Mass Alex: Mass Effect - Part 18

Thanks for this entertaining feature Alex and Vinny. I can't wait to see the conclusion later today!

See you Space Cowboy Shepshep and Mass Alex

Yay, nice surprise that this episode was in fact today!

I'm so hype(rspace)d! Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Vinny. And look, I realize we're a long way off, but throw this in a time capsule, when you get to ME3, please, make sure you have the Extended Cut dlc. It really helps. Granted, ALL the dlc for 2 and 3 are pretty darn good. And now, while this downloads, I'm off to dust off my 360, which has all said dlc content waiting for me to start another Shepard trilogy. This series has been MY. . . Catalyst. "I should go."

You did it!

I think that Alex should know that while ME2 may in many ways be a better videogame it is not a better piece of narrative media. That ending song is still really good in my opinion, shame to see it cut off.

I'm sure Vinny already knows but just in case make sure you have the following DLC for 2:

Kasumi

Zaeed

Overlord

Lair of the Shadow Broker

The Arrival

And that The Arrival should be the last thing Alex does before moving on to ME3

You monsters. Can't believe you skipped the entire credits song :(

The whole idea of getting ME1 "out of the way" to get to ME2 is really weird to me. Going from ME1 to ME2 is like going from Star Trek TNG to the 2009 Star Trek movie. Yes, the movie has better effects and faster pacing but you're getting a truly shit story, lore and shlocky dialogue for in return. I don't get Vinny's obsession with ME2 and ambivalence towards ME1. All the stuff he claims to love get thrown away in ME2 and get redone "But coooooool." All the hunanity-is-the-underdog story threads get abandoned, all the character building for your old crew, abandoned. Your ship, destroyed, gets pointlessly replaced with an almost identical one. Shepard, GETS KILLED. Then gets identically "rebuild" literally 1 minute later. You start working for Cerberus, a terrorist group that- if you picked the Sole Survivor -character history is literally responsible for your unit getting killed. ME2 as a sequel to ME1 is just really stupid.

Wooh, that whole ending sequence is as epic as I remember, for what one can say about video game endings they really knew how to end this one with a banger.

For some of its technical caveats ME1 remains a great game in the series and I'm glad Alex took to it, with the understanding of course that Bioware were still kind of finding their action game footing and this being very much the leading arc to a much grander story.

I'm excited for GOTY'18 but I hope they don't take too long of a break to get to the second game.
Till next year!

@reaveybeach: The main story is so-so, but the Illusive Man is pretty cool, and some of the loyalty missions are pretty incredible (and they're all at least very good). Mordin's loyalty mission, in particular, is better than anything in Mass Effect 1. Also, it doesn't play like hot garbage.

ME3 is better than both of them, though :)

Not looking at things with rose colored glasses as, much like Alex, I'm just getting to the Mass Effect trilogy. I'm in the middle of ME2 (on the last loyalty mission) and I have to say, I like the gameplay of ME1 more. I mean, ME2 is just a well done cover shooter. But I dont really like cover shooters. I felt the play in ME1 was somewhat more 'dynamic'. Admittedly, there are many more varied environments, but in the end, they all feel like a corridor shooting gallery. I missed the open spaces of the Mako segments (mitigated *a little* by the Overlord DLC).

And I kinda really hate that my FemShep cant date Tali! ;) (I got a hug though....)

Alex 'hair trigger' Navarro.

Me2 > me1

o7 shep shep!

also- some people really don't like that other people prefer me2, eh? for me it's all about character development and exciting environments- and nothing in me1 beats things like getting to know garrus as 'archangel' and that first moment you enter afterlife with all the space-club sights and sounds.

Lift is such a powerful Biotic power (as shown at the end), definitely worth dumping points in to it.

Shep Shep was a better human than I.

I let the council get what they deserved.

Man, back to Tuesdays sucking for a bit. This was great fun and I can't wait for the next season. Alex's playstyle should be a little less maddening (for me) in ME2. While I tend to favor shotguns and aggression in 1 and 3, when it comes to 2 I always favor the heavy pistol/sniper rifle combo.

Also, how dare you cut off the Faunts song? How dare you?

As much as I love Mass Effect 2, there are things about the design of Mass Effect 1 that made me feel like they threw some of the babies out with the bathwater for the sequel (which when I first discovered Mass Effect 1 I put the game down and walked straight back to my local brick-and-mortar shop to buy it right away). BioWare flexes its strengths super well because of ME2's character vignette focus but I really did miss the feeling of exploration and discovering completely alien-looking planets, even if some of them were a chore to behold.

Still, a lot of Mass Effect 1 holds up, at least as a viewing experience, and I was happy to see BioWare reintroduce some elements from the first game back into the third, at least in terms of combat and more open, varied level design. Early 2019 can't come soon enough!

Great job gents! Thoroughly enjoyed Mass Alex, can't wait for Mass Alex 2 next year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKiOcV1SSc

Many thanks, Alex and Vinny. I'm a ME 1 fan, but only by a hair. They're both great entries in a grand story that never forgets its characters. For all the screaming I did at my monitor when Alex refused to deal with gear management, he proved he did all of it that he had to. I'm happy he enjoyed the game and that we get to share his and Shep's adventures in the new year. Organics 1; Reapers 0.

Thanks for the journey Alex, can't wait the for the next adventure!

@gkhan: nothing in ME2 is better than ME1. Not even the combat, which just like ME1 is just OK. Some of the loyalty missions are good. But as a whole ME1 is a far better game.

Hyped for this!

Thanks for this, see you next year!

@cyberspacecat: I'm glad the end held up too. This ending is still one of the best things in the entire series and why I like 1 better than 2 (at least story-wise. 2 has the best characters).

I think my favorite part of this whole feature is how Alex didn't use cover in any fashion. Just hardcore run-and-gunning. Like a tr00 gamr.

I'm in the ME2 boat. Refines and improves on ME1 with great characters, rad loyalty missions, and better powers and combat. The only real issue I have with it is the final boss kind of sucks. The suicide mission is dope, but fighting a giant terminator was goofy.

@reaveybeach: I agree, except for the fact that ME1 plays like ass, the menus are trash, the characters are less interesting, and ME2 is a better game in every way.

But other than that, preach brother.

Thanks for this guy's, loved the Star Trek references you put in there Alex. Can't wait for the adventures of Shep Shep in Mass Effect 2.

I can’t wait for 2019.

I know Vinny loves ME2 but there is a narrative tone in 1 that 2 and 3 both fail to capture, I think 2 is very good in almost every way as a game and a story. But it is also very different and in some respect I felt it was less inspired. Re-watching the story of ME1 through Alex, I am reminded why this is still my favorite of the series, in no small part due to Sovereign and Saren as the antagonists.

Thanks Alex, it was a great time watching Shep Shep adventures and I look forward to many more.

I prefer ME1 too but I feel like the disdain ME2 has occasionally been getting is a bit overblown.

While I don't like how generic cover-shooter the combat and level structure got in ME2 I particularly think it nails its character development and introduces some important additions to the roster (neither 2 or 3 gets away from having the most boring human party members possible though).

I think Alex will enjoy his time quite a bit with ME2, after all what counts in a Mass Effect game is the universe and its characters.

Stellar work! Can't wait to resume watching the continued adventures of Commander Shep Shep. Thanks Alex and Vinny!

ME2 is also my fave in the series. Sure, I have issues with it, but I just really adore the world and the characters in that one so much more.

Been great to watch this series so far and looking forward to the adventures of commander Shepshep in Mass Effect 2.

Alex be prepared for harder choices.

Great series guys! Can't wait for ME2.

Shep Shep, we made it!

@cyberspacecat: It's just the minority that prefer ME1 getting their opinion out there vocally so it's seen, same as those 18% femsheps or whatever it was, which from the internet you'd think was all anyone ever picked. When there was a big ME favorites poll on the forums here it was something like 30/60/10% for 1/2/3.

Yo mods can we do something about all these spoilers? Such an asshole thing to do just because you're mad people don't like the same thing you do.

Shep Shep out!

"That's weird, Shepard died. That's hell of a way to end the first game."

Oh Alex...

ME2 still wins out as a game for me because, on the whole, it is far more consistent and enjoyable to play than ME1 and has far more individually great stories and moments. ME1 just has too much filler, inventory mess, and rough edges.

But damn if this ending sequence in the last two episodes isn't the best the series has been when it comes to the primary plot of the trilogy. There are still some individual character moments and stories that probably stand out more, but the Prothean VI leading to the Citadel, Saren, and the space battle still stands on top of any comparable sequence from both a story perspective and a cinematic perspective.

Yay!

Mass Effect 1: The Terminator

Mass Effect 2: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Any of the Mass Effect games can be a person’s favourite and that’s ok.

.... even Andromeda.

@redhotchilimist: this is an aside, but: i still feel like mass effect really messed up when it comes to the gender selection stuff.

like, you can easily start mass effect 1 without realising playing as a woman is even an option--if you use the quick start, as most people did, you never see a gender select screen. plus, the marketing certainly wouldn't have clued you in to the possibility--female shepard got all of one trailer, across the entire trilogy, and that was just a gender swapped version of one they'd already released with the dude version, just before me3 launched.

bioware have generally been at least a little better about that sort of thing since, but even andromeda's marketing ended up placing way more emphasis on the guy, ultimately.

...

anyways me2 for life.