Things that are annoying

I wanted to add something else to things that annoy me. I've been playing ME2 on Insanity a bit lately.

My issue is, even on Insanity, why are enemies so lame and easy to beat? Asari are supposed to be the most powerful biotics right? Why are all Asari Vanguards just tanky idiots that try to shotgun snipe you from across the map that can only throw warp? Or Krogans that just slowly walk up to you to doing mostly the same thing? While Shepard as a biotic can do so many more things? I guess I'm just talking about how over powered Shepard is in general. It makes the world a little less immersive in my opinion. Why can't enemies disrupt your shields? Or use pull, or throw, or something? It would make the combat more interest rather than them just being stun locking grunts with predictable attacks. 

Its kind of why I like Shepard as an Engineer, a Vanguard with limited powers (like pull, charge, stasis), or even a soldier. The enemies are only powerful because they have numbers, not actual tactics or skill/powers that they should have according to the lore. I think Cerberus in ME3 is the only convincing unit in the series.

I hate to complain about Kaidan, but I'm afraid there were a few things there that comes off as bad timing or poor portrayal about him. I do agree the dialogue is given a more natural progression, but there's moments where the developers dropped the ball with him too. ME1 has him mention about how when he's pushed too far, he can lash back but when Wrex has a gun pointed at Shepard, it's always Ashley. He had a great moment to snap and defy Shepard's orders in order to protect her but without it, it becomes a case of tell but not show. Horizon was another moment where he was out of character. Kaidan was always a reserved person, so for him to throw around accusations of her being a traitor runs contrary to his personality, ESPECIALLY AFTER SHE TELLS HIM SHE WAS IN A COMA. They finally got it right for him in the third game when he's giving Shepard a chance to explain but not lowering his gun until she proved she wasn't going to attack. The end result left me feeling like she's always had to take the lead and do the work in the relationship during the first 2 games.

Dragon age romances are a mixed bag.
What Morrigan does can be harsh, but you don't necessarily have to deal with her having a kid with someone else. Isabela may have lied and likes to try more than one flavor, but I've heard people were unhappy with being ditched by Fenris no matter what. I don't mean to diminish guys' grievances with the romances, only to say female players like me could understand the frustration. Solasmancers are currently going through what Morriganmancers did.

Cassandra's romance bothers me immensely, not because of her looks, but because of how self absorbed she can act. The demands aren't bad, but there's no reciprocity. If there's going to be expectations of flowers and candlelight, I'd have brought food. Josephine's romance doesn't give the option to express affection physically and to be honest, not being able to respect her ability to handle the situation with her arranged fiancee bothers me too. So I can't blame you for being unhappy. There's plenty of improvements that could have been made for straight guys as well.

Um... wow, I actually never thought of that in regards to Kaidan actually. That's a great point. About the only answer I can think of is that they aren't officially a couple yet. Maybe that is why? I mean, I'm sure not every guy and every girl would stick their neck out like that and gun down someone they worked with. I think its because Ash is more distrustful from the start that she is capable of that. That's all I can say. But I do agree the ME2 bit when romanced can be a bit annoying if he is your romance. I think its more fitting if he's a friend when accusing you because you aren't as close. And yeah, femshep feels like the one taking the lead, but to me, that's not such a bad thing. I mean in most things its the guy who has to take the lead and the woman follows? I think its cool that femshep can "wear the pants" and also save him as opposed to a man saving a woman all the time.

I know, but when I first romanced Morrigan in my first playthrough of DAO, I felt really annoyed and betray regardless of kids or not. Unlike Solas though, you can at least reconcile with Morrigan. You just have to chase her like a desperate loser. And what's this about being ditched by Fenris? I know after the romance he says he can't go through with it, but doesn't he still come around? Its been a while since I did this one. 

That's a good point on Cassandra as well. I initially enjoyed the romance but after thinking back, I found a lot of flaws in Cassandra's romance as well. There is too much courtship and chasing. It feels like you have to jump through hoops. And she does very little outside of saying she will protect you no matter what. And sorry, her looks do bug me. There was no need to make her more butch. I have never done Josie's romance, but I have seen it, and I agree with both your points. Especially about fighting her battles. It makes it look like she can't handle her own affairs.

What's weird is despite how much crap MEA gets, I think Cora is a pretty decent romance. Not spectacular, but it avoids issues I had about past DA and ME romances. Though I feel bad for straight females again because their only options are Liam (who sucks IMO) and Reyes who is pretty shady himself. 

It's the motivation that's key here.  They upgraded the asari because they thought they could bring about the defeat of the Reapers.  We also know they gave language to the hanar (or, at least, that's what hanar myths say).  In ME1, you find actual evidence that the Protheans visited Earth.  So, look at it this way: the Protheans believe that they will be awakened in large numbers (look at Ilos and Eden Prime - plus who knows what else is out there?) and immediately take control.  The idea was that they would be awakened long before the current races got too powerful.  Hence, even if they were somewhat strong, they still wouldn't be a match for the Protheans.  Plus, in all probability, they intended to throw them at the Reapers as cannon fodder.  Any who survived the end of the war would have depleted numbers.  None of this is really much of a stretch.  Yes, I know this is all conjecture but it kind of makes sense.

BTW, think about the rachni.  They were said to have been made aggressive by the Protheans in order to use them to wage war.  They were bred to be aggressive and eventually turned on the Protheans and were thus a threat when later discovered.  That said, even being bred that way, they don't all have to be that way.  Perhaps not having anything to do with the other rachni is what allowed the queen hatched from the ancient egg to develop more normally.  (Her brood were a different story, but that was entirely because Binary Helix was attempting to create a race of slave warriors.  Sound familiar?)  Hell, I could conjecture from all of this that the Protheans did the same thing as Binary Helix.  The queens were fine but the children were all ruthless warriors without the guidance of the mother.  In any case, regardless of how they did it, the Protheans directly intervened to make the rachni more aggressive and more powerful.

Bringing this into the current cycle, we've got the krogan.  Yes, we know they had stupidly destroyed their homeworld in a nuclear war.  That said, well, look around.  We've come very close to it on Earth and the Doomsday Clock is closer to striking midnight than it's been in a very long time.  Our survival isn't assured so we're barely any different than krogan.  What we do know is that the salarians uplifted a race that was still in its warlike phase, that bred like cockroaches but even harder to kill, and was then surprised when they turned against them when they weren't given the space to grow.  Because, seriously, the overcrowding on Tuchanka would have killed them and they had no options.

Now, some theories with humans.  Protheans gave us a natural inclination toward biotics, but it would amount to nothing until the introduction of eezo.  Protheans assumed they'd be awakened much earlier, they could have controlled how the exposure happened (to the point that they selectively bred warriors to throw at the Reapers), and humans end up not being a threat.  They may or may not have made us more aggressive just as they did the rachni.  Does it matter if cannon fodder is aggressive or not?

No.  You kind of have to go hardcore with getting high Paragon or Renegade.  No room for neutrality in ME2, not if you want to be able to get those options.  That means it's better to recruit Jack and get loyalty missions done ASAP or make it the last thing you do before the SM.  ME2 has some weird system with Paragon/Renegade points that you have to get the most possible points possible at any given time.  themikefest could probably explain this far better than I, or point you to the appropriate thread.

Ahhh.......i was waiting until the last minute to actually do Jack's loyalty mission because i was trying to build up enough paragon...thanks...

I'm different on the armor. I like something that looks like it would actually protect me. I mean, even Captain Enyala, the Eclipse mercenary from Miranda's LM, comments on those other outfits. Those are just fan service outfits that make no sense in a game where you're constantly being shot at.

Well sure, but when I'm playing an infiltrator especially, heavy armour isn't a look that suits the class in my opinion. How can Jack walk around half naked (not that I want Shep to) but I am relegated to wearing nothing but heavy armour? ME1 has light, medium and heavy versions of the same type of armour, with certain classes being able to equip only certain weights, I would have liked some options in 2 and 3.

In the ME-1 Prologue on the Normandy, I was irritated during the scene when Shepard is talking with Nihlus and Capt. Anderson about the prothean technology. Here's why:

Anderson and Nihlus explained to Shepard the importance of prothean technology used for the past 200 years - AND SHEPARD DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!!   Here's the dialog they had with Shepard:

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Shepard: I thought the Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago.

Nihlus: Their legacy still remains. The mass relays, the Citadel, our ship drives -- it's all based on Prothean technology.

Anderson: This is big Shepard. The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forward two-hundred years.
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Okay - Is Shepard this inexperienced about the current uses of prothean technology that he/she has already been using FOR YEARS? Geese. Shepard is an experienced Alliance Navy commander, and N7 trained in advanced Alliance weapons and tactics. With this much experience Shepard would have, should have, already known the basics about the prothean data cache and how their technology was currently being used. Why would Shepard be presented as so inexperienced? The writers made Shepard appear as though he/she had been asleep during their whole career.

I feel this story dialog should have been written so that it was Anderson and Nihlus asking Shepard what he/she currently understood about the important basic information revealed in the prothean data cache, and Shepard would provide us with their exceptional knowledge about the protheans up to this point.

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In another of Shepard's investigative questions, Anderson and Nihlus provide more details when Shepard asks about the beacon:

Shepard: Why is this beacon so important?

Nihlus: All advanced galactic civilization is based on Prothean technology. Even yours.

Anderson: If we hadn't discovered those Prothean ruins buried on Mars, we'd still be stuck on Earth. That was just a small data cache. Who knows what we can learn from this beacon? What if it's a weapons archive? We can't let it fall into the wrong hands.
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I understand this is background information presented for the benefit of the game player. The dialog wheel system was a question-answer mechanic, and it was set up so that Shepard had to inquire for more information about everything. It's instances like this where I wince at Shepard's apparent inexperience with information he/she would have learned in their military career.

This just bugged me. Oh, if only I had been a BioWare writer 12 years ago...

Ashley, Kaidan, and Shepard didn't wear their armor on the ship in ME1.

I honestly can't remember about the non-alliance squad mates on the ship. I feel like Garrus reverted to his blue/black armor and wrex would go back to his default armor. No idea about tali because I never talked to her after the first playthrough lmao. But they may have kept their custom armor too, not sure. 

I mostly just talked to Ashley and Kaidan lol