Mass Effect Andromeda - I'm not Commander Shepard and this is my favorite sequel

Well, I do feel like I need to apologize for liking Andromeda. Specifically to Murbella. It just felt like I was upsetting his world view when I posted positive stuff about the game.

I’d agree with that for the base game, but once you add in all of the DLC, especially Kasumi and the Shadow Broker, it made for a pretty satisfying all-middle sprawl of a story (for me).

Lair of the Shadow Broker was the only time ME2 felt like it lived up to ME1 for me. In part I think the fight along the outside of the ship very successfully evoked my favorite bit of combat in the first one, when you fight along the outside of the Citadel. (I think that’s actually probably my favorite combat sequence in the whole series, despite the combat in 1 not being quite as good as 3 or Andromeda.) And then there’s a number of other cool bits, too.

Shame about Arrival being 90% (bad) combat with a nonsensical storyline. :/

Agreed 100% with all of that. Lair was the best part of ME2, ME1 Citadel fight is the best of the series, Arrival sucks.

ME3’s Citadel DLC is on sale again on Xbox Live for $5, so I’m tempted yet again. But there’s no way I’ll play ME3 again, surely, so I should stop being tempted.

Would the Citadel DLC be fun with just a cold return to the game? If I didn’t bother starting again, but just went in with a save game and started playing just the DLC?

I never really thought Lair of the Shadow Broker was all that big a deal. I enjoyed it, and certainly was cool getting more Liara time, considering she was so underutilized in the main game. But it always seemed like the praise was overstated to me. I’d say I liked Overlord about equally. But yeah, Arrival sucked.

I think Citadel is worth the time and money, totally. There are some great character moments and even a fun little mini campaign. You shouldn’t hate to replay the whole game I think, as long as you have a save that’s far enough along.

I honestly barely remember Overlord. It wasn’t as janky in narrative and tedious in terms of action as Arrival but I didn’t feel like it really did anything exceptional either.

It’s interesting that each of the original trilogy Mass Effects seemed to be notable for different things, often at the expense of something else. For example, ME1 had the best story, but the weakest gameplay. ME2 had the best cast and side quests, but the weakest main story. ME3 had the most rewarding gameplay, but the weakest cast of characters. It’s almost as if they had massive staff overhaul each time they made a new one (maybe they did, I’m not up on video game industry happenings).

As far as DLCs, the only ones I can clearly recall are the Kasumi one (which was my favorite) and the Shadow Broker, which was okay but not something I’d play through again (never was a big Liara fan). I don’t think I played any of the ME3 ones, but it’s rare I finish a game at all anymore, much less a bunch of DLC. One of the reasons for my bad memory is that I tended to play the games a several months after release and they usually had the DLC bundled with the base game by then, so it was rarely obvious that I was starting a DLC mission.

It would be fine. It’s really just some fun fan service with not a lot of connection to the story of ME3.

EA is probably not going to let this go on much longer, but this crew’s fix list is pretty impressive.

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/priority-earth-overhaul-is-a-must-have-mod-for-mass-effect-3-improves-final-mission-in-every-way/

Why do you think EA will do anything? How is this different than the other ME mods out there already?

Did you look at their plans for phases 2 and 3? They got pretty far into what could be considered an unauthorized derivative work that EA might not approve of and feel the need to defend their IP. Putting words into the mouths of their characters, etc.

I hope they get left alone to work on it, they zoned in on a lot of things that ME3 was rightly criticized for.

Be interested to see where they go with that. Last time I played, I used the ‘Happy Ending’ mod, wherein you either won or lost the war based on your EMS (or whatever) rating. The whole ‘Star Kid’ stuff was gone, as was the stupid decision tree at the end. And, if you won, Sheppard survived. Much better ending than the one from the base game. Not because Sheppard lived (if you won), but because you weren’t presented with a conversation that ignored everything you had done in three games up to that point. So it’ll be interesting to see what they come with for an ending. Because I don’t think the MEHEM is a great ending. May not even be more than average. It’s just better than what we were given. And FTR - No, I don’t think the last 10 minutes of ME3 ruined the series. It’s just an incredibly disappointing end to what was up to that point an outstanding game in every way. I played the series through twice more - with the original ending - because the rest of the series was that good overall.

I feel like saying you feel the need to apologize for liking something is extremely passive aggressive.

Liking or not liking something is simply a matter of opinion. I’m certainly not going to apologize to you for thinking Andromeda was mediocre. In other times when my opinion is in the minority I’m not going to apologize to the majority that I disagree.

So unless you start throwing out conspiracies liked me a only failed because people are mean to bioware you have my permission to keep on keeping on. There is a line between being a fan and being an obsessive fan (general comment, not about you or anyone specific).

And anyway, upsetting people’s worldview by posting positive impressions of a game is just icing on the cake.

It was a bit of both: part joke, part passive aggression. I don’t think either of our feelings about the game had any impact on the success or failure of the game. I just felt like you got really bothered and had to post something negative every time I posted something positive, as if to keep balance in the thread.

I’ve certainly been on that side of things, so I don’t begrudge you for it. I was on that side in the original Baldur’s Gate, and partially for the original Dragon’s Age.

From the article:

“Stage 3 will focus on the bleeding edge of modding like new missions and gameplay elements.”

Exactly how is that different than mods in Fallout 3, NV, and 4 that add new missions or areas, or put words in the mouths of existing characters? For example, there is a mod for Fallout 4 that lets your wife live, and gives her dialogue. There are other mods that are virtual DLC’s. I don’t see this ME mod as being any different. Can you further explain?

Derivative works such as mods can only be distributed with the approval of the copyright owner. All of your examples are Bethesda games, and Bethesda is known for at various times, tolerating, encouraging, and attempting to monetize end-user mods. EA, on the other hand, does not have a reputation for full tolerance for end-user mods.

A little nosing around turned up some info indicating EA was ok with Sims mods as long as they weren’t being sold. But I also saw some complaints about Origin bans for modding ME3 from 2012. Which they can do under the licensing terms. Other reports have them allowing SP ME3 mods as long as they don’t affect MP. Here’s hoping EA can tell the 2 apart.

But ultimately, it’s up to copyright holder to decide whether to act to bar distribution of a mod, which is why things like fan translation patches for Japanese-only games are in a legal grey area. And there’s no obligation that they be fair or consistent about it.

So they can stop the mod, but evidence is pretty mixed as to whether they would. Not quite the alarmist scenario you were portraying them :)

Likely the case, I didn’t recall using the word “probably,” but I sure did.

Good morning! Here, have a hand grenade.

Edit: oh, I just noticed it’s a year old, but it showed up in my news feed today. Oh well, I still enjoyed it.