Mass Effect

[SixTwoSixFour]

Well, I had help. Shaner was there to make sure it was as terrible as possible.

[TheMightyEthan]

Also I'm pretty sure the base game that everyone played the other week is the game. That's it as it will be forever and ever. DLC, as I've been told many times, doesn't actually count on what is the "complete and finsihed game" or not.

 

Trolololol.

 

I can't speak for anyone else, but what I've said in the past about DLC is that it doesn't matter as long as what you get for the price is a complete game, not necessarily the complete game. That's an important distinction. Like how a movie in a trilogy can be a complete story without being the complete story. Or a better example would be a movie with a tie-in comic: the comic is part of the story even though it's not in the movie, and even if you don't go read it.

[Waldorf and Statler]

to be fair a certain DLC was decently big in the ME2 game. Dealing with Batarians.

[TheMightyEthan]

Right, and like I said, it's part of the story. But I don't really see much of a difference between that and the tie-in comics. I do get that it's "your" Shepard and if you didn't play the DLC then it gives default actions for it and so people talk about you doing things that you didn't do, and for that reason I think they should have just had it treat those events as not having happened when you import (which works with all the DLC except Arrival, dunno how they could have gotten around that, maybe include Arrival code with ME3 copies?)

[Hot Heart]

If you don't have Arrival, it acts like some Alliance group blew up the relay.

 

Hooray!

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/03/19/operation-goliath-success-2/

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh it does? From what Dean said before I thought it acted like he'd done it.

[Hot Heart]

It weakens the 103rd Division by 50 points, apparently. I guess so as not to annoy people who skipped it.

 

Of course, all I saw was this update on it:

Admiral Hackett dispatched marines to the planet Aratoht to rescue a deep cover agent, Dr. Amanda Kenson. The teams were killed in an explosion that wiped out both the colony and the system's relay. The Alliance spent weeks piecing together scattered radio transmissions, learning that the marines felt they had no choice but to send an asteroid into the relay to prevent invasion by the Reapers. While it bought the Alliance some time, the men and women lost on the mission were a severe blow to the 103rd Marine Corps.

[deanb]

Oh it does? From what Dean said before I thought it acted like he'd done it.

Yeah, the Batarian is very clearly pointing the finger at me. There is in fact a whole side quest on the Citadel, full of alliance, where a Batarian sets me up in order to ambush me and have a crack at blowing my brains out cos I blew up his planet in Arrival. Which when talking him down didn't leave much to go on cos I didn't know what the fuck I did. (But I'm Commander Shepard, and convincing the Batarains to join the fleet is my favourite thing to do on the citadel)

[TheMightyEthan]

That's Balak, and he kind of blames all humans for all actions of the Alliance, and for the general fall from glory of the Batarian Hegemony. I didn't see the dialog, but are you sure he was blaming you specifically, and not just because you're a high-profile human?

[Hot Heart]

Balak is the terrorist guy from Bring Down The Sky in ME1. He blames the Alliance and picks Shepard as a prime target.

[deanb]

So I guess this brings up question 2: Why then, if some random alliance team blew up the planet instead, are you grounded on Earth?

[jimmuhpage]

Cerberus association? Nuking a garden world?

[TheMightyEthan]

Because you went off to work with a terrorist organization?

 

*Edit* - What garden world did you nuke if you weren't the one responsible for blowing up the relay?

Edited March 20, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, actually, does the intro ever openly state what you're imprisoned for? I always felt the section was a little brief and shallow, maybe that's why.

[TheMightyEthan]

Assuming the demo's intro is the same as the full game's intro (everything else about it is) then if you didn't do Arrival they just talk in generalities ("the shit you've done") whereas if you did Arrival they specifically say for blowing up the Batarian system.

[Hot Heart]

Ah, nice. Very clever.

[deanb]

Question: How did you end up grounded on Earth for being part of Cerberus, despite the fact you quite freely hopped into the Citadel many times without being locked up? How did your ship and (non-Cerberus) human crew get locked up but the aliens were left to go free? How did you get locked up when they've got nothing bad on you? It works if you blew up the Batarian planet, but you at most destroyed Collector base and I'm sure the alliance has no issue with that. For most of the game you were also operating outside of alliance airspace. And you were also KIA, meaning I'm pretty sure you're off the hook as far as being tied to the job goes, so being court martialeld would be a bit hard. "Fleeing to the other side in the face of danger".

 

Argh the beginning has as many fucking questions as the end.

[jimmuhpage]

Assuming you did Jack's loyalty quest, you nuked Pragia. A pretty much uninhabitable world, but nevertheless one with life.

[TheMightyEthan]

You didn't nuke the whole damn planet, just the base.

[jimmuhpage]

It's still against Council law, no? I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the codex...

[deanb]

I thought ME2, apart from on the citadel itself, is carried out in the Terminus systems which are out of Citadel space and thus out of their jurisdiction and law.

[TheMightyEthan]

I think the Pragia mission is in Alliance space, but I could be wrong. You're right that most of the game is in the Terminus Systems though, and the Mass Effect Wiki doesn't say whether Pragia is in Alliance space or not.

[Vargras]

I thought ME2, apart from on the citadel itself, is carried out in the Terminus systems which are out of Citadel space and thus out of their jurisdiction and law.

 

I don't think it's necessarily that - I mean, the Earth Systems Alliance has their own little slice of space, which isn't technically Council space, yet they still follow the Council's laws.

 

The way I see it, the Terminus Systems are akin to the American Wild West. Sure, it's basically still part of the larger whole, and SHOULD be subject to the laws as a result. However, the place is entirely too big to properly enforce, and those that live within it simply don't give a damn about the laws.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Vargras

[Vargras]

FYI, if you beat a Reaper map on Silver or higher over the weekend, your commendation pack will contain one of the Collector's Edition weapons at random. Looks like you've got a chance at getting the N7 Crusader shotgun, N7 Eagle pistol, N7 Hurricane SMG, and N7 Valiant sniper rifle. No mention of the Valkyrie assault rifle. Limit of one squad pack per person, so you only had to beat it once to score the goodies.

[CorgiShinobi]

And you were also KIA, meaning I'm pretty sure you're off the hook as far as being tied to the job goes, so being court martialeld would be a bit hard.

Except when you first return to the Citadel in ME2, there is the issue of a "dead" Shepard walking onto the Citadel. Thus you have to go and visit that C-Sec desk where we first meet Sgt. Bailey and get it straightened out.

 

You also happened to talk to the Council, so I doubt you could keep up the whole "phantom" persona for all the crap you're doing with Cerberus.