What Video Games Have You Been Playing #11: I should go

[Synobun]

Prothean was a nationalistic identity. You assimilated, by choice or by being conquered.

Spoiler for Aimee's sake :

The VI and Javik are the original species, but I believe there's one or two conversation trees where Javik tells you that everyone in the galaxy was Prothean, whether they wanted to be or not.

 

[Dachs]

I'm mixing them up. I got the mail-slot achievement but I'm not sure exactly what that meant.

There's a small slit at the top of the Cerberus Guardian's shield for him to look through. Getting ten headshot kills on Guardians through that slit earns you the Mail Slot achievement.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I must be better at aiming than I thought, then.

 

[AdamCrock]

So there were other species around during the time of the promethians?

A secret from ME 1 which may clarify a few things :

Spoiler Prothean studies :

You can obtain prothean bauble from the Consort on the Citadel doing her side-quest. You can use it on the planet with "monkeys mission" (missing probe satelite) in Artemis Tau (IIRC), There You find a working prothean structure and when You use it You find out that protheans put implants on proto (cro-magnon?) human hunter-gatherers and studied them. So yeah it looks like protheans witnessed very early stages of another sentient species.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Wait, since Reapers are machines...would hitting them with an EMP do anything? Did they ever mention that in the game?

 

[Synobun]

You can shield electronics from EMPs.

But Reapers are also organic-machine hybrids.

 

[AdamCrock]

I thought they are all AI and no sense of humor

 

[Akka]

Wait, since Reapers are machines...would hitting them with an EMP do anything? Did they ever mention that in the game?

They are ADVANCED machines. That'd be about the same as trying to destroy a tank with arrows because arrows pierce leather armour
Anyway, realism has taken a steady decline during the ME saga, so in ME3 it's more fantasy in space than the relatively hard SF that was ME1.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I actually have a hard time taking Reapers seriously after seeing Soverign basically dry-humping the Citadel tower.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If anyone is still looking for it Distant Worlds: Universe is fifteen dollars on GoG.

 

[Dachs]

Anyway, realism has taken a steady decline during the ME saga, so in ME3 it's more fantasy in space than the relatively hard SF that was ME1.

Relative compared to what? Guardians of the Galaxy?

I think that people who believe that ME1 is anything other than soft SF are forgetting to take off their nostalgia goggles. This is a game that has techno-zombies, mind sex, and mind control. It's a significant plot point that a certain organism gains the knowledge of the things that it eats. The term "genetic memory" is bandied about as though it has any meaning. Eezo is just unobtainium and the uses to which it is put are less than scientific. It doesn't really matter which version of "hard SF" you prefer - emphasizing scientific fidelity or emphasizing clear parameters that allow the protagonist to solve problems with tech. ME1 doesn't work very well with either.

ME1 has a fairly extensive codex of lore with a lovely-voiced gentleman to read it. That doesn't make it "realistic".

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Uh, has anybody else gotten stuck in the cockpit in Mass Effect 3? I was talking to EDI and now my feet seem to be superglued to the floor.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Relative compared to what? Guardians of the Galaxy?

Relative to most SF franchises, including Star Trek and Babylon 5. The Asari mind meld is utter nonsense, but most of the other stuff (biotics, FTL) is "adequately" explained by element zero and mass manipulation.
It's very realistic compared to most things.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Uh, has anybody else gotten stuck in the cockpit in Mass Effect 3? I was talking to EDI and now my feet seem to be superglued to the floor.

I don't remember that in ME3 (it's been years since I played) but I have gotten stuck on the bridge many times in MEA.

Relative to most SF franchises, including Star Trek and Babylon 5. The Asari mind meld is utter nonsense, but most of the other stuff (biotics, FTL) is "adequately" explained by element zero and mass manipulation.
It's very realistic compared to most things.

Nah, I think @Dachs is right. The encyclopedia does a great job of throwing information and technobabble at you and some of that content is realistic. But the impact those realistic encyclopedia entries have on the story are negligible or non-existent in most cases. The Normandy's cloaking explanation was pretty good and that even popped up a few times as minor plot points. But other than that, most of it was just technobabble drivel with little basis in reality. And there was no emphasis on the technology - the plot would have worked just as well if set in a fantasy world.

I don't think it's necessarily worse than a lot of sci-fi franchises but I don't think it's better than most of them. I mean it basically had Jedi...

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't remember that in ME3 (it's been years since I played) but I have gotten stuck on the bridge many times in MEA.

I googled it and apparently there's an issue with one specific spot where your playermodel gets stuck in the geometry. It's pretty easy to avoid that spot though by standing beside Joker and talking to EDI from there.

Also: I like seeing the squadmates/crew talk to each other on the Normandy, and seeing them out doing stuff on the Citadel.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

That's one of my favorite things too!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

For some reason the Batarian Hegemony reminds me a lot of North Korea. Not sure if this was intentional.

 

[Takhisis]

I must be better at aiming than I thought, then.

Not just at aiming.

 

[caketastydelish]

They made Assassin's Creed: Unity free for a week because of the Notre Dame fire. (I am completely serious)

 

[Ajidica]

They made Assassin's Creed: Unity free for a week because of the Notre Dame fire. (I am completely serious)

Yeah, but that would require me to touch Uplay.
Uplay is worse than EA's Origin, and that is saying something.