#there's literally renegade choices that make no goddamn sense

[corpocyborg]

it's honestly a tragedy that so few people chose morinth over samara that they didn't even bother putting morinth in me3. like i don't blame the players bc the narrative clearly discourages most players by positioning choosing morinth as the evil choice. but i swear to god if you actually talk to her after choosing her you will see it is not that simple. the situation isn't nearly as clear cut and black & white as they make it out to be and either choice could be justified as the "good" or "evil" choice.

#like actually this is one of the best moral dilemmas in mass effect #overall i think mass effect has a problem with its moral dilemmas being far too easy #paragon choices are almost always objectively more moral than renegade choices #there's literally renegade choices that make no goddamn sense #like why would you kill the colonists on feros #if putting them to sleep takes exactly as much effort and is exactly as risky #and you know for an absolute fact they are innocents #it makes no sense you'd have to be insane or stupid #there are other renegade choices that are easier to justify but they almost always take at least some mental gymnastics #but samara vs morinth? #that's a real moral dilemma i couldn't tell you which of them is objectively right #morinth is wrong for the killings but samara is wrong for locking up certain asari as inherently too dangerous to live #these are the types of moral dilemmas they SHOULD have been giving us all along

[libermachinae]

An Abundance of Prowls

I remembered the first time I read IDW, feeling like I couldn’t get a hold on Prowl’s character, like he existed as a general concept but I was never really sure what his goals were or why he did... anything he did. I mentioned it to my girlfriend, who was delighted to introduce me to the discourse of our local cop car/war criminal.

Months later, in anticipation of Prowl Week, I said to myself, “Well, I could read through all of Prowl’s appearances, in the order they were published in, and see how the writers developed him over time. That could help make sense of his character.”

Friends. It did not. Here’s a summary, plus my thoughts. [Spoilers ahead!]

Infiltration: Prowl’s first appearance in IDW is him yelling at Ratchet for exposing the Autobots to the humans. We’ll call this guy Rule-Abiding Prowl, and he’s very steady/boring throughout the rest of the -ation series. His main function is to try to stop kids from being involved in the plot. Thanks Furman.

Spotlight: Kup: Our first glance of Spec Ops Prowl. Though he’s not physically present for most of the issue, Nick Roche still delivers a Prowl who is behind the scenes, pulling the strings. I was honestly surprised by how early on this was set up, considering everything we’re about to trudge through.

Megatron Origin: More Rule-Abiding Prowl, this time by Eric Holmes. He has a job, he does as he’s told, he clings to the chain of command like a padlock.

All Hail Megatron: Seven instances in which we’re victorious! It’s number-cruncher Prowl time; also anxious, war-weary, slightly hopeless Prowl. Maybe Shane McCarthy was trying to do a combination Roche and Furman? It’s all for naught, in the end, because Roche got brought back in to follow up on Kup’s story and he dove all the way in with Prowl being a sneaky bastard.

Spotlight Prowl: Can’t get too far ahead of ourselves, though! Mike Costa wanted Prowl to be a hardboiled detective with a a spark of gold SO BAD. Also the point at which Prowl falls into his terrible cycle of learning a lesson only to learn the opposite thing in the next issue. In this case, it’s between doing what’s right regardless of the rules, and sticking to the rules because order is paramount. Is this unresolved internal conflict going to haunt our boy for the rest of the continuity? Mmmm. Transformers V1 is more of the same, except now Prowl has a little buddy. Can’t lie, Streetwise delights me and I wish he’d stuck around.

Death of Optimus Prime: Co-written by Barber and JRo, so it’s tricky to say who exactly was responsible for what, although I have a feeling JRo was all over that Peaceful Resolution backstory. This does provide a perfect bed in which to sew the seeds of who Prowl will be in the coming arc.

MTMTE: Okay, full disclosure? I jotted this guy down as Warm Prowl in my notes. Through flashback, JRo gives us a gentler version of the character whose blunt nature and vow to regulation are underscored by a hidden concern and appreciation for his partner, Tumbler. Don’t look at me, I think about the conversation about the coming war and them leaving together all the goddamn time. Also, JRo waves at his buddy Roche’s Spec Ops Prowl from afar.

RID: War’s over, everyone can (literally!) go home! Prowl? Hey, bud, did you hear the news? No, ofc not, because this is Endless War Prowl, the guy who is convinced the Neutrals are out to murder everyone and also that Bumblebee sucks at his job. This is also the arc where Bombshell happens :(

Dark Cybertron: Prowl Buries His Trauma

Spotlight Bumblebee: Rude boy. Doesn’t like Bumblebee? Doesn’t respect the chain of command?

Autocracy/Monstrosity/Primacy: Prowl wants to follow rules! He trusts Optimus’ judgement! Babey Prowl.

RID Pt 2: It’s hard to classify this Prowl because so much of what he does in this arc is in response to things that have been done to him. The Decepticons mind controlled him, so he has to keep them from getting the Engima. He’s been saddled with gestalt coding, so now he needs to have the Constructicons along wherever he goes. Spike Witwicky betrayed him years ago, so dammit, now he’s gotta spend a Saturday trying and failing to squish one tiny human. He’s Renegade Prowl in my notes, because this is definitely the point where he stops giving a shit about rules. (Get a teeny bit of Warm Prowl, tho, when he calls Bumblebee his best friend. Kinda comes out of nowhere, the guy could have used your support like, any time over the last few years, but it’s a nice moment.)

Combiner Wars: Absolutely loses his goddamn shit. It’s like Spec Ops Prowl, going behind everybody’s backs, making the “hard choices” (he’s literally deciding to kill off the Cybertronian species; please keep this detail in mind), but he does it all as a giant combiner who solves problems by smashing them, so we’re gonna stick with Renegade Prowl. Barber wants to blame this on gestalt coding. I shrug and say sure, though I do raise a hand to question it when Optimus proceeds to beat him up for it.

Sins of the Wreckers: NAUGHTY SPIDER TIME. Roche takes all of Barber’s Bitch Prowl energy and embellishes it with those sweet spec ops tactics we’ve been missing so dearly. Gone are giant combiners smashing shit: now it’s just Prowl having ideas, making deals, and twisting morality to suit his own needs while desperately trying to avoid the fact that he has a conscience. Roche also makes the fascinating move of highlighting Prowl’s shittiness while subjecting him to Tarantulas’ arguable shittierness. There’s a nice moment at the end when he decides he wants to do better going forward, though Roche leaves it open for other authors’ interpretations via violent interruption by Impactor. Nick Roche never writes Prowl again, and an infinitesimal part of the internet grieves.

MTMTE Pt 2: AKA the misadventures of Luna I, AKA the one scene where Prowl’s helping with the dishes and actually seems comfortable for the first time in centuries. JRo takes a comedic approach to the character which is evocative of his Warm Prowl invention. Just one thing. Remember that detail I told you to remember earlier? About how he was entirely ready to bring Cybertronians to extinction? Here to Sentinel, Prowl says, and I quote, “And unlike you, I don’t feel the urge to kill the rest of my species.” I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, so rather than risk turning this into an actual literary essay, I’m going to leave it at that.

Optimus Prime: Two versions of Prowl in here: one from the past, where he describes himself as “unpopular” and beats up Jetfire, and present-day, where he somehow ends up in a ship with Stardrive, Garnak, Wheelie, and a vamparc gun from Autocracy. No one bothers to explain how this came about, the same way no one explains how by the books, rule-driven Prowl started battering prisoners before the war ever started.

Unicron: The most bizarre. Prowl does his whole logic thing, gotta sacrifice Devisiun so we can save everyone else, y’know. But then, in the showdown with Shockwave, he gives a whole speech about how the real battle is within the self, to make sure goodness prevails or something like that. It comes out of nowhere and I guess is a follow up from the Wreckers, but honestly idk?

Lost Light epilogue: Rule-Abiding Prowl! Hey dude, how you been? Work for Windblade now? Have an official job reviewing Functionist Cybertron and establishing ties with the Galactic Council? Neat!

Optimus Prime epilogue: Giving this one its own thing because it’s one of Prowl’s most memorable moments for me, personally. He begins by acknowledging his own multifaceted nature through an argument with Shockwave, arguing that every one of an individual’s identities are “real” and rendering this entire exercise moot. After I dragged myself off the floor from that realization, I went straight into the line that has always stuck with me, “We are our actions... not our hopes.” Barber wraps up Prowl’s character by having him acquiesce to the criticism he’s been facing since the beginning of the continuity. It places a heavy emphasis on Spec Ops Prowl, the one who made “hard choices” in hope of possibilities that rarely came to pass, but is not entirely bound to that identity. Every aspect of Prowl I’ve described here performed actions that influenced the overall plot of the comic, though his motivations throughout are rarely transparent. What do we make of it, now that the character himself is now saying they didn’t matter? Is Prowl the sum total of the crimes he committed, friends he betrayed, and lives he sacrificed? In our calculations of Prowl, is there any variable that represents an unclaimed seat on the Peaceful Resolution?

Answering that question isn’t what I set out to do here, though, and I’ve already had to stop myself from writing an English essay once. I hope someone finds this useful, because putting it together was like building a puzzle of pieces that don’t quite fit together. You could even argue that not all of them are important, and that some bring down the integrity of the whole. They’re all in the box together, though, so we’ve gotta make something out of them.

#maccadam #idw tf #prowl #my writing

[sleepymarmot]

MEA liveblog #7

Spoilers!

Multiplayer

This interface is a mess. I move my mouse onto "exit lobby" and it turns into "kick player". Buttons just jump around and transform all the time.

And the APEX mission shit needs to be fixed. When you select a mission to play, don't direct me to lobbies who play the same enemy/map/difficulty but not as the mission! Join lobby, see "custom", exit lobby, select "custom game", re-select mission, join, end up in the same lobby, rinse, repeat...

At least I can end up second when I join on wave 5 as a human vanguard lol

F Human Vanguard card!

Tempest

Non-custom weapons of different rank shouldn't exist as separate items in the inventory! Unlocking a higher rank should upgrade the old item like in ME3! This stupid inventory system exists solely because of crafting! If you need inventory limits so much, let them apply only to the crafted items! I've already complained about rewards being lost with no warning if the inventory is full and it's still bullshit! 

I crafted the N7 chestpiece! 25% shield on kill (of course), 5% damage resistance, 2% shield restoration, 2% health&shield regen speed, 2% max shield. I called it "N7 Slayer X". And turns out, it was dad's armor...

Oh right, it needs a new color scheme!

Havarl

I like this ex-STG, he's talking properly.

I don't like the sound effect from Annihilation -- it's like water in my ears!

Hey Peebs, how do you immediately know where the next piece is as soon as we pick the current one?

Kadara

Here's the bar fight. Animation is not bad but has no energy.

Told the asari dancer that I'm done here and she needs to talk to the dude herself, but the quest still sends me back to him -_-

Tempest

So, Kesh was adopted?

Okay, Kalinda is 100% Marjolaine. Peebee's personal storyline is even more copy-pasted from Leliana than Drack's is copypasted from Wrex.

Aya

So many sidequests again!

The Moshae's words about the definition of victory! That's the smartest thing I've heard in this game in hours.

It's really weird to hear her talk so sweetly to me... When we first met she didn’t seem to like me.

When Vetra said people were staring at her, I couldn't resist suggesting they're just all in love...

I suggested taking people who sold their Aya slots onto the Nexus. That's not even charity -- the same ambassador gave me a task to convince angara to come there anyway! So this would kill two birds with one stone.

For the visitor who wanted contact with his family, I had to reload. The options didn't even seem too different... Got it right for the other two: gave an honest professional answer about health issues, and a confident casual answer about finding work.

Great, now I have to head back into the city to buy stuff... This is literally a fetch quest lol

Eos

Omg, the Architect is in orbit now!

The Roekaar fight in an old settlement was very chaotic and fun with Flamethrower/ED/Lance, though it'd probably be easier to just charge

Tempest

Aaaand Jaal gives me his loyalty mission. It's funny that I'm going to do my own love interest's mission last...

Jaal's LM

I continue to be unimpressed with the Roekaar being pure antagonists. :/

Didn't shoot the guy, told Jaal he was badass.

Why are loyalty missions so short?

BTW Ryder just looks wrong in N7 armor... She's not Shepard, that's not her allegiance or her story.

Tempest

Jaal, just as we're leaving Havarl you decided to invite me for a visit down there?

Turian ark

Avitus has very stylish armor

For fuck's sake, Bioware, why do you hate gay men so much?

I convinced Avitus to take the mantle. It was a very sentimental decision for Ryder -- because her situation is very similar. Her SAM and the connection he had with her father are unique, but she didn't think of that in that moment.

Nexus

"Better to find your wings as you fly" Easy for you to say, Sarissa, your predecessor wasn't a loved one

Tempest

I'd agree with Peebee about relationship and baggage, but of course I felt obligated to take the romantic option

(I don’t think there’s an option to agree with her, though, so it’s only for the best)

Voeld

Liam, Vetra, don't fight!

Whoops, sorry for leaving you to die in the purification field, Vetra

...I liked the old color scheme better. Green light looks more alien, but less pretty.

Nexus

Final memory -- here we go!

My theory was that the Archon was somehow Ellen, but that made so little sense I didn't even write it down :D This is simpler.

BTW there's finally Shepard's gender we had to select in the beginning -- in translated subtitles :D Didn't hear it even once in the audio -- could it be Bioware actually took their foreign audience into consideration? :O

Honestly, it's weird that the Reapers info is so secret... From the OT I got the impression that Shepard was yelling about it to everyone at every opportunity...

Fine, fine, you made me emotional with Liara's message.

Shit, I was expecting this decision...

I feel pretty sad now. That's all?

Peebee's LM

Oh, so that's why she lives in an escape pod :D I thought this was only a characterization thing, not a Chekhov's gun!

I said I wasn't mad, though I was a bit. But I mean Ryder *is* mad but also having the time of her life so...

Shit I just shot Kalinda instinctively lmao

Ok I replayed the entire sequence and Idk. This is really the hardest choice in the game...

I'm tempted to say "Yes, literally" :D

Since it's so hard to reaload, it's fair game to watch videos before deciding for myself. Okay, "Yes, literally" is way too harsh.

Alright, this Ryder is not going to make Peebee sad, but I've already planned a Renegade-ish playthrough with a Ryder who values knowledge over everything, so... :D

(Btw, I love that MEA's brand of a more ruthless protagonist is not "uncontrollable brute" but "intellectual snob". As tedious as this game is, I'm already super eager to play character who has those values & takes urgency of tasks seriously.)

This mission is enjoyable and the choice feels maybe the most meaningful... But it has all the classic Mass Effect problems. Kalinda sends a shitload of people to murder us, we murder them, but when she's helpless and we have a finger on the trigger all of that suddenly doesn't matter. Sidonis all over again. Sure, murdering people begging for help is bad in a lot of ways, but she did just try to kill us, a lot of times... Plus, why the fuck can't Ryder jump over and catch the Remnant thing?! That needed to be a second, Paragon interrupt after the Renegade "shoot her." And Ryder is a goddamn biotic, as is Peebee, as is Kalinda! Peebee, Pull is your first goddamn skill! It'd actually be completely plausible if the artifact had shields and/or armor and therefore immune to Pull or Singularity -- but not giving the characters even an idea to try is just stupid!

Tempest

Inviting Peebee to live with together made me revisit my room and inspired me to make some changes. You know what, I'm going to play music in my quarters and change into the short-sleeved pajamas. It's my own ship, why do I walk around it in street clothes? The jacket is stylish but too much to wear at home. I wish we had a "formal" outift for Nexus/Aya/other hubs in addition to the "casual" clothes we wear on the ship.

Shit I went to read someone's post about Peebee's LM and caught a spoilers about the romance post-LM

Addison is right, getting pregnant in that situation was irresponsible

Ah the continuity in this game. "Found more outposts"? I have every possible outpost and all planets at 100%!

"On hold: Place an outpost" bitch where

Voeld

What, there's still a cold hazard?! What was the point of the vault, then?!

Whoa, so the angara believe exaltation not just kills their people but destroys their immortal souls? Wow! That should have been said by a major character during the main story, not by an easily missed NPC!

Oh great, I died and the game refuses to load the last autosave

Dear game. Why did you create four autosaves for the same second. All glitched. Half hour of gameplay lost... God please let the last manual save work. I was sure I saved in between, but just now my PC decided that we still have daylight savings clock change when we do not, and the timestamps on all recent saves are messed up. This especially sucks because I'm trying to rush Peebee's romance because I don't know when the sex scene comes up but I want to make sure it's not when my mom is home while I play it on her PC lol

Tempest

Fuck, that was cute! And Peebee did tackle Ryder, as promised! :D I wonder what she says through Zap in the platonic version...

Addison please don't say the baby screams "like a banshee". I fucking jumped.

"Before you say anything: no PDAs" :D

Level 50! Time to craft myself a powerful new Dhan. I've been running with rank three all this time...

I love that whenever you ask about Kalinda and then return to the general dialogue tree you say "Let's talk about something else" and Peebee responds "YES. Please."

Voeld

Alright, so: the kett leaders are dissatisfied with the Archon because he hasn't reported to them recently, the communication with the kett homeworld(?) might be disrupted in general and the Scourge might be to blame.

Tempest

Damn, SAM has a pretty insightful speech about death! The only thing that can't be rationalized after experiencing it, which is why it fascinates. I actually haven't heard it explained this way before.

My movie night quest hasn't progressed since I brought Jaal his device...

Eos

Ryder watching and playing football with two giant guns floating near her hips... omg

Elaaden/Kadara

What? I'm completely confused by all these identical salarians.

I don't understand this choice. He promises to give us the intel if we let him go... what proof do we have besides his word? And how would arresting him stop us from getting intel from his computer etc?

Reloaded to see both options, chose to arrest him

Havarl

I'm not hugging Jaal's mother wtf

Ryder has surprisingly good facial animation when Jaal shows his mementos

In theory Ryder should like Jaal for being such a nerd but the only thing he makes me feel is mild irritation. His interest in "taking things apart" is an informed quality just like his supposed emotional openness. It's not reflected in his dialogue or storyline at all.

And now I'm finished with all quests in the ally category. I wanted to finish the game asap, but now that we know the patch is coming on Thursday, I'll wait for it.

Multiplayer

Extracted from Silver for the first time as Human Vanguard (level 8, rank IV)! It was against Remnant, so Observers and Destroyers were the only problem. Nullifiers are ridiculously easy for a melee character -- like Ravagers, but without acid.

Got Krogan Vanguard from a pack. Will I have to tolerate the Rage overlay?

The first game with Kroguard was going well, he's got a stong melee even though he's slow... and then wave 6/upload/Kett killed us all :(

Completely unrelated to anything, but I just realized that if you pick the romantic option in the escape pod with Peebee, they don't actually have sex. Call me stupid because that's what Peebee's initial condition is, but I thought Ryder's response changed her mind! When Ryder said "Let's not rush things" I interpreted and meant it in the emotional sense, as "It'd be dishonest to hide that I have a crush on you, but you don't owe me anything, and if you don't ready for a Serious Relationship and Grand Romance yet that's fine because I'm not either, so let's just hook up and leave reflection for later" -- which I thought was pretty sweet and interesting? Because this whole relationship to me was built on the fascinating contrast between Peebee's emotional reservations and casual/flirty attitude, and conversely, on Ryder very consciously respecting Peebee's emotional space. Maybe I just fundamentally don't understand sex and romance lmao. But if character A propositions character B, character B says they have feelings for character A, and the scene promptly fades to black, I assume they do the do because that's how these things are filmed? Only in comparison with the other option, which is actually pretty explicit, it became obvious to me that's not what the director meant. I'm pretty disappointed because I thought it was a good subversion of Jack's "either sex or romance" thing in ME2. And it messes with my headcanon/characterization... I guess I'll have to retcon it into one of the two options. I'll probably go with casual, not romantic in that case. But I just read that Peebee will tell you she's glad you said no, so... :/

Multiplayer

Failed a Silver APEX mission agains the Remnant as a human vanguard :(

Got an asari sentinel!

The patch is here, but I can't launch the game now :( This needs some work.

Ugh, I stop playing for two days and have no motivation to pick the game up again...

#mass effect #mea spoilers #blah blah blah

[thedeadflag]

So it turns out that, despite being a good ways under the minimum requirements for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I can actually run it on medium settings at 1080p, so like...I’ve been doing that a bit.

And I’m v frustrated because the whole first stint in daytime in Prague, I’ve been doing my best to choose as many “You guys are ridiculously xenophobic, holy hell, what did augmented people ever do to you aside from that one event where they were literally hacked and then viciously blamed as if they were at all responsible?” style dialogue options as I can. Like, before Golem City, I pretty much insinuate Miller’s on a witch hunt and that the mission is a typical bag, grab, and disappear job because of how grabbing Rucker makes zero sense.

And then the goddamn super xenophobe pilot (Chikane, who doesn’t hold a candle to my fav girl Malik) drops me off in Golem City, which is essentially an aug concentration camp rife with police brutality, and suddenly my Jensen can’t stop spouting off at the hip about how shitty aug people are and how police are #1 and trustworthy and it’s just...

The conversation with Rucker was so fucking embarrassing. You were not allowed to be sympathetic at all. IIRC the options were “Turn Tables”, “Patronize”, and “Justify”, and like...it’s such railroading bullshit. 

Like, it’s bad enough that they push this “grey area” bull, but when a critical scenario happens like talking to Rucker, and you’re literally only allowed to essentially follow one viewpoint (one with a hat, one with a monocle, and one naked as the day it was born), it’s just...you can’t force the player to view it as a grey area issue by restricting their options so they can’t choose anything else.

TBH I honestly would have preferred they run with the shitty mass effect paragon/renegade shit and let people be xenophobic genocidal fascists if it let players also make the right calls. 

Like, fuck. I want to kill Miller, and Chikane, and MacReady, and all the cops in the game. At least in the last game i could make choices based on beliefs and morality.

Only ones I’ve been able to make so far have been “do something good for TF29″ or “do something good for the juggernaut collective”

Not good enough. Generally enjoying the game otherwise (even if the cover and movement system is really wonky and constantly gets me killed), but I play these games for the story elements and that, so far, has been a let down.

And that’s not even getting into the parallels they’re trying to make between their game and real life, like, whoa

#deus ex #deus ex spoilers #deus ex: mankind divided spoilers #deus ex: mankind divided

[sleepymarmot]

MEA liveblog #4

Spoilers!

Voeld

Why am I asking a person I've never met before about "Ice talkers" which I've never heard before but she apparently has mentioned?

Okay, I took two steps back and the banter that mentions the ice talkers triggered.

Don't you love the conversation angles where the person talking to your hero is not in the frame at all?

Liam: "Seriously, Ryder, you didn't bring any music?" Ryder: "I swear, I will turn this car around" Um? Why is she snapping so viciously? There's absolutely no reason, it was very jarring. Is it because I almost never use casual options?

Vetra and Liam are so chatty?? I don't think I've ever heard a single conversation from Peebee and Liam on Havarl, but these two talk regularly.

Will I have to kill people over these whales? :/

Bought a weapon for the first time -- the Isharay, because everyone's praising it.

Damn, Isharay really does feel nice!!

After like an hour of driving, climbing and fighting, I finally found the kett base and established a forward station near it.

Well the kett base was ridiculously easy as a vanguard... I had much more difficult fights on the way here!! Is this really all?

A Dhan? Nice, I've been meaning to try it out.

I really don't understand what and where I'm supposed to find in this base...

Of course I had to climb the mountain on foot and deplete all of my life support just in time to reach the kett camp and be shot down.

For fuck's sake, they respawned in the lower base I just cleared. Well at least I'll get extra xp?

Why is the UI so dumb? I have my three powers and profile active; I assign them to a favorite slot; the powers are saved but the profile is empty, when I go to the profile screen it's unchecked, I have to re-check it and assign the favorite again.

Finally, another forward station!

Gosh, this entire questline is so dull and frustrating. I only do it because people asked. (And because I want 100%.)

Holy shit, a kett carfalon! I gotta go back to the forward station and equip it immediately.

And here's the medicine cache I've been searching!!

The carfalon has higher base damage than the omniblade, but feels weaker/slower.

Dancing among enemies with full shield and health is fun. Not as fluid and quick as the ME3 novaguard though, but everything has a downside.

Just as I said that, got shot down and now I have to redo the last five minutes.

Charge to restore shields + melee to restore heath is great

Look game, I know I'm strong, but why don't you let me fucking save. It's been like 15 minutes!

OH SHIT AN ASCENDANT

PLEASE DONT KILL ME NOW!!!!!

Where's the elevator?? Do I have to defeat the Prefect to get to it?

Turned the difficulty down to easy to kill him. I've had enough.

Oh god, I can save! It's over!!

Shout out to that person who wrote somewhere either on BSN or Reddit that the kett corfalan restores health on hit. I literally owe them my Ryder's life.

I'm level 21 now btw, thanks to all this fighting.

This wasn't enjoyable, Bioware. This was frustrating and dull and then frustrating and stressful. I'm getting off this goddamn planet. Oh wait, gotta do Cora and Peebee's quests, too.

"You made it look so easy" IT WASN'T, BELIEVE ME.

No you know what, I'll at least go back to the Tempest and buy some consumables. I used my last shield right before the Prefect appeared.

Tempest

Aw, Peebee and Lexi!

Oh, a strike team brought me a Disciple! And a Reegar! And a Sandstorm, whatever that is. Btw I don't see that last thing in my inventory -- does that mean all rewards that go over the limit are lost? Wait, there's no Reegar too. The inventory officially crossed the line from Evil to Irredeemably Evil. :(

Voeld

It looks like the quality of planets goes downhill with every new one. Eos was intriguing. Havarl was a bit too DAI-like, but still had the original spirit of exploration. Voeld is just a brutal grind.

Oh shit, that's Peebee's LM! Looks like an ordinary Remnant site, so it's probably safe to do something here without triggering the entire mission. I was trying to avoid it, but it's right in the way to the ancient city, and obviously I can't not take her there.

BTW I'm really tired of bringing Jaal everywhere just because it's all about his people.

Is it my imagination, or did my adept profile dodge become faster after I reached a new level of this profile?

Stop! Telling! Me! About! Temperature!

I know it's cold, SAM. Tell it to the designers who make Peebee run around in -40C wearing one layer of clothing with a belly window.

Of course I can't save again. But now the game finally autosaved, so I can call it a day.

Wait, I'm not getting this choice. So the AI wants to die? And she holds the angara hostage so that I'd kill it? And if I kill the AI the hostage will be free? And both will get what they want -- AI wants to die and the man wants to live? If so, that seems like a vastly better option.

Alright, tried the other option. The AI kills the hostage, Ryder makes a renegade speech. Peebee disapproves because the AI is untrustworthy and the Nexus already distrusts AI in general. Jaal approves -- for some reason through a radio despite standing right here. The AI asks to work with SAM instead of the angara, and you can make a choice. So this is a more interesting decision for the story... But it doesn't feel right. For my pure paragon character, at least.

Yay, a forward station! I think I have all of them unlocked now. It's time for The Only Fetch Quest That Matters aka dad's memories.

And an outpost! I feel really productive. "They invited us here," though? When?? But at least I had the option to talk about cooperation with the angara. Also Addison's textures glitched like hell here.

Shit, shouldn't have talked to the outpost leader, she acts like it's been a month and gives me a rescue mission immediately. But I could say that I was surprised that the Angara had let us put an outpost here. You and me, Ryder...

Aw, the name of the outpost is "Forward together" in shelesh(?)! She made a nice speech here.

Okay, I'm going to just pretend all of the outpost stuff takes place in the future. I'll go to Cora's LM and then proceed with the main story.

Cora why do you have a boring fetch quest for a LM?

Wait, the Perifona is only one ship, right? Not the entire asari arc?

Ah, okay, it's a scout ship.

This was one of the few instances I chose all casual options and they were fine. Ryder sounds realistically upset. Usually casual options are awkward unfunny jokes...

And finally, I'm free to move on!!!

Tempest

Flirted with Peebee, not the biggest fan of the acting but w/e

Whoa, I have two cryo pod points!! Bonus xp and caches on maps, here we go. It's funny that my pacifistic nerd has most points poured into military and none in science.

"But we are outsiders"

Liam, you're a sweetheart, but please get dressed

Redid the conversation with Vetra without the flirting. First, unless Peebee suddenly makes me hate her, then I'm romancing her; second, Vetra is a great person with great looks, but she's such a Mom Friend(tm).

Hold on, I've already asked Jaal all these questions, why are they not greyed out??

Why is "I wasn't close to my father" on the left and "I'm sorry, I lost my father too" on the right?

Why is Jaal speaking so slowly

Whoa, Voeld is 71% already? And I haven't even touched the monoliths!

Aya

Alright, I'm going to headcanon that establising the Voeld outpost happens after this scene. Now that would make a lot of sense!

Why did Ryder fricking yell at this person for being "hearless" when he asked if the supplies are safe?? I'm too lazy to reload, but it was stupid. 

Aya feels really peaceful.

It sounds like the same actress voices half of the NPCs in this game and DAI. I constantly get a feeling I'm still in the Hinterlands...

Vanadium is too expensive to buy... I get shield boosters every time I see them, though.

It's a good idea to let me have an opinion on the exaltation, but it's hard to predict from the wheel what these opinions really are. And the emotional one is kinda stupid. The kett weaponise their victims to make you hesitate? Nobody knew that until last week! (As implausible as that is.)

The sound quality in this location is pretty terrible. Different layers of sound don't blend together but abruptly switch on an off as I walk around.

For fuck's sake. Tried "friendship" option with Jaal again, and it was actually flirting again. What's the fucking point???

Logical: "The more we know about kett, the easier it will be to hurt them" Uh, nope. Let's go with my heart this time. Though I don't want to hear another stupid "Oh no, how shocking and horrible", it'd be still more in character.

"City planners don't walk around in battle armor with rifles on their shoulder" Thank you! Though it would work better in a conversation where I'm actually wearing armor...

"We traveled to build a new life here" "That's what invaders always say"

Casual Ryder asks Cora for advice for living among aliens, her answer: "Be polite about scanning your food"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but this isn't your only city, right" BHAHAHA BEST LINE IN THE GAME

"I noticed that you, Efra and Jaal all speak with different accents" Well I didn't...

Ryder, you already know angara have big families, why do you sound so surprised?

What the fuck, did I just hit on the governor? I thought it was another question!!!

A task to relay letters from angara to the Nexus sounded nice already. I thought it'd be just a fetch quest and didn't expect to see actual letters! It's a very effective way to represent a realistic range of opinions. More than I expected from the game. And I have to choose whether to edit them or not! That's original. I don't understand how exactly I'm supposed to edit them -- tried in an alternate save, and nothing new happened.

Oh look, I discovered a new spot on the way to the terminal! Which I guess is the main purpose of this quest, except I only talked to the governor after exploring almost everything else. It's nice that the game helps you explore and force you to read the codex.

Alright, I think I've done everything here, let's proceed. Who do I take with Peebee? Let's take Vetra.

Oh, it's not a mission? Just a cutscene with me and Moshae? Alright.

I don't like where this is going. So now instead of exploring I'll have to build an army to take the Meridian? How boring.

And the codex says that this makes the mission more urgent... ugh.

Wait, the Archont wants to destroy all non-kett life in the cluster? I thought his goal was to improve the kett by assimilating others...

So that's what I need on Kadara.

I still find the angara pretty dull, but as a hub Aya is very well built.

Tempest/Aya/Tempest

Gil's poker notes! :D

Peebee and Vetra are standing next to each other: :) They're not talking: :(

I just left Aya and wanted to go to the Nexus, but w/e, if Liam wants I'll pretend we haven't taken off and go meet him in that bar. Again.

Lexi... has eyebrows?

Tann appreciated the uncensored letters! See, he's good.

Sorry Kallo, but talking about "respect" is pretty dumb in this situation

Got a Hornet as a strike team reward. 

I don't get it. How is scanning food is going to help us grow it? Liam says he "stopped the operation" but he not only continues it himself but makes me do it -- for no reason? What the hell was that.

It gets worse. He gave out some classified and Nexus data?? In exchange for fixing something? What. the. fuck.

Liam's LM

I had to make that Star Wars reference, of course.

The bad guy apparently plays threatening music over the comms in-universe lol

Of course Ryder had to make a joke with Liam! She is a kid like him after all. And Vetra was like "I wish I could punch both of you"

The designers sure had fun with vertical mobility huh :D

Wait, it's been on easy all this time? Since when? I only noticed when an armored target went down too fast...

Had to melee the Hydras. Thanks to the MP community for explaining that they don't have a sync-kill...

Bradley & co are so competent!

"What's he complaining about? Put him right side up, didn't we?"

Oh fuck, a fiend! Good thing I have a flamethrower, and brought incendiary ammo.

Look, a hacking objective. Had an extraction on Voeld, now this. I hope we won't have to do the new ABC upload at some point...

"We need to bring everyone back home safely" vs "We need her to saty while we replace the codes" um, both?

I picked the latter. Liam got mad. Um, why? I'm not trying to blame Verand, it's just a safety precaution. I used the interrupt. Then, to soften the blow, told him he was right. He was so shocked! :D And the line was pretty nice too, not "I take everything back, I'll kiss everyone's ass to get their approval" but "We're in over our heads"

Good mission! Very cinematic, nice humor. I don't get Liam's logic at all very often (and now am relieved I didn't go for the romance) but he had some nice warm character moments here. 

The next step in Liam's story is to do Jaal's mission! I'm loving this. Just before thiggering this conversation I overheard the two of them and thought how nicely their friendship is established. But this level of connection between companions is completely new!

Tempest

Before the game's release, people were talking about Kallo as a young person. I didn't expect him to have such an old man story.

Why doesn't the ship's database have its own schematics in the first place?!

"Just think: while we're poking around in kett's genetics, they're probably doing the same with ours" "Wonderful. That's me never sleeping again"

I've complained about the galaxy map, a lot of people did, but let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that we don't have to spend fuel!

Nexus

"Lexi: Bottom of the Bottle" Hmm, I wonder where I could find her... :D

This woman is worried whether we should welcome angara as if it weren't us who are alien visitors here... Good thing I had the option to tell her exactly that! Even though it wasn't labeled clearly enough.

I had a feeling when I saw the name of Lexi's quest that Peebee's bullying got to her!

"Every one of my exes said that"

Whoa, the game rememebered that I flirted with her! That's a nice bit of continuity. "Yes! I mean no! Don't change the subject!" Btw "Don't change the subject" not only works here emotionally, but is also a smooth way to bring you back from an investigation dialogue option to the main conversation.

All casual options with Gil hell yeah

I refused to cheat initially. Then did it in another save. Ryder comment on Jill changes! And when she wins we get all four options. Seems like only one of them confesses to cheating. I picked that one. Hmm, not sure which one I like better... Btw it's really nice how Ryder replies to SAM but makes it sound she's replying to Gil.

Oh, Peebee's in the starting area too? I was expecting to search for her everywhere...

Aaaand I got stuck in some plant. Reload!

Whoa! So that's how Remnant VI is unlocked!! That's so cool. I sort of assumed I'd just pick it up somewhere. Now I've got to learn it!!! Using a power personally designed by your crush for you is amazing!!

What is this Leliana-Marjolain shit

At least she has a classic asari face texture :D

The translations are getting weirder and weirder. "Glad to see you moving on" -> "Glad to see you move to a new place"

Oh, it's even unlocked by default! Nice!

And now I'm finally free to deal with my own personal story! Btw I didn't realize until this second, but it's great that in this game the protagonist *has* their own personal quest. 

Let me guess, Alex's "fix" will backfire and kill Ellen faster?

"My education on human mortality began that day" -- the translators misread "mortality" as "morality"!! Argh!

Recordings of a quarian historian and the Shadow Broker!

I have two unlocked memories today (from Havarl and Voeld). There's only one remaining. It makes me sad... Does this mean that after Kadara we'll move onto the endgame already?

Family flashback!! There's no reason to have this specific memory blocked, it doesn't reveal anything, and it kind of restricts roleplaying possibilities... But it was amazing to see everyone in a cinematic! And the Ryders were very defined characters already anyway.

Oh, so this doesn't count for unlocking dad's restricted logs! This is good news.

I knew the spoiler that the attempted murderer goes back to cryo... I won't call a suicidal guy a coward.

Tann: "Stay away from Kadara. I cannot stress this enough" Ryder: "Lol"

Don't spring life-and-death decisions on me like that! Told the turian to stay on the Nexus just to be safe. Though this might mean he'll be killed when trouble inevitably comes here...

Baby krogan engineer Kesh!! How cute.

You know what I don't like? When the game greys out the questions I've already asked before, but have new answers now. Like when you talk to SAM about the unlocked memories, or to Addison about viability. Meanwhile, Peebee's "Flirting" is still open...

Oh, there's a viability chart in Pathfinder HQ! There's one more planet after Kadara. This is a bit spoilery if you ask me.

Aw, poor Tann is out of his depth!

Alright, I think I've done everything here.

"Our leaders have discussed whether we should send colonists there" FUCK NO!!! Are you serious?? Angara themselves have to rotate because that one planet can't support them all at once, and you're talking about burdening it with aliens?? You know, I like being a hero in this game just to prevent bullshit like this!!

Tempest

Peebee... I've already met you in Aya museum...

Multiplayer

I lost connection to a session so hard it threw me out of multiplayer into the starting screen...

Extracted from a Bronze Apex mission with bonus to combos as an asari adept. Everyone else played ranged characters and stayed close together on a roof or something -- sorry I ran off and died several times, I need to be in melee range!

Wait, it's not marked as completed -- what?

This mission has a bonus to explosions, and I still can't kill a mook 

This game on wave 3 is already longer than the previous game on 6...

God, this was the laggies, glitchiest match ever. 20+ minutes Powers took a second to process. Couldn't refresh shield in cover or use ops packs. I got shot down on 00:00. And nothing registered: APEX mission not completed, no credits, no xp.

Nobody joined my own lobby, let's try again

Finally! A normal full extraction, and mission finally complete. But when I tried to disable a device I couldn't progress more than halfway

I increased the range of Annihilation, but can't feel or see the change :(

#mass effect #mea spoilers #blah blah blah