What did you do today in ME?

Nicole Shepard took the time -- a long-ass time -- to tour the Citadel and galaxy.

I hate this part of the game. After Mars and Manae, the game comes to a screeching halt. I'm sure the Primarch is fine with Shepard ignoring the diplomats while his planet burns.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 also suffer from this problem, where after the initial mission, everything slows to a crawl while you run around hub areas doing nothing of importance, but you do it anyway for the XP and/or credits.

Here's hoping your motherboard can accommodate a graphics card, then! And a decent one, at that. Don't go too low-tier, because then you still won't be able to run MEA.

Since I didn't want to pay too much, I bought a laptop from Amazon.  However, I got all the specs and made sure everything was not only supported but optimal.  Downside is that the hard drive isn't that big.  It can't really fit much more than MEA and ME1 (which plays very well on it, including being Intel rather than AMD so graphics were perfect).  Even if you had a desktop over a laptop you'll still save money.

Ian Shepard:

- Helped retrieve the graybox of Kasumi's dead lover, taking out criminal mastermind Donovan Hock in the process. (Kasumi)
- Investigated the wreckage of the MSV Rosalie, found an M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft. Got a lead on two scientists investigating Reaper tech. (Kasumi/Miranda)

Laura Shepard, Colonist, Sole Survivor

Laura took Thane and Garrus back to Citadel to track down Thane's son. Bailey was strangely willing to help. He directed the group to a former "duct rat" named Mouse, who had some information about Kolyat's location.

I like that paragon Shepard can still make people piss themselves...


This led us to the man who placed the hit in the first place. I decided to let Thane be "bad cop" this time, and let Shepard stick to the goody-two-shoes role. That is, I tried. By the end of the interrogation, she had gotten physical anyway. Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I'd get the information staying full paragon throughout, and didn't feel like risking a reload. That series of cutscenes is so long. 



I managed the tracking sequence this time without having to reload. Go me? We found Kolyat. Bailey even tried to help out...


...and with some gentle coercion from Shepard, agrees not to pursue formal charges against Kolyat.


I like the next conversation with Thane, in which Shepard tells him he ought to get out there and talk to the rest of the crew. He agrees to try.

Paid a visit to Anderson, just to see whether he had anything new to say. Spent some time feeling sad about his fate in the next game. Bought new fish. Failed to get Kelly to come to dinner or offer petsitting. I probably missed something somewhere, because all I have left to do in the game now is trigger Legion's LM and then go through the relay. I'll have to be more careful next time.

But...I think I completed the ship collection!


I investigated a few anomalies, including one involving a giant robotic toddler (seriously, it walks like it's wearing a diaper), and one on a really creepy fog planet. There was a thresher maw dragon looking creature that I was so sure I'd have to fight. I was dreading it so much that I was actually disappointed to leave the planet without encountering it again.

Anyway, here's a picture of the scary robotic toddler.


With little left to do in the game, I finally went after the reaper IFF. Here's Shepard and Joker looking intense(-ly constipated?)


On the derelict reaper, Shepard, Garrus, and Jack find the alter, and at some point along the way, Shepard has another vision. I either didn't trigger the vision last time, or didn't realize what it was (because I hadn't played ME1 yet) and thus forgot about it. Jack and Garrus were good to take together. I love their dry sarcasm.


LEGION!!


Garrus has reservations about bringing Legion on board. One of those reservations is his concern for Tali's reaction. Tali. You're worrying about the wrong woman here, Garrus.


"I'm waking up the geth, Recruit Smithers. Be ready."


More Legion!


And he gets his name!

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2 cont'd:

Normandy

Emails – one of the workers from Dantius Towers emailed to give thanks for saving him from Nassana. He seemed pretty impressed by Thane, and vowed to celebrate getting a second chance at life by buying some stylish clothes.

Kelly mentioned that Thane wanted to talk to her about something, so Shepard went to see him. He was worried about his estranged son Kolyat, who had evidently found out about Thane's work as an assassin and had decided to follow in his footsteps and become a “hit man” on the Citadel. Shepard promised to look into it the next time they docked on the station.

After hearing about what happened on Pragia, Kasumi was a little more understanding of why Jack was the way she was.

Zaeed was “waxing guddam nostalgic” and invited Shepard to join him. He talked a bit about his love love – apparently, he used to date an asari who ended up selling him out to the Blood Pack. Shepard hoped the asari she was dating didn't try something like that.

Things were all business in engineering. Tali was cleaning up the engine, and even Ken was quiet for once.

Shepard went to see Jack to go over the events on Pragia. Jack vowed to not carry her past around with her, she wouldn't be like Aresh. She was grateful that Shepard did her a favour, “more than I expected”, and promised to “keep it together”. Shepard hoped that Jack was starting to see that not everyone was out to get her, and that there were people she could count on.

Pylos Nebula – MSV Broken Arrow

The Normandy was gathering resources in the Pylos Nebula when they detected a freighter under attack near the planet Jonus. Shepard, Tali, and Samara boarded the MSV Broken Arrow, and found it under attack by the geth. Before he died, the Captain had scuttled the ship in an attempt to prevent the geth from getting the weapons they were carrying, but the freighter was heading straight for the Fargone colony on Jonus and would be devastated by the crash.

Shepard and her team defeated the geth and stabilized the ship's orbit. Back on the Normandy, Shepard received an email from the Governor of Fargone, thanking her for stopping the crash and for the munitions crates the freighter had been carrying, which could now be used to help defend the colonies in the region.

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME1 Hardcore:

Melody ordered the Normandy through the Mu Relay to Ilos in the Pangaea Expanse, the location of the Conduit according to the Prothean beacon on Virmire. She had already decided that Kaidan would accompany her because he had unfinished business with Saren following the tragic conclusion to the Virmire mission. Kaidan requisitioned a light Phoenix hardsuit in Ashley's honour.

Joker's crackerjack piloting dropped Melody's squad (herself, Kaidan and Liara) in the Mako within spitting distance of Saren, who fled into a bunker and sealed it behind him. The squad explored the ruined city to look for a way into the bunker. While doing so, they broke lots of geth (mostly down to Melody, due to the others getting KOed while attempting to facetank Armature siege pulses) and wondered whether the creepy statues portrayed Protheans or some other long-dead species. They were glad to find an override for the Armature units, enabling them to shut the things down rather than waste time fighting them.

The bunker turned out to be an archive. Liara was simultaneously delighted to have found it and disappointed not to have the time to study it. Aside from Vigil, a VI that revealed the truth about the Citadel and the Conduit, the squad left the archive alone and resumed pursuit of Saren.

The trench running through the archive led to the Conduit: a Prothean-built mass relay that deposited Melody and her team directly in front of the Citadel Tower.

My one death was on the Conduit run, having lost most of the Mako's shields during the Colossus fight in the trench. Reloading gave me all the shields back, so the second attempt was easy. I'm aiming to wrap up Melody's ME1 run tomorrow.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2 cont'd:

Pylos Nebula: Canalus – Anomalous Weather Detected

Continuing their exploration of the Pylos Nebula, the Normandy's sensors detected geth activity on the planet Canalus. It appeared that the geth were tampering with the planet's weather patterns.

Shepard, Tali, and Samara took a shuttle to the surface, and soon found themselves under geth attack while attempting to navigate through thick smog that was almost impossible to see through. They managed to defeat all of the geth forces, and shut down the climate change device they had been protecting. There was no indication as to why the geth were tampering with the planet's climate.

Rosetta Nebula: Joab – Archeological Dig Site

The Normandy was gathering resources in the Rosetta Nebula, when sensors detected activity at a Prothean archaeological site on Joab. It seemed the Blue Suns were up to no good once again.

The Suns attacked Shepard, Tali, and Samara almost as soon as the shuttle landed (because of course they did). Shepard and her team defeated the mercs and investigated the site to see what they were up to.

They found a terminal and some datapads with messages indicating ExoGeni Corp had hired the Blue Suns to transport artifacts for them, but the mercs had double-crossed them to take the artifacts for themselves. The Blue Suns betraying their own customers seemed to be a recurring theme – they had tried to do the same thing to Cerberus on the prison ship where Jack had been held. The fact that it was ExoGeni was also interesting – Shepard had long suspected there were links between Cerberus and ExoGeni Corp, and she was starting to fell like a hired goon TIM was using to settle scores with the mercenary company.

One of the datapads had a message from the Suns leader, Vido Santiago, ordering the artifacts to be taken to the MSV Strontium Mule, currently in the Omega Nebula.

The dig site also had one of those pyramid shaped Prothean buildings; Shepard accessed a terminal and received a vision similar to the one from the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime.

On returning to the Normandy, Shepard was not at all surprised to receive an email from Cerberus Command asking her to go to the MSV Strontium Mule for another round with the Blue Suns.

Laura Shepard, Colonist, Sole Survivor


To start off what is bound to be a long post, here is a varren that looks like a sad puppy. I think he wanted to come along.


After clearing out side quests (and forgetting to go shopping for a few extra weapon upgrades), Shepard took Legion to destroy the virus that threatened to make all geth just like the heretics. Joker was his usual asshole self.


Most of the mission went along without a hitch. While approaching the last geth hub, Legion helpfully activated them early by stepping on the green circuits in the floor. Thanks a bunch, you lovable walking flashlight.


Before the mission, I briefly considered that I might use the virus against the heretics rather than destroy them this time. Until, that is, Garrus reminded Laura that doing so sounds an awful lot like indoctrination. What a buzzkill. So, heretics were destroyed.

The death of so many AI was not good enough for Tali, who had her gun drawn on Legion. Thankfully, Shepard had plenty of paragon points to talk them both down. I didn't get this scene last time due to Tali not being loyal, and I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely upset Legion sounded when he objected to what Tali was going to do.


The entire fighting crew of the Normandy leaves on the shuttle. This couldn't possibly go wrong!


Joker to the Rescue: or, the dumbest collectors ever can't catch the lame pilot


Miranda has words for Joker once Shepard brings everyone back. I really wanted to be able to remind Miranda that it was her idea to take the entire squad off the Normandy, but alas...no such option.


The CIC is really eerie with everyone missing. I was momentarily surprised to not have Kelly standing there, telling me I had no new messages. Shepard had a talk with Joker in which he decided to blame her for everyone getting abducted, so she told him off. It was less satisfying than I'd hoped. EDI was happy to give up the rest of her secrets, though.

I think Shepard is the only woman ever to shower with her hair still in a ponytail   A few romance screenshots are in the spoiler below. Nothing explicit, obviously, since it's a fade-to-black scene without even a kiss. But the forehead touch is sweet.


The Normandy goes through the relay, and arrives at the galactic core. Is it weird that I think that black hole looks really cool?


The Normandy lands on the Collector ship. That's right, lands. Joker totally meant to do that. 


Shepard sends Kasumi into the vents and puts Miranda in charge of the fire team, but takes Jack along with her to avoid any problems. It worked out well.


After fighting their way into the ship, the crew is found and freed from their gel-ifying prisons.


With the actual doctor somewhat indisposed, Shepard sent the next best thing -- Mordin -- back with the crew. After an inspiring speech, the team continued deeper into the ship. 


The teams were reunited, but Garrus was shot. Cue momentary panic from me that I'd somehow screwed up the mission. I think the same thing happened last time, though. I wonder whether Garrus is always shot here, or whether it is the LI.


After carefully adding up points for the whole squad, I had just enough that I could bring Garrus with me, as long as the second pick was someone from the lowest tier, leaving everyone else with an average of exactly 2. I'm glad everyone I had was loyal this time, since I decided not to recruit Zaeed at all 

Here's the squad, floating on a giant hexagon.


Shepard finally learns what the collectors have been doing with all their new knowledge of humans. Considering how freaky a human reaper is, I'm glad we didn't see a turian one. I mean, try to imagine an enormous robotic space raptor. Badass, yes, but terrifying.


The Illusive Man pops up to get told off and subsequently ignored by Shepard once again. Next time, I'll have to bring Miranda along on this part of the mission. It'd be interesting to see whether she has anything special to say to TIM.


I ended up bringing the avalanche along as my heavy weapon of choice, which unfortunately did nothing for the proto-reaper. I should have brought the grenade launcher. It took longer to whittle it down with normal weapons, but in the end, it died just fine.

Unfortunately, it took our hexagon with it, and Garrus almost fell to his death.


With everyone safely back on the Normandy, Shepard took some time to tell TIM all the ways in which he could go fuck himself.


Next time, I will be destroying an entire system's worth of batarians! How fun! But before I go, have some awkward post-game cuddle screenshots.

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME1 Hardcore:

The Citadel Tower elevator was offline, so Melody, Kaidan and Liara were forced to magnetize their boots and go the long way round, through maintenance tunnels and then the tower exterior, breaking robots and the occasional krogan as they went. Some well-placed defence turrets helped them to deal with a geth dropship.

Gaining access to the Council chamber, the squad wrecked a few more toasters and confronted Saren. Through with even thinking about negotiating with him, Melody yelled at him from behind cover, pressing hard against Sovereign's influence, until Saren accepted that he was indoctrinated and ate a bullet, falling from his platform to the chamber below. Liara went down and put another round into him just to make sure. Melody noted the archaeologist's hard edge, wondering how much Liara's experiences on the Normandy had changed her.

(Thematically, it would have been nice for Kaidan to have been the one who took that shot, as payback for Ashley).

Gaining control of the station, Melody received a distress call from the asari flagship Destiny Ascension, transporting the Council. Kaidan recommended diverting the Alliance fleet to assist, but Liara persuasively argued that concentrating on Sovereign was too important. Having faced death alone twice, on Mindoir and Akuze, Melody was torn; but ultimately agreed with Liara that the risk to the mission was too great.

(My original intention was to save the Council here; if Kaidan had spoken second, I would have done. But I found myself thinking that Melody would likely accept Liara's argument, even though it would go against her Sole Survivor instinct to not abandon people in their moment of need).

Sovereign still had a trick up its sleeve, re-animating Saren. The squad took him down (on my second attempt).



(We can all headcanon that Melody is actually a much better shot than that, right? )

Both Anderson and Udina were of the opinion that humanity would likely be called upon to lead the new Council. Udina tried to flatter Melody into recommending him for the position, but his betrayal during the crisis meeting was still fresh in her memory; she made it plain that she would be recommending that Anderson be nominated as humanity's first Council representative.

I've posted some endgame pics in the "share your Shepard" thread.

Well, I've rather enjoyed my weapon-focused infiltrator playthrough. As rough as ME1's engine feels nowadays, it doesn't actually play that badly, and sniping is lots of fun once the SR talent has been levelled up a bit. And aside from the total disaster that was the Benezia battle, the Hardcore difficulty level felt about right.



A little break for Easter before ME2!

excellent. I can feel the renegade in you. You're heading down a path that very few have traveled. Greatness awaits you

Oh, right. In hindsight, that's obvious. 

Hope you enjoy HZD. I've heard such great things about it, but I only play PC games. Maybe they'll port it eventually so I can play it.