• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mass Effect (PS3) |OT| Shepard's love is not exclusive

RPGCrazied

Member
Wow. Leviathan was really good. Another DLC that should've been included in the game, as it tells more about the reapers.

Now Omega, that can stay a paid DLC, its just a mission and squadmate. But From Ashes and Leviathan should be free.
 

Bittercup

Member
Can I not have a squadmate help when trying to Salvage? I picked Soldier, so have no Electronics or Decryption skill
The game just uses the highest skill you or one of your squad mates has fpr salvaging and decryption.
Garrus, Tali and Kaiden have both skills. As long as you choose one of them and the skills you can open everything.

Why can't you holster your weapon in 3?
One of the devs explained it as a memory problem on consoles. For holstering the weapon they would have to have a second animation set in memory and there wasn't enough left.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
The game just uses the highest skill you or one of your squad mates has fpr salvaging and decryption.
Garrus, Tali and Kaiden have both skills. As long as you choose one of them and the skills you can open everything.


One of the devs explained it as a memory problem on consoles. For holstering the weapon they would have to have a second animation set in memory and there wasn't enough left.

Really?

Also, can you not return to Dr. Bryson's lab after you finish Leviathan? I was going to try and get that achievement I missed, but every time I try and go there I get an endless loading screen. It's not frozen, but it just won't load the area anymore.
 

Cat

Member
For ME1, is it possible to fill out both the Paragon and Renegade bars through multiple playthroughs or does that become limited once you reach a high enough status for one?
 
For ME1, is it possible to fill out both the Paragon and Renegade bars through multiple playthroughs or does that become limited once you reach a high enough status for one?

You can use the Lori'Quin exploit on Noveria to max out both bars if you have decent enough Charm and Intimidate. That way you can do both affinity missions in one playthrough.

Also got the Platinum Trophy today. Pretty tedious spawning those Adept and Engineer powers but hey, at least I have all three ME games platinumed on PS3 (only need to buy the Leviathan and Omega DLC for ME3 to 100% everything).
 

Cat

Member
You can use the Lori'Quin exploit on Noveria to max out both bars if you have decent enough Charm and Intimidate. That way you can do both affinity missions in one playthrough.

Also got the Platinum Trophy today. Pretty tedious spawning those Adept and Engineer powers but hey, at least I have all three ME games platinumed on PS3 (only need to buy the Leviathan and Omega DLC for ME3 to 100% everything).

Well, I've already completed the Lori'Quin part on my current and first playthrough. I intend multiple playthroughs regardless. My Paragon rating is I think above 50% and Renegade is very small, but if I wanted to work toward maxing them both on future playthroughs, I wanted to know if it's possible. I don't want to unintentionally box myself in.
 

Foxix Von

Member
Just beat it and this is the second time I've been screwed out of a trophy this week. Didn't get Asari Ally even though I literally played through the entire game with her in my party. Didn't get the trophy for beating Binary Domain on hard either. BD isn't such a big deal since I fucking love that game and I'll probably end up replaying it again soon.

But still. Fucking sad face :(
 

Melchiah

Member
Just beat it and this is the second time I've been screwed out of a trophy this week. Didn't get Asari Ally even though I literally played through the entire game with her in my party. Didn't get the trophy for beating Binary Domain on hard either. BD isn't such a big deal since I fucking love that game and I'll probably end up replaying it again soon.

But still. Fucking sad face :(
Did you do all the sidequests? I did, and had Liara with me all the time, and I got the trophy near the end.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
If you already did a bunch of Citadel sidequests before getting her, it might be what screwed your chances.
 

Bittercup

Member
For ME1, is it possible to fill out both the Paragon and Renegade bars through multiple playthroughs or does that become limited once you reach a high enough status for one?
Paragon/Renegade is reset on a next playthrough. But it's possible to get both bars high enough for both, charm and intimidate in one.
Or as an alternative, play one playthrough as paragon and max out charm and the second as renegade for intimidate (or vice versa). For the charm/intimidate skills it doesn't matter if paragon/renegade gets reset.
 

Cat

Member
Paragon/Renegade is reset on a next playthrough. But it's possible to get both bars high enough for both, charm and intimidate in one.
Or as an alternative, play one playthrough as paragon and max out charm and the second as renegade for intimidate (or vice versa). For the charm/intimidate skills it doesn't matter if paragon/renegade gets reset.

Oh thanks, that clarifies things for me. I guess I won't be able to fill out both sides of that wheel after all. But it's good to know I can still max charm and intimidate with multiple playthroughs, so I'll do that instead.
 

prwxv3

Member
Ok I am having issues with voice overs during cutscenes. There are no voices during cutscenes bur there are voices during gameplay. Any fixes?
 

Cat

Member
It appears I cannot backup my save data unless I get PlayStation Plus to use the cloud. Does anyone know if there is any other way I can backup this info? My husband has PS+, so it'd be rather redundant for me to get it too for something so basic.
 

Melchiah

Member
It appears I cannot backup my save data unless I get PlayStation Plus to use the cloud. Does anyone know if there is any other way I can backup this info? My husband has PS+, so it'd be rather redundant for me to get it too for something so basic.

You can backup the saves that aren't copy protected manually to an external HDD, or a USB stick.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Trilogy complete! Took me like 3 weeks to go through all the games. I really liked it. I can't imagine playing 3 without From Ashes and not playing Leviathan with the extended cut DLC. I'm in no rush for another play through. Kinda sucked they ditched the choices affecting games though. Really didn't happen in 3.
 

Forceatowulf

G***n S**n*bi
Yeah.. so... I'm on my Man-Shep run in ME1 and this piece of shit game keeps freezing on me. It's frozen on me 3 times now! The most fucked up part is that it's happening during the final boss fight and after the last cutscene!!! So I can't even beat the game!

This is seriously some of the most egregious framerate dropping and stuttering I have ever encountered in a video game to date too. No exaggeration.

It did this same thing once on my very first playthrough too. But it was only once... now it's happened three times in a fucking ROW!! Bioware should be ashamed of themselves. Jesus fucking Christ.

/RANT
 
Has anyone else had any issues in the first game with the voice acting being way out of sync with the lip movements of the characters? I mean, it's WAY off. Kind of distracting.
 
Bring down the Sky was a fun little mission and I could see little bits of ME2 in there. Mostly all the red and blue lights gave it a real ME2 look to it and the fact the batarians have the best facial modelling in the entire game almost as if they just used ME2 models.



So what is everyone's go to squad?

I have generic solider Shepard and I mostly Liara and Garrus/tali.




Also I think I have decided I am keeping
Kaiden
.
 
Started playing Mass Effect 1 (PS3). The story has been really interesting so far but I haven't been having a lot of fun with the gameplay. One of my main issue is keeping track of everything. How do you guys juggle equipment management, sidequests, weapons, talents, etc? I played other WRPGs like Fallout 3 and Deus Ex and wasn't this overwhelmed like this. I also worry about missing stuff (items / sidequests / etc)

How do I approach this game so that I'll enjoy it more?
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
Started playing Mass Effect 1 (PS3). The story has been really interesting so far but I haven't been having a lot of fun with the gameplay. One of my main issue is keeping track of everything. How do you guys juggle equipment management, sidequests, weapons, talents, etc? I played other WRPGs like Fallout 3 and Deus Ex and wasn't this overwhelmed like this. I also worry about missing stuff (items / sidequests / etc)

How do I approach this game so that I'll enjoy it more?

I wouldn't worry about missing items, there's always something better around the corner usually as level up while playing and the "best" items can be bought. Also the inventory is terrible for management, I would suggest fitting out the main team mates you take with you and selling mostly everything else every few missions.

Same with side quests really, you can't miss many of them and those you can aren't that important so I wouldn't worry, all the "hub" areas where you get most of the missions can be revisited.

They give you three main locations to go to once you are allowed to do what you want after the citadel [
Feros, Noveria, Find Liara
] after two they give you a forth [
Virmire
], I wouldn't do the forth until you are essentially ready to finish off the game as it locks out certain locations to revisit.

I find games like this to be a little overwhelming when you first start them, not really knowing how the mechanics work, worry you will miss something or doing something wrong. You get used to it and then it is pretty clear cut.

If you want help organising quests etc. look up "Mass Effect Galactic Checklist", it is a PDF some guy made for Mass Effect (and one for ME2) that lists every main and side quest that helps you keep track of what you have or haven't done, and where to find things.
It makes it much easier getting around and doing stuff but might take away a little of the wonder from exploring an finding things on your own.
 

Melchiah

Member
Also I think I have decided I am keeping
Kaiden
.

I did the same this time, just to see how it plays if I ever play the sequels again. Although I'm dreading the choice is going to backfire, if
he's continuing to make advances to my fem-Shep.
=/
 

YoungHav

Banned
I have a question. What carries over from ME1 to ME2? I just beat ME1 at level 50, and want to beat hardcore and lvl up to 60. Should I pop in ME2 w/my lvl 50 character? or wait until my 2nd playthrough of ME1 and import lvl 60 shepherd?
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
I have a question. What carries over from ME1 to ME2? I just beat ME1 at level 50, and want to beat hardcore and lvl up to 60. Should I pop in ME2 w/my lvl 50 character? or wait until my 2nd playthrough of ME1 and import lvl 60 shepherd?

I'm not sure on exacts, but the higher your level and paragon/renegade you get a small boost in level and in either the two areas after the prologue, you also get some extra materials that you would usually have to mine for iirc that you use to get upgrades.
You don't get anything that would drastically change anything based on being level 50 or 60.

Nothing is directly taken over besides your choices, no level, abilities, weapons and anything like that.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
I have a question. What carries over from ME1 to ME2? I just beat ME1 at level 50, and want to beat hardcore and lvl up to 60. Should I pop in ME2 w/my lvl 50 character? or wait until my 2nd playthrough of ME1 and import lvl 60 shepherd?
No major difference if you import a +51 character. You'll get some extra bonuses and it might be a bit easier to hit the lv cap in ME2 in one play through, but you can do that with a lv 50 character if you complete everything on insanity from the start.

Character Stats and Levels

Due to several gameplay changes, your character's level and abilities will not transfer over to Mass Effect 2. However, the game will acknowledge your character's level and morality and adapt it in ways that map across to the new system as well. The higher the level of the imported character, the greater the bonuses granted upon importing.

  • A portion of the character's Paragon/Renegade points (up to 190 each, which requires the bar(s) to be 50% full[1]) are transferred over.
  • Importing a level 1 through level 49 character will grant 1,000 XP (the player starts at level 2), 20,000 credits, and 2,500 of each resource.
  • Importing a level 50 through level 59 character will grant 2,000 XP (the player starts at level 3), 30,000 credits, and 5,000 of each resource.
  • Importing a level 60 character will grant 4,000 XP (the player starts at level 5), 50,000 credits, and 10,000 of each resource.
  • Having the "Rich" achievement from Mass Effect will grant an additional 100,000 credits.
  • The import bonuses will stack with the Mass Effect 2 completion starting bonuses (200,000 credits and 50,000 of each resource).

If you want to read story spoilers on what carries over to ME2 and ME3, then go here.
 
Why the hell do none of the games let us edit our characters when starting up a new game plus? Can't remember how it was in 2 and 3, but here, you can't respec, change your background, appearance, class, etc. It's a stupid fucking design decision. Are there mods for the PC version which fix this?
 

Patryn

Member
Why the hell do none of the games let us edit our characters when starting up a new game plus? Can't remember how it was in 2 and 3, but here, you can't respec, change your background, appearance, class, etc. It's a stupid fucking design decision. Are there mods for the PC version which fix this?

Why not create a new character? Or do you just want to start with a level whatever character?

I believe neither 2 or 3 allowed you to change your character either.
 
Starting my insanity run, I wanted to import my Level 50 soldier, but change his stats around, as well as change his background to a different one to see the variations.

Unlike 2, new game plus is a lot better for the higher difficulties. Can't remember how 3 was in that regard.
 
I unlocked the First aid skill for 2 of my squad members (Shepard and Garrus) but the skill doesn't appear on my skill selection screen.

What am I doing wrong?

Edit:

So first aid is medigel? Wow, that's pretty weird/confusing.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
I unlocked the First aid skill for 2 of my squad members (Shepard and Garrus) but the skill doesn't appear on my skill selection screen.

What am I doing wrong?

Edit:

So first aid is medigel? Wow, that's pretty weird/confusing.
Yeah in ME it's how much hp you recover every time you use medigel. You don't really need to dump any points into it with Shepard as long as one of your squadmates has it.
 
Yeah in ME it's how much hp you recover every time you use medigel. You don't really need to dump any points into it with Shepard as long as one of your squadmates has it.

Does the skill levels for first aid stack between the squad members? Or does the game only use the highest first aid skill level in your squad?
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Does the skill levels for first aid stack between the squad members? Or does the game only use the highest first aid skill level in your squad?
It'll stack, but at a certain point you'll start getting armor upgrades that offer health regen so it doesn't make much sense to dump a lot of points into First Aid. I usually use my squadmate's first aid to get me through the early game and then mid game I slap a mid to high lv medical interface on Shep so I only have to use medigel for downed squadmates or emergency situations.
 

Patryn

Member
Yeah in ME it's how much hp you recover every time you use medigel. You don't really need to dump any points into it with Shepard as long as one of your squadmates has it.

It's worth putting points in it to unlock Medicine if that's a pre-req.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
I just posted in the "games you've beaten" thread but I'll post here too.

Completed Mass Effect today (on the X360, not PS3) after putting a lot of time into it this weekend. Overall I was happy with the experience. My favorite part was the early Citadel sequence, which involved a lot of talking to people, exploring the Citadel itself, and learning the mechanics of the game. For some reason that was really immersive for me.

My least favorite aspect of the game was the repetitive planet-exploration side quests. Some were okay, but others were tedious and boring. I really didn't care for the re-use of map layouts for stations and mines. Just an example of how the game was too big for its own good. A smaller, more varied experience would have been better. Less planets, for example, and more interesting buildings and terrain.

Feros frustrated me because I forgot to go back to two characters after completing their respective quests. Thus I went into a course of events carelessly, where
two characters died, one by my hand and the other by the progression of the game's story
, and the game decided not to label these quests as "incomplete" in the assignments section, but rather just kept them there as if they could still be completed. OCD overload! But I got over it.

I sweet talked Ashley the entire game. I love me a cheesy romantic subplot.

In terms of my character, I made him an infiltrator (even though people say that Soldier is the best). To be honest I had no issues with using a pistol primarily. Once I maxed out Marksman, it was smooth sailing. Then again I only played on the normal difficulty. Sniper rifles came in handy in very specific situations, but I never felt the need to max out the sniper trait.

I started the game using Kaidan and Ashley, but eventually switched Kaidan out for Garrus. Honestly, I never found a need to have anyone with biotic capabilities on my team, but somehow I can tell that biotics are useful. Brute force got me through the game, so no big deal. I put more emphasis on combat and electronics/decryption, and charisma for myself.

Oh, and what's funny is that, throughout the game I thought I would need to buy way more than I actually ended up buying. Yikes! Most weapons and armor found on side quests are better than what are offered in the stores, with the exception of Spectre weapons. I ended the game at the 9,999,999 credit cap. Crazy!
 

Davey Cakes

Member
New post after thinking about the game and doing some reading.

I'm actually freaked out at how your saves can be imported from game to game, affecting the story in different ways. Things like how ME2 and ME3 apparently handle the consequences of "who lives and who dies" are sort of mindblowing. I'm almost astonished that BioWare got player-dependent continuity to work.

In regards to certain characters in ME1:
I talked Wrex down so that he wouldn't die (I didn't even know of this consequence at the time), and I chose Ashley instead of Kaidan
. Knowing that there are actually differences in ME2 and ME3 based on these events is really cool, and I wonder how much effort it took to implement these alternative continuities.
 
Importing is broken on PS3.

So I imported my Mass Effect 1 character to ME2 and Liara is showing up in the intro on Normandy SR1. I romanced Ashley and had the sex scene in ME1 so it should have been her. Good job on not getting a simple function to work Bioware.
 

Patryn

Member
Importing is broken on PS3.

So I imported my Mass Effect 1 character to ME2 and Liara is showing up in the intro on Normandy SR1. I romanced Ashley and had the sex scene in ME1 so it should have been her. Good job on not getting a simple function to work Bioware.

I believe that bug was originally on the 360 as well.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Weird I never saw that glitch on PC, despite transfering i imagine nearly 6-8 Shepards from ME1 to ME2.
 
If I finish the game and want to play through another campaign, will some of my stats/equipment carry over to the next play through like some new game plus mechanic?
 
Top Bottom