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[Poodlestrike]

Because you don't go from first discovering the mass effect and having 0 ft ships or knowledge to standing toe to toe with the galaxies most significant military power in 9 years. Yes, technology is guided along a similar route, but not that fast! Similarly, I don't think technology stagnation means going from 0 to max level in 9 years - do we think that there has literally been zero advancement by council species in the last 2200 years? (And then suddenly all the non-reaper tech advancement we see within the series from Me1 to ME3?).

I love the setting, but nothing about the timelines works. I just mentally add a couple of centuries to everything... ;-)

I mean, we didn't go from 0. It's not like Earth circa 2176 doesn't have a pretty impressive technological and industrial base of its own, lol. So we got gud, or at least, gud enough that the Turians had to try. We still weren't really on par, but able to put up a respectable fight.

And not no advancement, but yeah, basically marginal? They thought they were scraping the frontier of what's possible. We tend to think that the current incredibly rapid progress we're currently going through is the norm, but historically, that's not the case, and it's not likely to remain the case going forward. You're already seeing thinkpieces about how it's very possible that we've gotten all the "low hanging fruit," scientifically speaking.

I mean, I'm not totally opposed to adding more time to humanity's timeline, but something's gotta give, otherwise they'd be utterly outclassed by the Council races, which is demonstrably not the case

Putting aside the lore nonsense in Halo, it took like 500 years for Humanity in that series to get to where they were, and they still almost got BTFO by the Covenant.

You actually see people bitching about timeline stuff in Halo as well, the reasoning being that in 500 years they think that we'd probably be doing better on the weapons front than they are in the games.

 

[Big Nikus]

The fact that all the Earth governments join forces after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars speeds things up considerably.
But initially, the hero of ME was supposed to be Anderson, and iirc it was supposed to take place not too long after the First Contact War. The plans changed so that may have screw up the timeline a bit, and Anderson's story was told in the first novel. That's why he was almost a Spectre and the first captain of the Normandy, and also why he's kind of a father figure to Shepard.

 

[Ralemont]

The Dovahk ‏@TheDovahk
@tibermoon Please tell me fetch quests arent littered across every planet. Are the planets more unique?

Ian S. Frazier – Verified account ‏@tibermoon
@TheDovahk The worlds each have unique stories, and there's no quest to collect 10 varren bladders.

Thank god, we'll only have to collect 5.

In all seriousness I'd love if MEA adopted an Old Republic approach to planets. The planets have an intro mission, 3-4 nonlinear story missions, then a final mission that wraps things up and takes your earlier choices into account. Depending how many optional planets MEA has that could be feasible.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

The Dovahk ‏@TheDovahk
@tibermoon Please tell me fetch quests arent littered across every planet. Are the planets more unique?

Ian S. Frazier – Verified account ‏@tibermoon
@TheDovahk The worlds each have unique stories, and there's no quest to collect 10 varren bladders.

Thank god, we'll only have to collect 5.

In all seriousness I'd love if MEA adopted an Old Republic approach to planets. The planets have an intro mission, 3-4 nonlinear story missions, then a final mission that wraps things up and takes your earlier choices into account. Depending how many optional planets MEA has that could be feasible.

I mean, I get what you're saying here (and I greatly enjoyed SWTOR myself) but most of those planet storylines with cutscenes in The Old Republic were still destroy 5 of these things or kill 5 sith acolytes etc. At the end of the day you're either solving puzzles, interacting with a set amount of objects, killing something, or collecting something in MMO's,RPG'S, and MMORPGS, you can't escape it. Which is why I always find the comparison of Inquisition to an MMO weird when those two genres are one and a same, with the difference being online functionality.

 

[Ralemont]

I mean, I get what you're saying here (and I greatly enjoyed SWTOR myself) but most of those planet storylines with cutscenes in The Old Republic were still destroy 5 of these things or kill 5 sith acolytes etc. At the end of the day you're either solving puzzles, interacting with a set amount of objects, killing something, or collecting something in MMO's,RPG'S, and MMORPGS, you can't escape it. Which is why I always find the comparison of Inquisition to an MMO weird when those two genres are one and a same, with the difference being online functionality.

Yeah the quest design itself wasn't good for a lot of the little stuff. The biggest problem was that because it was an MMO the worlds were so big that it took 5 minutes of riding to get to the next objective.

But what Old Republic does have, and lots of it, is cutscenes, interesting NPCs, and dialogue wheels in those quests. So i forgave the occasional "kill these 10 monsters" commands because I found the stories interesting. And I think that's where DAI breaks down. Let's face it, BioWare doesn't do branching quest design very well on a quest by quest basis (neither does CDPR ftr). If you look at something like New Vegas and all the different ways you can solve a quest it's like night and day with what every single AAA RPG dev is doing these days. What carries these games despite that is either good combat or interesting stories.

So basically what I'm envisioning is Old Republic planetary quest structure without the 0/10 objectives and long travel times and with Mass Effect 3 combat. And I salivate.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Because you don't go from first discovering the mass effect and having 0 ft ships or knowledge to standing toe to toe with the galaxies most significant military power in 9 years. Yes, technology is guided along a similar route, but not that fast! Similarly, I don't think technology stagnation means going from 0 to max level in 9 years - do we think that there has literally been zero advancement by council species in the last 2200 years? (And then suddenly all the non-reaper tech advancement we see within the series from Me1 to ME3?).

I love the setting, but nothing about the timelines works. I just mentally add a couple of centuries to everything... ;-)

A lot can happen in a very short space of time if you put your collective minds/bodies behind a force: look at the advancements during WW1 and WW2, in very short spaces of time the technology of the world took massive exponential leaps: same with the space race.

It does seem very fast to set up shop in the cities/colonies that were pretty massive by the time ME1 was on the scene (Terra Nova, Beckenstein, Elysium etc), but I put that down to fast prefabricated futuristic building techniques and a lil bit of space magic, and viola! Head canon aligns with real canon perfectly XD.

 

[Patryn]

The Dovahk ‏@TheDovahk
@tibermoon Please tell me fetch quests arent littered across every planet. Are the planets more unique?

Ian S. Frazier – Verified account ‏@tibermoon
@TheDovahk The worlds each have unique stories, and there's no quest to collect 10 varren bladders.

Thank god, we'll only have to collect 5.

In all seriousness I'd love if MEA adopted an Old Republic approach to planets. The planets have an intro mission, 3-4 nonlinear story missions, then a final mission that wraps things up and takes your earlier choices into account. Depending how many optional planets MEA has that could be feasible.

I believe the leaked rumor was 100+.

Seriously.

 

[Ralemont]

I believe the leaked rumor was 100+.

Seriously.

It did but I think the recent GI AMA said different...too lazy to check though. Wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of planets got cut.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Aside from the obvious trimming down due to normal dev resource management I personally believe that the final number of planets has been/ will be cut drastically in response to the community criticisms of Inquisition. Even 50 explorable planets would be pretty crazy.

 

[Lt-47]

Aside from the obvious trimming down due to normal dev resource management I personally believe that the final number of planets has been/ will be cut drastically in response to the community criticisms of Inquisition. Even 50 explorable planets would be pretty crazy.

The fact that they even hoped to make that many planet is a bit weird. Even with ME1/Inquisition level of emptiness and filler that would still be a gigantic amount of work.

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation, but I'm also working my way through ME1 again (and only a scant month or so since the last time...) and what's really caught me this run are all the voiced lines of dialogue that clearly refer to stuff that was either cut or rejiggered later on.

For instance Pressley, despite clearly being an older gentlemen, talks about how he joined the service to honor his grandfather, who fought in the First Contact War.

Now I guess it's possible that his grandfather was career military and stayed in the service until near retirement, but Pressley looks to be about 50 and the FCW was less than 30 years prior to ME1. You add in stuff like how far man has expanded in that time and it makes me convinced that originally first contact was supposed to have happened way earlier in the timeline.

Then again, Pressley also says he only got his officer commission after the Blitz, which is the background event for the War Hero background, which makes you wonder how exactly he raised in ranks so fast to become XO of this hugely important ship.

And then I hit the bit of dialogue that really triggered this post when I was doing Noveria. After you land and have the confrontation at the dock and then go talk to Parasini the first time at the customs desk, you can go back and talk to Matsuo, the security chief for Noveria.

In that conversation, if you stick to the top right, Shepard talks about being a test case to see if humanity is ready to rejoin the Spectres. Matsuo then talks about hearing vid reports talking about the Council giving us a second chance.

Of course, in the actual game Shepard is supposedly the first human Spectre. There is Anderson, who either was being evaluated (according to him) or was an actual Spectre (according to Harkin), but either way the whole thing is considered to be top secret and certainly not common knowledge that would be on the news. Hell, the news refers to Shepard as the first human Spectre a bunch of times!

From what I recall, Noveria was actually one of the first missions designed, especially the beginning section where you get the key to go to Peak 15. It's why it's such a complicated mission, with by far the most completely separate routes to the same goal. If that's right, it makes you wonder if that older dialogue if from an earlier script and, if so, what that script was like.

That's not even mentioning the attract mode trailer that plays if you sit on the opening start menu that has Shepard turn down a distress call from Noveria (!) to go to a place called Calistan.

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of cut stuff in ME1. Talking to the Turian engineer on Noveria reveals hints of upgrading and customization for the Mako. The mission to get Liara was originally supposed to be a proper hub world like Noveria and Theros, on a mining planet called Caleston. Interestingly enough, Caleston is the name of the planet in the X06 trailer, which is actually just Therum. Not sure why they changed the name. A BioWare dev revealed on Twitter that they were working on DLC for ME1 set on Caleston, but it was cancelled early to start work on ME2.

I made a thread a few years ago compiling info on some of the cut content from the first game. It's an old thread, and pretty poorly written, but I did manage to find a lot of sources. A forum called Hold the Line data mined the game to find some really cool stuff. There's bits of an old script about the original Liara mission. They also found an audio clip where both Ashley and Kaiden survived.

 

[EatChildren]

I'd heard a very long time ago info that lined up accurately with the leaked survey details including the multitude of planets. Whether or not that's the case all this time later is another matter entirely. I do think the critical response to Inquisition, which they've in part half acknowledged, along with other titles like No Man's Sky quantity over quality, and The Witcher 3's density balanced with scope, would have caused a lot of reassessment as to whether or not they're going in the right direction. Same goes for any issues they might have been having with Frostbite, their tools, all versus scope and ambition of the project while trying to retain a sensible production timeline. For example the Game Informer piece on the Tempest notes that they did prototype true ship flight but couldn't get it working exactly how they wanted with the right level of polish in this game, and I'd got wind about them trying it way back when. Much like the space flight maybe tweaks have been made to the planet count too. 100+ is an awful lot and if they're worried about content repetition, sameness, quality > quantity, and the response to other games, they might have dialled it back.

I do very much want my empty-space gigantic-planet science fiction game, and I wouldn't mind Mass Effect taking that title. But I do feel the tools generating the content have to be just right and I'm not entirely convinced we're at that stage yet.

 

[Big Nikus]

I made a thread a few years ago compiling info on some of the cut content from the first game. It's an old thread, and pretty poorly written, but I did manage to find a lot of sources. A forum called Hold the Line data mined the game to find some really cool stuff. There's bits of an old script about the original Liara mission. They also found an audio clip where both Ashley and Kaiden survived.

Cool thread. It's a shame some sources are lost now, since Hold the Line and the BioWare forums are dead.

 

[Sou Da]

Hm.

 

[diaspora]

Hm.

🤔

 

[Agremont]

I don't get it.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Oh man, coming straight from ME1, ME2 just feels SO GOOD. Everything, from movement to controls to ESPECIALLY weapon handling is just... ugh, yes. Went with Soldier to maximize contrast with my ME1 Sentinel run. Import bonuses are smaller than I remembered, still gonna have to go maximum Paragon on everything.

Hm.

If former BSN denizens are getting into the industry I weep for the future.

 

[Bisnic]

Oh man, coming straight from ME1, ME2 just feels SO GOOD. Everything, from movement to controls to ESPECIALLY weapon handling is just... ugh, yes. Went with Soldier to maximize contrast with my ME1 Sentinel run. Import bonuses are smaller than I remembered, still gonna have to go maximum Paragon on everything.



If former BSN denizens are getting into the industry I weep for the future.

I agree, but still, while playing ME2, I'm still trying sometimes to roll, or move from cover to cover like ME3, before realizing... "oh yeah, you couldn't do that back then". Each games really did improve on the previous one.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I agree, but still, while playing ME2, I'm still trying sometimes to roll, or move from cover to cover like ME3, before realizing... "oh yeah, you couldn't do that back then". Each games really did improve on the previous one.

I cannot wait for the roll to hit, lol. I'm just marveling at the bullets going where I want, squaddies taking cover, hell, cover in general really.

 

[Bisnic]

Just had a weird glitch in Illium that allowed me to walk where I shouldn't be and see how ridiculous these background "characters" were up close lol.

 

[Sou Da]

They're getting the TGA gameplay ready.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Just about what I thought it would be when they said no story gameplay at TGA, we'll be seeing some planet exploration with Nomad and some random enemy shootbangs.

 

[Dany]

Just about what I thought it would be when they said no story gameplay at TGA, we'll be seeing some planet exploration with Nomad and some random enemy shootbangs.

Lol, What a presumption

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Lol, What a presumption

What, about no story gameplay? One of the devs on twitter specifically commented that there wouldn't be any story spoilers. So if you think there's something other than planet gameplay that makes use of the Nomad, let us know.

 

[Dany]

What, about no story gameplay? One of the devs on twitter specifically commented that there wouldn't be any story spoilers. So if you think there's something other than planet gameplay that makes use of the Nomad, let us know.

Ah I wasn't aware a dev said that.

Maybe it'll be ship gameplay that leads to planet exploration.

 

[Patryn]

I just want more than 2 minutes and an actual release date.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I just want more than 2 minutes and an actual release date.

Didn't Geoff say that the trailers were all in the 4-5 minute range this year?

 

[RevolverVaro]

I just want more than 2 minutes and an actual release date.

5 minutes confirmed for gameplay.

 

[Dany]

5 minutes confirmed for gameplay.

Mass-gaf is gonna throw a fit if it's 4:30.

I actually got to mass effect 2 recently. The scanning mini game is not that bad and I do it infrequently Until needed. All the characters rule, the story is just so much more cohesive. Thank fuck the gun play improved when it did. Except the cover system is still lacking. I actually forgot about the skill tree bug, so I had to delete the cache on my 360 to delete the update that fixed the bug so Shepard would be speced out on everything.

 

[Patryn]

Mass-gaf is gonna throw a fit if it's 4:30.

I actually got to mass effect 2 recently. The scanning mini game is not that bad and I do it infrequently Until needed. All the characters rule, the story is just so much more cohesive. Thank fuck the gun play improved when it did. Except the cover system is still lacking. I actually forgot about the skill tree bug, so I had to delete the cache on my 360 to delete the update that fixed the bug so Shepard would be speced out on everything.

The story is cohesive in ME2?

ME2 does a lot well, but I wouldn't classify a cohesive story as one of them. However I should note that I do not count loyalty missions as part of the main story.

 

[Dany]

Mass effect 2 is better at storytelling than the first game. For sure. Loyalty missions and all.

Except for the human reaper. That was a mistake

 

[Poodlestrike]

Mass effect 2 is better at storytelling than the first game. For sure. Loyalty missions and all.

Except for the human reaper. That was a mistake

ME 2 has the advantage of being essentially self-contained, with a strong focus on personal character writing and development. I would argue that ME1's plot is actually stronger, generally speaking, though ME2's presentation is better on just about every level.

 

[Big Nikus]

About to chose between Kaidan and Ashley.
I always let Ashley die though, so I'd like to see what she has to say in ME3 but I've heard that she's awful.
I also have even less tolerance than before for her racist tendencies...
Does she get better ? Are there some #teamashley people here ?
(fwiw, I think Kaidan is boring as hell, but at least he's not xenophobic)

Also, having just replayed the Bring down the Sky mission, I think it was a pretty cool dlc. The only semi-decent Mako fights are in it.

 

[BeauRoger]

About to chose between Kaidan and Ashley.
I always let Ashley die though, so I'd like to see what she has to say in ME3 but I've heard that she's awful.
I also have even less tolerance than before for her racist tendencies...
Does she get better ? Are there some #teamashley people here ?
(fwiw, I think Kaidan is boring as hell, but at least he's not xenophobic)

Also, having just replayed the Bring down the Sky mission, I think it was a pretty cool dlc. The only semi-decent Mako fights are in it.

Ashley's xenophobic tendencies are basically gone in ME3, and i found her to be less of a bore than Kaidan. She probably has less crew interaction compared to him, but overall I think they are on the same level in ME3, narrative wise. At the very least i think you should let her survive just for the sake of variety. You have already played it the other way around.

 

[Patryn]

About to chose between Kaidan and Ashley.
I always let Ashley die though, so I'd like to see what she has to say in ME3 but I've heard that she's awful.
I also have even less tolerance than before for her racist tendencies...
Does she get better ? Are there some #teamashley people here ?
(fwiw, I think Kaidan is boring as hell, but at least he's not xenophobic)

Also, having just replayed the Bring down the Sky mission, I think it was a pretty cool dlc. The only semi-decent Mako fights are in it.

If you bring her in your party after Virmire when you're stuck on the Citadel, she has some interesting exchanges with the Terra Firma guy.

I'm getting close to your point: I've now done Noveria and Feros, cleared out all the side missions, finished all the collections, finished Pinnacle Station and I'm about to finish Bring Down the Sky, so Virmire is coming up fast. I saved Kaiden first, but I've been saving Ashley a bunch lately, so I'm tempted to save Kaiden again. Hearing that only 20 percent of players saved him is also swaying me to keep him around.

 

[Poodlestrike]

About to chose between Kaidan and Ashley.
I always let Ashley die though, so I'd like to see what she has to say in ME3 but I've heard that she's awful.
I also have even less tolerance than before for her racist tendencies...
Does she get better ? Are there some #teamashley people here ?
(fwiw, I think Kaidan is boring as hell, but at least he's not xenophobic)

Also, having just replayed the Bring down the Sky mission, I think it was a pretty cool dlc. The only semi-decent Mako fights are in it.

Ashley gets better. She's still got more personality in ME3 than Kaiden, though she looks entirely different than she used to, lol.

And yeah, somehow this was my first time going through Bring Down the Sky, and I was impressed. Probably some of the best combat in ME1.

 

[SoSolaris]

I like both Kaidan and Ashley equally. I find Kaidan to be relatable and down to earth, and I can understand Ash's apprehensive attitude towards aliens, given her background and the timing of first contact itself.

However, I tend to save Kaidan because I feel that Ash's personality seemed much too muted in ME3, as well as how much less interaction she got. I remember reading that she had a different writer in ME3, and I noticed immediately. Kaidan's character is much more expansive in ME3 by contrast.

 

[SerAardvark]

Ashley's attitude toward aliens can be pretty much gone by the end of ME1 depending on your conversation choices, especially toward the alien squad members (who she's mainly suspicious of because you, you know, invited them onto a top-secret vessel without vetting them despite some possible security issues). Her cynicism/suspicion toward the alien governments doesn't really go away, but her feelings are largely proven accurate given events as the trilogy progresses...I mean even in ME1 the Council races have their own agendas that aren't necessarily in the Alliance's best interest.

I never really had a problem with it, though (many of her concerns make sense/are very logical in-universe and she's more than willing to hear you out if you criticize her and/or urge her to be more open-minded), though, and made her feel more like a real person (same reason I like Wrex' hostility toward the Council races) compared with many of the squad members in the trilogy.

Disclaimer: I'm far more fond of Kaidan and Ashley than any of the alien squad members save Wrex.

 

[Big Nikus]

Ashley's xenophobic tendencies are basically gone in ME3, and i found her to be less of a bore than Kaidan. She probably has less crew interaction compared to him, but overall I think they are on the same level in ME3, narrative wise. At the very least i think you should let her survive just for the sake of variety. You have already played it the other way around.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with Ashley this time.
Thanks for the other replies.

I like both Kaidan and Ashley equally. I find Kaidan to be relatable and down to earth, and I can understand Ash's apprehensive attitude towards aliens, given her background and the timing of first contact itself.

However, I tend to save Kaidan because I feel that Ash's personality seemed much too muted in ME3, as well as how much less interaction she got. I remember reading that she had a different writer in ME3, and I noticed immediately. Kaidan's character is much more expansive in ME3 by contrast.

I don't actively dislike Kaidan, but the only human squadmates I really like in ME are Miranda and Jack.
Ash, Jacob and Vega, I can do without.
But it's true that Ashley's writer changed in ME3, so I'm curious to see if I'll like her more (or simply don't mind her presence).

Speaking of this, I read some old forum posts from Chris L'Etoile (who wrote a lot of stuff in ME1 and 2, especially EDI and Legion). It seems he fought hard to keep Legion interesting and he didn't like what was done with him in ME3 (I don't remember who wrote him then).
He also said that initially, Bring Down the Sky was the name of a sidequest in the main game, before it was scrapped because of time and budget constraints. The team was sad to cut it but they figured they'd do something with it later once they had the ressources.
And they held a friendly level-design competition for the occasion so that's why the layout is better than the regular planets in the main game.

fake edit, found one of L'Etoile's posts :

In Mass 1, Therum was supposed to be much longer. What you saw - the vehicle level and Prothean ruin - was just the last third of the world. What you didn't see was the mining station hub and its massive, intricate plot about a human mafia, a salarian drug cartel, the corrupt "mayor," and the drunken "sheriff." You didn't see it because it all got cut - there wasn't enough time to finish it for ship. Despite the fact that most of the 50,000 words of VO had been recorded and the level design had begun, there wasn't enough time to complete the art, animate the conversations, or test it thoroughly. So a hard decision was made.

Except the partly-completed hub art was finished off and used for the final fight location in the DLC "Bring Down the Sky." So does that mean it counts as content "withheld" from the release?

But wait, there's more.

In ME1, there was to be a side mission in which human machine cultists hijack an asteroid and crash it into a colony. If that sounds familiar, it's because the name of the mission was "Bring Down the Sky." In order to get it in the game for ship, a lot of things would have to be half-assed - no cutscenes, no special level art, very little dialogue, no unique mechanics - just a straight run & gun. But a lot of people liked the idea and wanted to see it done right. So the idea was set aside until the resources existed to do it properly.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

The whole Ashley situation is fascinating to me. In the first game she doesn't go out of her way to be harmful to aliens, she doesn't like Cerberus or Terra Firma, and she doesn't show signs of a person filled with vicious hate or unwillingness to change. Yet people will fight to the death like the Alamo to convince you she's the worst human being and Companion in the series.

I like the idea that the future isn't so Utopian in agreement and that there's a great distrust between most of the species.

In many ways the hateful tone people take to Ashley is parallel to the weird hate that James gets in the third game. People just see a negative thing in the beginning and lock themselves out of any attachment for the rest of the game/series. It really is an eye opener for the realities of the real world I guess, people are quick to judge and too stubborn to forgive.

 

[Garlador]

The whole Ashley situation is fascinating to me. In the first game she doesn't go out of her way to be harmful to aliens, she doesn't like Cerberus or Terra Firma, and she doesn't show signs of a person filled with vicious hate or unwillingness to change. Yet people will fight to the death like the Alamo to convince you she's the worst human being and Companion in the series.

I like the idea that the future isn't so Utopian in agreement and that there's a great distrust between most of the species.

In many ways the hateful tone people take to Ashley is parallel to the weird hate that James gets in the third game. People just see a negative thing in the beginning and lock themselves out of any attachment for the rest of the game/series. It really is an eye opener for the realities of the real world I guess, people are quick to judge and too stubborn to forgive.

Pretty much. And, again, she softens. By the third game, she's referring to Tali "like a sister" and is even mostly okay if she got dumped for Tali between games.

Considering her family history, the amount of change she undergoes and her attitude towards aliens towards the end is a pretty great arc, if you ask me.

 

[Big Nikus]

Well that's all I needed to hear, I asked because I didn't want to stay on my first impression(s) as you say.
Kaidan though
I'd save them both if I could :
https://youtu.be/zMSJDxM8YT4

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

The whole Ashley situation is fascinating to me. In the first game she doesn't go out of her way to be harmful to aliens, she doesn't like Cerberus or Terra Firma, and she doesn't show signs of a person filled with vicious hate or unwillingness to change. Yet people will fight to the death like the Alamo to convince you she's the worst human being and Companion in the series.

I like the idea that the future isn't so Utopian in agreement and that there's a great distrust between most of the species.

In many ways the hateful tone people take to Ashley is parallel to the weird hate that James gets in the third game. People just see a negative thing in the beginning and lock themselves out of any attachment for the rest of the game/series. It really is an eye opener for the realities of the real world I guess, people are quick to judge and too stubborn to forgive.

Ashley has always been one of my favourite companions in the series, and was the LI of my first character. She has a really good arch in ME1. If you are paragon, you can sway her distrust of aliens (I believe a renegade character can do the reverse to Kaiden). I think the big issue, and the reason why a lot of people seem to hate her is the brief encounter with her in ME2.

He also said that initially, Bring Down the Sky was the name of a sidequest in the main game, before it was scrapped because of time and budget constraints. The team was sad to cut it but they figured they'd do something with it later once they had the ressources.
And they held a friendly level-design competition for the occasion so that's why the layout is better than the regular planets in the main game.

fake edit, found one of L'Etoile's posts :

Here's a portion of the script/journal entries that was data mined from the original Liara mission.

886 144285 Administrator Tombiri told you that Liara is being held by Smiley, a local salarian drug lord. Unfortunately, Smiley is quite paranoid, and is sealed inside the station's former medical bay.
887 144287 You've learned Liara's current location from the criminals on Throw Down.
888 144289 Your team and Sessa Tarrent have killed Raciloma. You now have a pass into Smiley's heavily guarded sanctum. Head to the former medical bay in Throw Down Plaza.
889 144290 Confront Smiley
890 144291 You've been deceived; Smiley never had Liara. Administrator Tombiri has secretly been running the Miners' Union. She lied to get you to eliminate Smiley for her. It's time to pay a little visit to the Administration Office.
891 144292 Turnabout
892 144294 Plot Complete
893 144295 Administrator Tombiri suggested you work with Sessa Tarrent to get at Smiley. Sessa works for the Miners' Union, an organization which appears to have its fingers in a number of unsavory pies. She can be found in the Refinery level.
894 144296 Talk to Sessa
895 144297 Sessa Tarrent asked you to help her team destroy a cache of Cartel drugs. They are at a test bore site outside the mining station; exit through the garage below Throw Down Plaza.
896 144299 The test bore site, and the Cartel's drug cache, have been destroyed. Report back to Sessa Tarrent in the refinery.
897 144300 Reporting In
898 144301 Your destruction of the drug cache has drawn out Raciloma, the younger brother of Smiley. He will meet to negotiate with Sessa in the shut-down southern line of the refinery. Your team will precede them to the meeting site, and prepare an ambush to kill Raciloma.

7975 181129 CONVERSATION: Liara talks to the player and unlocks the door to the dig stie.
7976 181131 CUTSCENE: The Armature walks out blocking the exit. The catwalk the player entered on is blocked off as well.
7977 181133 CUTSCENE: Liara runs into the tower, pursued by mercs. One is about to fire at her, but another stops him and warns they have to take Liara alive. Liara escapes into the tower and activates the shields/defenses, trapping herself inside. The mercs then notice the player.
7977 181135 CUTSCENE: Liara runs into the tower, pursued by mercs. One is about to fire at her, but another stops him and warns they have to take Liara alive. Liara escapes into the tower and activates the shields/defenses, trapping herself inside. The mercs then notice the player.
7978 181137 CONVERSATION: Liara calls out to the player from the tower.
7979 181139 CONVERSATION: Liara talks to the player and then unlocks the tower.
7980 181141 Joker: "Okay, commander. The base camp is about half a klick down the canyon. And stick to the shade, or you'll get yourself cooked pretty fast down there."
7981 181142 Mercenary Leader: "Heads up, they're trying to flank!"
7982 181143 [AMBIENT CUTSCENE]: A geth dropship buzzes overhead, firing rockets which miss Shepard. It then drops geth into cover in front of Shepard, and continues to drop more squads to replace losses.
7983 181144 [AMBIENT CUTSCENE]: A geth dropship buzzes the gatehouse and ocntinues further down the canyon.
7984 181145 It worked
7985 181147 CUTSCENE: Liara and the player jump from the tower as the purge activates.

 

[Heckler456]

New Gamer Informer thing. Pretty lengthy interview with Aaryn Flynn, but it seems like it's a bit more about their general approach rather than any details on the game itself.

 

[Patryn]

Finished up my new ME1 run.

Ashley took the dirt nap this time.

I exploited the Lorik Qui'in glitch, so I had my Intimidate score much higher than usual, which allowed me to use Renegade choice in the final conversation with Saren. They flow a lot better especially right before he shoots himself when Renegade Shepard basically tells him to kill himself while Paragon Shep is busy convincing Saren they can work together.

This run also seriously convinced me that Lift is WAYYYYYYYYY overpowered. It has to be the most powerful skill in the game, given how I was tossing goddamn Colossus around like Rag Dolls. I ran Adept again, going Bastion, and holy shit does that trivialize the final boss. By chaining Lift into Stasis, Saren never got a chance to jump once. He got one attack off, and that was only because I was little slow hitting right bumper.

Also I remain fully convinced that Colossus Light Armor is easily the ugliest armor in the game. I hate how it looks so much that in Bring Down the Sky I picked the Quarian armor instead (I was running with Tali and Garrus). Give me Predator L armor any day.

 

[Dany]

Wait. You could lift Saren!? lmao. I never knew that. I just use stasis and warp. The Colossus Armor look great! Especially the light male models. The female ones do look poorer.

Wrex's armor are slick as hell. Rage X. He looks like a tron enemy lol

 

[Poodlestrike]

Wait. You could lift Saren!? lmao. I never knew that. I just use stasis and warp. The Colossus Armor look great! Especially the light male models. The female ones do look poorer.

Wrex's armor are slick as hell. Rage X. He looks like a tron enemy lol

That's weird, I couldn't Lift him as a Sentinel. Maybe I didn't put enough points into it, idk. Throw knocked him off his perch though.

 

[DOWN]

Ok but keep in mind they had to patch that ME2 scanning to make it ok

 

[Big Nikus]

There's a sale on the BioWare Store...
I went for these :

Spoiler

I shaved my head a few days ago and holy shit I feel the cold. I needed a new cap

Wait. You could lift Saren!? lmao. I never knew that. I just use stasis and warp. The Colossus Armor look great! Especially the light male models. The female ones do look poorer.

It looks good on Tali I think. On Liara and Ashley, not so much.

Here's a portion of the script/journal entries that was data mined from the original Liara mission.

Yeah I found this too. It would be awesome if someone from BioWare, or ex-BioWare could leak an early build someday.

 

[DOWN]

I hate that the codex guy sounds worse in ME2. You can listen to the ME1 legacy entries & the newer ME2 codex entries back to back in the codex and the ME2 ones sounds worse like quieter or something