Says "New characters" I hope that means new squadmate.  Standard team could use a vanguard or sentinel as an addition.  Javik is awesome as a character but offers little variety is a companion.

Don;t read any farther if you do not already know......






If you ditch Miranda at the beginning of ME3 for someone else................................She dies.   Does not seem to apply to Liara or Tali or Ashley, they all survive if you ditch them assuming you don't make the related choice to kill them.

Found Kaiden dull and less than useful in ME3, reave now sucks as a bonus power unlike ME2.  Him trying to fuck paragon male Shepard is off-putting too.  Hopefully the next DLC opens a new power that is as useful as AP ammo because so far nothing else touches it in terms of usefulness.  Ashley is only useful if you focus on accuracy and lethality, she can't "tank" and her grenades are not that useful unless fully upgraded as anti-armor.

Yeah I was like, "whoa dude! NO HOMO!"

Price sounds like it's gonna be $10.

Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlSpppchyrM

If they'd have spent as much time on the ending as they did finding ways to cram the gay "lifestyle" down people's throats it would have been a much better game.

$10 is fine, they just need to start having sales like every other game's DLC. If I can get all of the DLC for $15 or so I would do it. Doubt I will pay more on DLC than the game.

Bioware has yet to disappoint me with any of the ME DLCs.  The only one I do not own is pinnacle station for ME1.

Bought the first weapons pack, the auto Mattock rifle is massively lethal.  The new shotgun is actually a flamethrower and one of the smgs is AP without mods or ammo power.

I was thinking about getting this.  It's like $2, right?

Is the Overlord DLC for ME2 worth it? I have LotSB and it was pretty good (other than the retarded teleporting Asari boss chick ). I think that's the only one I'm missing.

I liked the Spectre fight better than the broker fight.  You apparently never played as a Vanguard, ro you'd recognize the charge  There are a few "easter eggs" in ME3 if you complete overlord in ME2 but with minimal benefit if you saved the kid, a free weapon upgrade progression for the Mattock and Eviscerator.  The real tie-in DLC and real ending to ME2 is"The Arrival"

Other than thay the "Locust" you get in the Kasumi DLC makes your SMG squad members noticeably more lethal and accurate.  

A mission on the Yahg homeworld in ME3 would be brutal and fun come to think of it.

The Harrier and Krysae alone are worth it.  With the Harrier just make sure your first shot is well placed, dispersion is controllable without the recoil mod.  Makes dealing with Banshees and Brutes more manageable especially with AP ammo power.  Krysae outpunches the widow is semi auto albeit slow and lighter than all AP rifles.

I have the Arrival. It was alright though its insignificance to the overall story in ME3 is kinda lame (the same can be said for much of ME2 though).

I regretted getting the Kasumi DLC. Waste of my money. I have never used her. Her whole super girl flying through the air thing in her DLC and "look at me I'm Japanese!" thing just made me thing she was ridiculous as a character. They took this to the EXTREME in ME3 with Kai-Leng. Holy shit worst video game character/villain ever. I usually rolled with Zaeed and Miranda in ME2 and Liara and a random squadmate in ME3.

If you've got all the other ones, you might as well.  It was a relatively uninspired DLC but had some interesting philosophical choices involved.  Gives you a bunch more geth to kill, but no new squad members or weapons, IIRC.   The DLC doesn't get much more than a couple of mentions and a couple of perks in ME3 though.

I've got all the ME2 DLC items except for the appearance packs, and I thought most of them were pretty good.  I think I got my money's worth out of all of them.  Arrival seemed slapped together and could have been better, but unfortunately without it I don't think the start of ME3 would have made as much sense, to me at least.

Kasumi character was badly written but I loved her as a squadmate.  The flashbang was awesome when used by her, the incapacitation option on the last upgrade really helped.

Glad I am not the only one who thinks Kia Leng was a horrible character. Easily the worst in the series. Most of the other characters were nice and had some depth, but this guy seemed like a typical bad guy/villain that is found in every typical game.

Kasumi was a pretty lame character as well. In fact, half of the characters introduced in ME2 were out of place and awkward. I still don't see how a thief and assassin helps Shepard in any special way. Sadly most of ME2 was spent doing worthless filler missions, such as Kasumi's, Thane's, Samaras, ect. There were only 5-6 missions on the actual story.

This is why I prefer ME1 from a story standpoint. It was far better, especially the sci fi aspects. ME2 did little to add to it. But ME2 did have better gun play and combat. ME3 felt rushed.

Overall, my favorite game in the series is still ME1.

I do hope future ME3 DLCs are based around actual parts of the story with some relevance, and not another squad mate. And they need to put them on sale.

I am playing ME1 all over again. Wasn't really trying to, but I wanted to play ME2 with an imported ME1 character, because I heard there is alot of shit you miss like emails and other things if you play the game without an imported character.





So I tried playing ME2 with my imported Shepard from ME1 and on the Normandy comes Kaidan Alenko to talk to Shepard. I about spit out my entire drinking because I could have sworn that I saved Ashley, not that fucking fag. UGH, so now I because I don't feel like buying Genesis, I am just going to replay this damn thing, even though I HATE the Mako with a passion and driving around in that fucking retarded thing. Other than that, the game is obvious alot of fun to play over again.





I need Ashley to live for my imported Shepard because I want to bone her in the future Mass Effects. She played hard to get in ME3, and damnit, I am eventually going to score with her, if it's the last thing I do!

 

You on PC or xbox?  If on PC, just download Gibbed's save editor and use it to replace Kaidan with Ashley on your save.  There are ways of doing it for the xbox too actually, but I hear that it is much more complicated (you have to transfer your save from the console to a pc, edit it, and then transfer it back).

ETA:  Also, you can bone Ashley in ME1 too.  If you didn't, you were doing it wrong.

Just play as a female and bone Traynor, she is better than Ashley.

No lesbian option with Ashley or Miranda, so I defaulted to Liara or Traynor.

Pursuing Miranda in 3 was a little disappointing.

After playing my 1 save in which I saved Kaiden, I'm glad I always saved Ashley in all the others.  In hindsight glad I always saved Wrex too.  Wreave is as disappointing of a character as Kaiden is, in general I agree with the sentiment that Kai Leng was bad writing/development taken to new depths.

Hated the Hammerhead and the Mako, a proper tank would have been better.  Something Halo-escque perhaps.

I liked Kaiden and the Mako. On my profile where I saved Wrex I cured the genophage. On my other where I killed Wrex I lied. Wreave clearly wanted to go to war.

Kai Leng was an irritant who had no originality or style....they were clearly trying to rip off the MGS4 version of Raiden and failed miserably at it. That idiot alone would make me reluctant to play the game again even if the endings weren't so gay as every encounter was so irritating even when one finally gets to kill him it's still not fulfilling.    

In ME1, I actually felt a little sorry for Saren as his story became clearer. Kai Leng...just relief, mixed with irritation I couldn't have made he/she/it's death more painful and degrading.

Wrex was so awesome killing him never occurred to me. First time around I had max Paragon and had got him his armor back before Viirmire so I talked him down. Once I learned you had to have Max Paragon/Renegade or get the armor to save him I made sure I always did. I mixed up a lot of decisions, but keeping Wrex and giving Tali the Geth date were never two of them...even with my Renegade Shepards.  

I'm about half way through a completionist ME1 playthrough right now too. Takes a while especially if you are easily distracted and or take your time and spread out the playthrough.

I just finished ME1 for the second time. I still ended up having to kill Wrex. Fucking sucks because last time I did the more "Fall in line Soldier!" attitude and it made me kill him, then I try the "Lets reason here and talk about this" and I STILL ENDED UP HAVING TO KILL HIM. Ugh.



But Unlike the first time, I was able to fuck one of the women on the ship. I was hoping I could be a "player" but Ashley made me pick. So I choose Liara, besides the tentically head, she has a nice body and better looking eyes. Ash for some reason looks cross-eyed to me. I mean, I'd definitely never kick her out of bed, but I choose Liara. Besides, if we get married, I can be old and have some wrinkles but my wife will still be hot at the age of 90 years old.



This time I also choose to be a Colonist who had his family killed on the Colony. I guess that has an effect on some of the stuff in the game cause when I played Earth-born, I had some thug from Earth who is in a gang I was supposedly in try to blackmail me. LOL, but I killed his ass. I kind of miss not having that on my second time cause I laughed for about 5 minutes straight when I shot him after he said he was going to reveal to everyone about my past.



Also, I played every possible damned side quest I could find and I still only reached to level 48. I guess it's better than the first time though when I only reached level 43.


 

Did you pick up Wrex's armor for him?  If you did you don't have to kill him.  I think there are a couple of other ways as well.

Again, if on PC you can change your save states pretty easily.

On a different note, the Leviathan DLC is coming out August 28.  $10.

If you want to save Wrex you need to make sure either Charm or Intimidate is completely maxed out....or do Wrex's mission to retrieve his family armor. By the time I get to Virrmire I've usually both both done and I've been able to talk him down every time. Just make sure you take only the dialog options that match which skill you've maxed.  



It's amusing to kill that guy but I like to tell him to "publish and be damned".  The Council doesn't give a flying fuck what Shepard did as a youth...they have zero leverage, it actually would give Shepard more street cred with the Turians for having reformed his/herself. The conversation with the Turian general after Shepard tells laughing boy to GTFO is kind of funny, too.



Also, I played every possible damned side quest I could find and I still only reached to level 48. I guess it's better than the first time though when I only reached level 43.
 [/quote]

Fuuuuck, I've never found that side quest. It's alittle late now. I don't think I am gonna replay the whole thing just to do that.



ME2 & ME3 Related question: Is it possible to romance Aria?



 

No.

Just max charm or intimidate.  IIRC 8 per is the minimum.

That sucks



 

What is the best order to do the loyalty missions in ME2? Just to make it clear, I am a Vanguard class. I am asking because I want to make sure I go the best route for recruiting so I dont get anyone killed.





I've only done Zaeed because that was the very first one, but now I pretty much have everyone ready for me to do their loyalty missions. I got bit in the ass hard last time I played through this because I did Miranda's mission, got her loyal but then her and Jack got into a fight IIRC and I picked Jack's side and I lost Miranda's loyalty. Should I do whoever's mission I am going to side with first before the argument so after the argument I can make them loyal again?





Just curious as the best route to go for money, ex, and all that stuff. I am trying this time to max out my paragon and renegade.



ETA: I heard bringing Tali and Legion on each other's loyalty missions had really cool dialog in it. Dunno if that is true????




 

Samara  second to last, Jack next to last, Legion the moment you get off the reaper and wake him up.  Irrelevent outside of that.  Any Pause in in reviving him then doing Legion's mission results in loss of crew.  Max your passive skill quickly and you will have enough P/R to pass the J/M and L/T confrontations.

I just got back from TDY and was able to see the extended cut endings for the first time.  They were better, but they still kinda sucked and felt empty.  I wish they would have used the indoctrination theory.

The whole point of the indoctrination theory was a way to explain away the shitty endings so they made sense. They should have fixed/replaced the shitty endings.





 

To expand on this just a little, to get legion's mission you have to wake him up and then talk to him (and I forget what options you have to use, so might as well exhaust all of them).  He'll say something about how he is going to link up with Normandy's systems. Then you need to end the conversation and can then immediately talk to him again where he will discuss his loyalty mission.  And as Mattl said, you need to do that mission to moment you get it.  What that means, to cover your ETA, is that although you can bring Tali on Legion's mission, you won't be able to bring Legion on Tali's mission (there is a way to do it, but it ends up meaning that someone will die on the suicide mission).  There's actually not all that much special dialogue from either.

The Jack and Miranda fight won't occur until after you get the loyalty of both, so you can't get back the loyalty of the person who you lose.  

ME 2 is set up differently than in ME1 & 3 with regards to paragon and renegade.  ME2's system is really complicated and I'm not going to explain it fully here (google it if you want a full explanation because it's actually pretty eye-opening).  Basically it works on a ratio system rather than a straight number of points, and you can never really get ahead.

Suffice it to say that the system basically precludes your ability to play a half-and-half "paragade" style to max both and still pass those loyalty checks and other blue and red conversation options.  In fact, it is actually entirely possible to have a maxed out paragon or renegade bar and still fail the checks.  Instead, it basically forces you to play either entirely paragon or entirely renegade unless you do some really, really careful metagaming.  It sucks but that's the way it is.  So if you want to pass those checks, you'll have to pick one way to go and pretty much stick with it.  Also, the earlier you get jack and miranda's loyalty and trigger the fight, the more likely it is that you will be able to pass the check.  It's another weird offshoot of how ME2 racks up paragon and renegade points.

As Mattl said, max out your passive class skill (the one that improves health, damage, and P/R scores).  For the final option where the power "evolves," pick the one that increases your scores by 100%, not the 70% one.  That will also make it easier.

Here's a quick thing I found with google that explains ME2's system.

As opposed to ME1, the Paragon or Renegade score required for a persuasion option to be available (not grayed out) is no longer fixed in ME2. Instead, ratios are used. This works as follows: When you enter a certain area for the first time, the game adds up all the Paragon/Renegade points you can get in this area and adds the sum to a total, summed up over all areas you have already visited at least once, separately for Paragon and Renegade points. These are the maximum attainable P/R scores, and they are stored in your saved game. When you enter a dialogue with persuasion options, the game divides your Paragon or Renegade score by the maximum attainable score and compares the resulting ratio to a required ratio between 0 and 1, which is specific to that dialogue and may be different for Paragon or Renegade. If your ratio is greater than or equal to the required ratio, the option will be enabled.

This has one very important consequence: Requirements tend to become more difficult to meet as the game progresses. There are several reasons for this:
(1) You will almost certainly never be completely one-sided in your conversations. There's always the occasional dialogue where you go against your preferred alignment or choose options where you don't get any points at all. Which means, your score will always rise more slowly than the maximum attainable score, if you play a balanced game, considerably more slowly. Two other factor balance that out for some time:
(2) If you import an ME1 game, you already start with a bonus of 19% (at the max). As long as your maximum attainable scores don't exceed 190, you will automatically meet all requirements. But as the game progresses, this advantage will be eaten up by the effects of (1).
(3) You can double your Paragon/Renegade score by developing your class skill and choosing the specialization that gives you a +100% bonus. If you do this early, you will automatically meet all requirements as long as your maximum attainable score doesn't exceed 380 (double the 190 bonus for an ME1 import). But as the game progresses, this advantage, too, will be eaten up by the effects of (1).

This means, if you play a balanced Shepardnot only will requirements become more difficult to meet, but from a certain point in the game onwards, they will become more difficult fast.

There was what? 4 different endings? how many do you need?



Mass Effect is the trilogy about Shepard. It's sorta like Christopher Nolan only wanting a trilogy for Batman. They didn't want to do more on Shepard, so his character died. And he died stopping the Reapers.



How is that a shitty ending? Many movies end with the hero dieing.





 

Alright I just received Legion's mission but I still haven't done Jack and Samara's loyalty mission.



Doesn't Legion's mission lead to kidnapping of the crew and forces you to go on the suicide mission??? Wouldn't that force me to do the suicide mission with 2 unloyal crew members unless I decide to not do the rescue mission right away which will also result in crew members dieing?


 

Yeah, you done screwed up, son.  Don't go get the reaper IFF until you are completely ready and only have legion's mission left.  Legion's loyalty mission isn't what starts the kidnapping; it's getting the IFF that starts the countdown.  As soon as you complete it, EDI will begin to install it and you only have one more mission that you can do before the crew gets kidnapped.  That's why everyone was saying to leave legion's mission before the very end, because it's the only one you'll have time for.

If you don't have an earlier save that will allow you to go back and do theirs first, you'll have to choose to do one of the three.  The other two will die in the SM.  Legion is important to ME3 so I'd do his mission.

ETA:  Unless you delay and let the crew die.  Or some of them, at least.  I think the number that die is based on how long you delay.  Gabby (in engineering) and kelly both die if you delay at all, I believe.

Fuck. I don't think I have a save before I pick up Legion. I might just have to play through and hope I have the perfect placed members for the final assault.



I dont care about the Normandy ship crew much anyway. I'd rather complete the game without losing my core teammates.



 

If you would rather keep the crew, try this method.  You can do the loyalty mission of only Jack or Samara and still have both of them survive if only one of them is loyal.  I'm only put this in spoiler tags for those who haven't yet completed ME2; you've done it once so you already know the drill.  
If I'm reading it correctly, if you do either Jack or Samara's loyalty missions only (and waited on doing legion's and the other one) and then go to rescue your crew immediately after they are abducted, you could still make it out with all of your squadmates alive (even the non-loyal ones), while still rescuing the entire crew, if you follow the plan.  Then you can do the remaining loyalty missions after the suicide mission.

Click To View Spoiler

ETA:  Oh, and make sure you have upgraded the normandy with the big 3 items - the shields (from tali), the armor (from Jacob), and the main guns (from Garrus).  One squadmate will die, loyal or not, for each of those pieces not upgraded prior to heading through the relay.  Planet scanning for minerals doesn't count toward the crew dying timer fortunately, so if you need to do some of that to get the minerals needed you can.  Any mission and sum visits to hub worlds do count, however, so be careful about that.

Your crew is dead, or you lose teamates.  Shit happens, screw the crew.

You're not supposed to do the Reaper IFF until you have no loyalty/recruitment missions left.

Yeah.. I know that now. lol. I should have done Legion last, but I wanted him on the Tali mission.



But hey, I did complete the mission and my whole squad survived, but members of the Normandy's crew did not.



 

Oh you can do that too. You can do Reaper IFF, Tali loyalty, then Legion loyalty in that order IIRC. People on the Quarian flagship keep freaking out, "omg Geth!"

Yes it was pretty damn funny to see their reaction to a Geth on the ship.



On Another note, I've seen some pretty interesting videos and read some stuff about Shepard being indoctrinated. And there is alot of evidence to support that. So your endings you hate, might not even be the real ones.



 

Because killing the Geth , EDI, and Shepard and destroying the Mass Relays was necessary? The retarded "bitter sweet" special snowflake crap to be different that the writers were stuck on was completely unnecessary. Dragon Age: Origins shows how a story should be wrapped up. You can sacrifice your character if you want, but it's not necessary.