding the guy the Blackmailer wants freed. Ok, If I get the guy sprung, who happened to be on the verge of killing Millions of Turians; nothing else happens. If I tell the Jailer what's going on and am confronted by the blackmailer who than leaves as if I would hear from him again? Nothing else happens. If I SHOOT the Blackmailer who's a member of the 10th Street Reds? nothing else happens, despite the direct insinuation that he's just the messenger. There are very few real repercussions for your actions in the game, even when logically speaking, there should be (and I'm not talking about the law being said repercussions). If there are hostages in the Ilos system about to be shot hour 2 into the game? They're still going to be there when I confront Saren at the end of the game who knows how many hours in.

It's a great game, but El Bastardo has some absurd defenses for it. Even if other RPGs had the completely unbalanced money situation that Mass Effect does, 2 wrongs don't make a right. The game rules, but that's because it's way better than the sum of its parts, which aren't so good when taken individually.

Another example, nothing changes at Noveria after you complete it, even if logically speaking, and based on a news report heard in an elevator, stuff would have changed.

Ultimately it will be up to ME2 to fix a lot of the problems that ME1 has, and that goes for adding a sense of progression to all these little threads you've done, because otherwise the game only has like 1 quest chain outside the main game. Personally I'll be satisfied with them allowing the game to pick up in ME2, incorporating the big things from your save in ME1.

But you know what, they could not change a thing and I'd still love it.

 

[Cito]

I played this game 5 times already. lol I need help. I think I'm an achievement ****e...

 

[Jerry!]

There's nothing twisted about objecting to the fact that a lot of times you'll run into an instance where 2 distinctly different lines of questioning appear, and have your character saying the exact same thing, heck I even had this happen when it was literally just two options of questioning alone on the radius wheel on opposite ends of each other. Or how for a lot of the main plot conversations, what you say doesn't really effect anything. The only parts in the game that have real ramifications, aside from the end game, are like a total of 2 other points in the game. That's pretty much fact, and you can't point these things out in a lot of the conversations if you run through them more than once.

Here's an example

My character gets blackmailed for being a former gang member. I tell the blackmailer to go away. I end up talking to the Jailer who's holding the guy the Blackmailer wants freed. Ok, If I get the guy sprung, who happened to be on the verge of killing Millions of Turians; nothing else happens. If I tell the Jailer what's going on and am confronted by the blackmailer who than leaves as if I would hear from him again? Nothing else happens. If I SHOOT the Blackmailer who's a member of the 10th Street Reds? nothing else happens, despite the direct insinuation that he's just the messenger. There are very few real repercussions for your actions in the game, even when logically speaking, there should be (and I'm not talking about the law being said repercussions). If there are hostages in the Ilos system about to be shot hour 2 into the game? They're still going to be there when I confront Saren at the end of the game who knows how many hours in. I'm not bringing these things up just to complain, but this is stuff they should look at when making ME2.

It's a great game, but El Bastardo has some absurd defenses for it. Even if other RPGs had the completely unbalanced money situation that Mass Effect does, 2 wrongs don't make a right. The game rules, but that's because it's way better than the sum of its parts, which aren't so good when taken individually.

Another example, nothing changes at Noveria after you complete it, even if logically speaking, and based on a news report heard in an elevator, stuff would have changed.

Ultimately it will be up to ME2 to fix a lot of the problems that ME1 has, and that goes for adding a sense of progression to all these little threads you've done, because otherwise the game only has like 1 quest chain outside the main game. Personally I'll be satisfied with them allowing the game to pick up in ME2, incorporating the big things from your save in ME1.

All those things you mentioned really aren't that huge a deal even if you do stretch it the truth a bit, and certainly nothing that should make you refuse to play the game again.

 

[Zenien]

Yeah, I think that's why I can't go back right yet. It feels more like a chore now than an experience.

Anyhoo I beat it like a week or two ago so I can't really remember much. I played the game as a good guy who loathes the Council, so, that's the biggest highlight. There are only like, two or three decisions that you had to make that really hit me.

Spoiler

On that ice planet when you meet the Queen of those bugs, and you have to decide whether to kill it or set it free. Ugh, I must have sat there for like, 20 minutes trying to decide. I set it free, even though I was trying to score points with Ashley and might have lost some there. Still got to bang her though, HOT!

Then there was that bit where you're setting the bomb to nuke the planet, and at the halfway point between saving the other person, the bomb area you just left gets swarmed by geth and you have to decide who you're going to save. I was always going to go with Ashley but I really wanted to save Kaiden too, even though he was such a bland character. It made me sick when I had to decide between one or the other.

The smaller stuff that I had no problem with tho were talking Wrex down, shooting that Fist dumbass in the face [didn't have Wrex in my party], and shooting that other psycho guy on that planet with the plant, lol. Didn't have a problem letting the Council die either, they brought that s**t on themselves.

A lot of the side missions were pretty fun too, although not deep. There's one where bandits trap you in one of the mining things with a bomb, and you have to defuse it. Then once escaped, I went down to their camp, sprinted to my stolen Mako and f**king raped them with it, lol. Amongst all the same ol' same ol' is that little spin that makes a few of them memorable. :heart:

Spoiler

I let them live and formed a relationship with the Asari girl. At first I was like "omg you're so obviously in this game to have the intergalactic lesbo sex, how lame" but she won me over later into the game. I ended up with Ashley shooting Wrex. I was so angry with her that she did that (I didn't believe Wrex was actually going to shoot me once I'd put by gun down) that I let her die on the planet. I got Saren to shoot himself it the head though, it rawked.