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Post by Lee on Feb 25, 2021 3:34:18 GMT
Miranda butt shots to make up for the legacy edits.  I really wish I didn't ever get into Mass Effect sometimes. I mean I have Jaal, but even that has asterisks beside it and Kaidan as much as I love him-I still can't even have him without mods in everything but the last game (with less content and he doesn't say he loves you but once without an import-and that was the dlc ending so it wasn't even originally there!) |
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Post by turianlannister on Mar 23, 2021 3:31:59 GMT
Thomas the tank engine mod for Mass Effect 3
I got the expanded edition of The Art of Mass Effect, the new art focuses on the DLCs, I had hoped they'd included concept art for Bakara but alas. For some reason Nyreen's page includes concept art for an asari
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Post by turianlannister on Jul 26, 2021 14:55:32 GMT
https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/2vuktt/flying_kaidan_alenko_thanks_internet/
An old gif of Kaidan flying
Someone also made Flappy Kaidan (a Kaidan version of Flappy Bird) but it's been lost to the ethers of time
I sucked at Flappy Kaidan, you're supposed to hit the space bar to make him fly but I frantically hit the space bar only for Kaidan to plummet to his doom
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Post by dgcatanisiri on Mar 19, 2022 3:31:27 GMT
*sigh*
I started my first replay of the trilogy since the announcement of the Mehgendary Edition last night (since my 360 still functions just fine).
As bad as it is that BioWare made the homophobic choice with MELE, what will never stop killing me is how the fandom at large just went along with it and said it was acceptable.
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Post by disgustednoise on Mar 19, 2022 3:50:26 GMT
*sigh* I started my first replay of the trilogy since the announcement of the Mehgendary Edition last night (since my 360 still functions just fine). As bad as it is that BioWare made the homophobic choice with MELE, what will never stop killing me is how the fandom at large just went along with it and said it was acceptable. I had to unfollow the Mass Effect subreddit because of it. I'm so fucking bitter about Mass Effect at this point I don't know when I'll be able to touch it again. |
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Post by Scottphoto on Jan 6, 2023 19:03:38 GMT
Babbling about replaying ME2:
I been replaying Mass Effect 2 right now via the new remaster, and it definitely feels like my opinion on that game has changed so much since, but this is largely because the trilogy was essentially my first bioware games (except kotor 1), so now that I experienced the dragon age games, ME3, MEA, and even SWTOR, I definitely see these games in a different light for better and for worst. Now ME1 for the most part I think still holds up pretty well, the new remastered stuff makes it quite fun to explore planets again for sidequests, and being the first of it, is nice to just meet the galaxy as a whole, and the lack of a proper romance didn't impact me as much because I feel we are still getting to know everyone. SO the Liara and Ashley random romance pop ups just feel underserved for the most part.
Now cue to replaying Mass Effect 2 and it feels like a downgrade now that ME1 has been polished up a bit. It's an incredibly linear game where the openness is more of a choice on what order you tackle on recruiting and loyalty missions, but aside from that, most of the extra planets you land for extra side missions are very empty and hollow, some with interesting planet designs but ultimately wasted with no npcs or any interesting story threads. In terms of romances, I think they work better here in terms of the writing, I feel for example Miranda still has a good arc of opening herself to you, even Tali you always keep a friendship relationship but after the loyalty she's more open to admit she has interest, so overall in that sense I feel the romances feel natural.
Unfortunately, on the other hand, is also where you really feel the lack of inclusion in terms of gay romances, I didn't even realize not even Tali can be romanced with a female char. So, ignoring Liara is really just Kelly chambers? that's insane to me. Even more so frustrating given that the romances here for the most part are interesting enough with some unique characters. Of course, male is even worse because there is none, which just feels weird. Jacob could have easily been one, and Miranda for a female as well, even if it was just the two default comps. I know I'm just beating an old drum at this point, but I guess at the time to me it was a novelty of just playing a game like this for the first time didn't had anything to compare to till now.
So anyway, the game is still very strictly linear, and I think a lot of people like me at the time of playing it for the first time, considered it the best because on first impression the game is how everything has changed, how your choices in the first one made an impact, nostalgic moments meeting old squad members like Wrex which is always exciting as its more of a rewarding decision that you worked toward, rather than you have no choice but to pick one scenario. So I think a lot of those elements and a lot of the characters introduced are unique and different and quite diversified, but in terms of actual plot story, I was surprised how little we really fight the collectors from what I remembered. Like there's so many interesting stories you get to learn and do during these loyalty missions, while your main mission just isn't very interesting besides the "they are protheans twist".
I still enjoy the game for what it is, because I still love the world of mass effect and the characters but is interesting how much my perspective changed since then, when I realized how much potential this game could have had as the middle story and it feels it doesn't really add much as that but is still well received for doing great character work, which has always been bioware's highlight tbf, but it feels like it could have used some more improvements for a remaster at least in the romance department, because as a total package it definitely feels emptier overall between 1 and 3 and even Andromeda to an extent.
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Post by farferello on Jan 7, 2023 6:01:45 GMT
I've yet to play the LE version that I got from a friend as I'm still waiting for a mod to be ported over into the ME3:LE version, but when I played the original games, ME2 was my least favourite and the one I played the least amount of times. I like *some* changes they made to combat (Charge, my beloved) but I agree with the linear feeling of the game. There were a lot of things that annoyed me about it also, like how my Shepard could never really express any real anger at having to work with Cerberus, how they couldn't stay pissed at Liara for more than five seconds about her handing his body over to them (how she never thought to tell Kaidan about what she did so Horizon could have played out differently - also I just hate the framing of Horizon and how 'in the wrong' the Virmire Survivor is considered during the confrontation, when they actually have very good reason to be pissed and wary.) I also hate most of the Lair of the Shadowbreaker dlc for obvious reasons.
I liked some of the companions certainly, I didn't however like how being nice could get you ninjamanced and have people yelling at you for leading them on just because you were nice (hi Jack.)
The lack of same sex romances also still sucks, especially now we know Jacob was supposed to be gay, and Jack bi, but like with Kaidan they didn't bother to make any changed with this, with the LE Edition so Bioware were still obviously fine with how uneven the romances were (and I still hate some of the devs for the various comments they've made about 'lol Shepard can't be gay, and Liara doesn't count as a lesbian romance' on top of all the 'Kaidan is boring' bullshit. Just ugh, tiresome.) The game definitely had some nostalgic moments like meeting your old crew but it was also kinda sad because they had clearly changed and moved on in their lives without you. It felt very fish out of water with people you might have once been close to.
I think the main change from 1+2 that I liked in 3 was the change of the Paragon/Renegade bar so that I could play more naturally and take what choices I wanted, rather than being forced to go all in, because otherwise you'd fuck yourself over in 1/2 and not be able to make certain choices (like during the crisis points with certain party members.)
It really does feel like a shame that they didn't improve on things with the LE, and that even the bullshittery continued into ME:A (and somehow got worse.) I'm a Dragon Age person at heart, and played the Mass Effect series later in the time line (I played the first two just before the third came out) but it's a shame to see that they still seem to take one step forward and two steps back.
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Post by Scottphoto on Jan 8, 2023 6:06:06 GMT
Yeah I am not very fond of the whole Shepard’s body thing with Liara story, I know is explained in comics but its poorly told in-game to even understand. I would have simply left it as cerberus found your body, the whole Liara bit in the middle just seems tacked on. The game also definitely drops the being pissed at cerberus pretty early on, now there’s still some good moments like Miranda quitting and even breaking the rules for Jacob but our character doing sidequests to help cerberus just seems strange we don’t get a choice on who to give intel. More so when we get our spectre status back and it doesn’t really matter. That’s perhaps the biggest decision of the game thats just very irrelevant, saving the council and your status. Specially since humans still get good acceptance regardless. I agree in loving charging into enemys XD, I just keep repeating that and imagining my squad facepalming, except Jack applauding in the back. Speaking of Jack, I explored a little bit her romance stuff lost loyal and is again another pretty nice unique romance that should have been great for a female shepard also. However, I can’t help but notice that pretty much all the romanceable characters here have some previous relationship to make us be like “see they are straight!”. Jack talks about a male lover, thane had a wife, jacob and miranda had a thing in the past, think the only exception is Tali. Not to mention the dialogues post loyal sometimes is little for some chars or bugged? Garrus barely talked again about the whole thing with his loyal mission and Tali once I said I wasn’t interested in her that way, as decided not to have new dialogue. But I still have the reaper iff mission left so will see. Also I did not know Mordin does notice when you have no active romances and says he is not interested but if he had interest he would certainly do you, and you can basically say yeah you were interested. So essentially Mordin is the closest m/m moment in the entire game and I don’t know how to feel about that XD. But yeah unfortunately it seems ME2 was hardly remastered and featured quite a few issues compared to the first game, granted they said as much before release, but there’s still quite a few minor things they could have patched up here and there. I reccomend you download this mod for anyone planning to play these versions on pc, it finally fixed my weird issues transitioning from me1 to me2 my shepard, even if I discovered it so late into the game, as I didn’t think of it being a bug to fix: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/8Here’s the comparison: without mod patch, and with mod patch:  There is also quite a good chunk of fixes listed on the mod page. Was hoping for a Jacob mod too but alas there isn’t one for this version at least, since his romance is more casual temporary I figured to take it here while my Shepard has feelings for Kaidan but he’s not sure Kaidan feels the same way, specially after Horizon. I didn’t do Me1 Kaidan yet because the fixed mod for ME3 Legendary isn’t done yet. So yeah ultimately for modding you are still better off with the originals in terms of options. |
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Post by farferello on Jan 10, 2023 5:59:53 GMT
That's the same reason I'm holding off on my Legendary playthrough, waiting for the ME3:LE version of the mod to come out. (I think the mods for all three of the original trilogy came out long after I stopped playing because I know I never used them when I played in the past.) Hell, mods fix so many things with the games that I feel for those on Console who can't use them to make life more enjoyable. (Especially when it comes to romances.) Honestly, my squad probably hates my Shepard because of how I play him. He is always very 'self preservation? Watch me go Charge a Mech/Brute/Banshee/anything else with a one shot kill because yolo' Jack probably finds it hilarious, Kaidan probably loses a year of his life every time he witnesses it (Vega probably eggs him on) I just enjoy the Charge+Nova combo far too much and I'm still bitterly sad that I don't enjoy how they changed Charge in ME:A so I never use it there. Having done most romances via mods before, I do enjoy Tali, and Jack's romances with FemShep (Tali's was particularly funny in ME3 if you bring a previously romanced Liara with you during her missions  ) Thane was my experimental 'cheat on Kaidan and feel bad about it, but I wanna see what happened, and then pick back up with Kaidan after' run. Jacob's was ridiculous, though it then leading into a Kaidan-mance worked considering the *waves hand at everything about his romance in ME3,* and Garrus's was okay. Probably enjoyed it as much as I did because I played an Infiltrator Shepard for him and they were Sniper Boyfriends. I do enjoy Steve's to a degree but he still has less content and I can't help but feel a little predatory pursuing his romance on the tail end of his husband's death, but that's just me. Still salty that we can't take him with us to the Casino even though he's right there with us. He'd look great in a suit. (I don't feel too bad not romancing him often just because I ship him with Vega more than I do my Shepard so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) |
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Post by turianlannister on Jan 10, 2023 21:59:28 GMT
Jack has had a relationship with a woman in the past but it was part of a threesome with a guy who was the boyfriend of the woman and she sounds bitter when she talks aboht them, "I helped them and they helped me into their bed", pretty sure she said she ended up killing both of them
Her ME2 writer admitted within the last 2 years that she was originally going to be a bi romance but EA put a stop to that, Thane's ME2 writer said the same
As for Jacob I wonder if the writers would have had him cheat if EA had allowed him to be written as a gay or bi romance in ME2?
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Post by Scottphoto on Jan 22, 2023 5:47:58 GMT
farferello Oh god I need to search for that about Tali and Liara, sounds a mess XD. I did consider to mod in Thane and give it a try, but I feel terrible at the idea of just dropping him like that XD. Why I wanted Jacob cuz he throws you off himself and don't really need to mod me3, cuz for me it would have been very casual soldiers helping each other out XD. I really want to give Steve a chance, but yeah I also see him more with James, mostly because is too soon for Steve where as James you can imagine is a slow build up. Mind you, I do wish James was a romance too. turianlannister It's a good question what would have been Jacob's fate had he been an M/m romance in the end, heck would Kaidan still had been a choice? At the very least Jacob I think would have been more popular and probably would have not get the same fate he got on ME3, he would actually had stand out if he had been an m/m. And yeah I got the Jack convo now, though I wish I could be nice to her about it without being forced to romance her lol. More ME2 rambling after finishing the main stuff: So, I finished my ME2 run, I will say earlier complains aside, the suicide mission is still the most satisfying final mission and conclusion to a bioware game for me, is the one where it truly feels investing the time in getting all the things really pays off, to every little detail. Is also why ME3's ending was so incredibly underwhelming given how super detailed it is to achieve the best outcome on this one. Still, it definitely loses a bit the excitement when you have no romance involved with you, and I did miss romancing Miranda particularly because of that. Her romance arc with shepard is really well written but I'm holding out on Kaidan, and I'm not doing the Miranda break up in ME3, that scene kills me XD. Also annoying that I can't get Jack normal dialogue again unless I accept her as romance or decline her rudely so I just leave her waiting and I'm sure I did this on original game too because I just can't figure out what I'm doing that leads me to romance attempts status with her. It's a shame Legion is such a late addition, because he is a very interesting character, hell he never fully explains why he grabbed your armor here, but maybe he does on 3. Also, not sure why my shepard keeps getting so close to his face, think my shepard is into robots XD. I will also say that while I know we complained about asaris like Liara and Peebee a lot, I must admit ME2 did introduce the better asari characters with Aria and Samara. They aren't really interested on your shepard, they are very much committed to their mission and just overall strong. Though I dislike the morinth backstory that is an asari that kills people in sex, an unnecessary addition to more asari and sex lore. Still, Samara at least doesn't engage at all that way, and I enjoy her calm collected tone. Now to take on some dlcs, already did overlord, and man that dlc aged badly for me, that was not fun at all, the story arc itself is done well how tragic it is but the actual gameplay loop was not it, also feels very lacking not having Jack react to any of it. Kasumi's is still a lot of fun for me, though it now reminded me to the DA2 dlc of stealing something and attending a special rich event. Zaaed is just fine, I'm just very indifferent about him. Now going to do Lair of the Shadow Broker post game and Arrival. Curious how well Shadow Broker has aged for me. Never liked Arrival so will be interesting to revisit that one too. Also, sidenote, that one quest of a salarian and recovering two packages in different planets is broken even with mod patch lol.
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Post by disgustednoise on Jan 23, 2023 10:05:14 GMT
I feel like if Jacob was bisexual, we probably don't get bi Kaidan in 3. Jacob would have probably been treated better by the writers in 3 (I hope), but I doubt he comes back as a squad mate just because male Shepard can romance him. So while it was shitty to not have a romance for the first two games, I'm not sure I'd change anything because ME3 Kaidan just hits so right. (Better with mods giving you the whole three game arc with him, but it is what it is.)
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Post by turianlannister on Jan 27, 2023 12:32:09 GMT
If anyone is interested the person who made the Joker/FemShep romance mod for the original game is working on a voiced Garrus/MShep mod for legendary edition as well as updating the Joker romance mod for legendary edition with MShep being an option as well
I wonder if they have any plans on making voiced bi romance mods for any of the other ME2 romances or Ashley?
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Post by Scottphoto on Mar 22, 2023 23:36:33 GMT
So I'm now playing through Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition so time for another set of rambles: This one actually aged better than 2. Feels the smoothest running of them all, I did put the community patch mod just in case, but so far everything works pretty well. With the second game even with the mod patch there was so weird hiccups in dialogue every now and then, one quest that just didn't work, etc. Where as 3 I haven't had an issue so far in my first 15 hours. I also had forgotten how active the narrative is on this one, each event feels quite important like the other, whereas 2 I was very confused why I was doing certain things most of the time. The character moments and bonds between each other also feel a lot more natural here, though I also get the complain that if the player never really cared for chars like Garrus and Liara, you are kind of forced to be nostalgic with them. I think the nostalgic approach makes sense with Kaidan/Ashley because they were with you since the first mission and you chose to save them, same for Wrex you made the effort to save him, so it makes sense to have that pay off. Contrary, Liara, there never was a choice, Garrus at least you had a choice with the Suicide Mission. I think personally the friendship non romanced path that is executed best so far here is Miranda, there's a respect that is more akin to co-workers rather than going hard on we were besties. [4:51 PM] Has for Kaidan, maybe unpopular take, but I actually like that the Kaidan stuff begins tense, mostly cuz it fits a lot of my headcanon with him. Shepard had feelings for him in 1 but he never acted upon them because he didn't think Kaidan was interested, cue horizon and Shepard is heartbroken and feeling betrayed Kaidan didn't trust him, and now cue 3 where he finally got him back but he doesn't see him the same way, but then almost lost him, and there's obviously so much tension built between them till the hospital scenes where they start a clean slate from all of it. So I been enjoying it so far building up their relationship. Now that I got him back again, I took him to Eden Prime to get Javik and is really nice to do that, for the unique dialogue there. I ended up having to mod Kaidan though, because his hair feels like it needs modernizing and kept throwing me off next to my shepard.  I also end up wishing Cortez romance was executed better because I really like the character, but it just feels wrong to romance him after what he went through and then he has to lose another lover again. I can see that perhaps the intention was to create an emotional gay char that the general audience of players can relate to his pain even if they are not gay, but it comes at the cost of the romance. Ideally, they could have kept that story without making him a romance and given someone else the romance option, someone like James Vega. Your interactions with James are very much strong enough to lead somewhere and it feels weird it never does. Most of the time it feels the writers are better at writing friendships than romances. That said I am really enjoying this run of the game, whereas with 2 I felt I was dragging myself a fair bit. For those that are planning to play these versions, here are some mods I tried on it and can recommend that work, as this one was the one I modded the most. The only one I haven't tried yet is Apartment one because I haven't touched the Citadel DLC yet but it looks pretty promising for some extra romance stuff: Community Patch: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/13/Aparment Additions: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1598Kaidan Alenko Overhaul (outfits and hair change): www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1424Male Shepard More Human Casual Looks: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1486/Undies In Colors: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1493/Male Shep Body Hair www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1667/ |
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Post by Scottphoto on May 20, 2023 18:01:52 GMT
If anyone is interested the person who made the Joker/FemShep romance mod for the original game is working on a voiced Garrus/MShep mod for legendary edition as well as updating the Joker romance mod for legendary edition with MShep being an option as well I wonder if they have any plans on making voiced bi romance mods for any of the other ME2 romances or Ashley? The joker mod author showed a preview of the m/m version on youtube, still imagine is long way to go as is a lot to do but is looking good so far: Keep in mind though it is using AI tech to fill in the missing lines, if that's not something you don't like but the author does have a video talking about its use as well and permissions and whatnot. I'm almost done with my playthrough, just about to head to the cerberus base, it really felt that for a bit there wasn't much romance content in between, but thankfully the dlcs really helped a lot fill that void, with leviathan showing a worried kaidan saving you and citadel doing that plus a lot more. I also tried apartment additions LE3 mod finally now that I done the citadel DLC and is really good. You get to have many fun new scenes with your romance on it in different areas of the apartment and these scenes are fully animated:  Needless to say, I'm having a great time running through Mass Effect 3, it definitely feels like the most complete game of them all. Still wish it had more options, but I understand from a narrative standpoint is hard to really add more. I can only really hope the next Mass Effect gives us a solid number of options from the start. This really should have been the blueprint to follow, is a shame Andromeda didn't get that right from the start. Because even taking in Cortez, he's basically present in almost every mission of this game, so you can still do an active present non squad member, unfortunately Gil was not the case in that one. If Gil had been more like Cortez in that sense (dead husband aside), plus jaal romance from the start, Andromeda wouldn't have had much issue. There is still the weird baby thing but if Gil had more screentime I'm sure it could have help covered that a bit. Anyways, not sure if I'm ready for the end yet and cry.  but I'm ready for the shirtless scene  |
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Post by Davrin's boobs on May 20, 2023 18:42:20 GMT
omg that mod has new scenes! thats so cool  I will be using it again + rondeeno's mods when I play MELE + MEA in preparation for ME5  still a long way for that though I'm on the fence about AI voices but it's true that is a way to give mlm and wlw more content and no different from modding DAO in the past (where you can change pronouns for Alistair and Morrigan romances) as long as it is not done with malicious intentions, its ok I guess? Most voice actors would be fine with it except homo/transphobic misogynistic Cullen' voice actor lol |
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Post by Scottphoto on Jul 2, 2023 0:47:12 GMT
So after finishing replaying the trilogy I kinda wanted to revisit that Legendary Edition Trailer and make it Kaidan gay romance so I did:  : like I did the Andromeda ones hehehe so here it is: I meant to do this for pride month but then I catched Covid unfortunately this same week I was planning to get on it but I am feeling better so here it is. I added quite a few things here and there. I still kept female shepard also since trailer featured both but still wanted the main being male gay romancer. And I think I cut Liara enough too I want to move over the andromeda ones also to this youtube but the copyright on that one is strong but will try and figure something out. The vimeos for those though still work! I lost the account password (LOL) but they are safe still XD. |
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Post by Lee on Jul 2, 2023 1:52:29 GMT
I'm glad you are feeling better Scottphoto ! I love the video, great work as usual.  |
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Post by Scottphoto on Jul 24, 2023 22:20:13 GMT
I know I already said thank you in many other socials but thank you again Lee! There's a new 2023 mod for ME Legendary Edition for Male Shepard romance with Garrus and they hired a voice actor to voice the missing lines, so far the mass effect 2 one is complete, and they are now working on adding the missing voiced lines for 3 but the mod is still up if you don't mind a silent shepard. I know also turianlannister brought it up here, but is now finished for 2! Mod Link: www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1629?tab=postsHere's a preview of the voice: Pretty cool for those that wanted to romance him and is not using AI, they hired an actual person so no worries on that front either. |
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Post by Andrew Mancer on Oct 11, 2023 18:35:30 GMT
So I apparently already own Mass Effect 2 and 3 on PC (must've been promotions at some point to get them for free) and was thinking the next time I play these games it will be on PC so I can get the full trilogy Kaidan romance as change from waiting until the third game. So, what's the best mod for getting the romance to work on all three games? I also have to ask, is it easy to get these mods installed? Are there also any other essential mods I might need to fix any bugs, etc. throughout the trilogy? Would definitely appreciate any recommendations/help since I've only ever played these games on PS3!  |
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I really wish I didn't ever get into Mass Effect sometimes. I mean I have Jaal, but even that has asterisks beside it and Kaidan as much as I love him-I still can't even have him without mods in everything but the last game (with less content and he doesn't say he loves you but once without an import-and that was the dlc ending so it wasn't even originally there!)
) Thane was my experimental 'cheat on Kaidan and feel bad about it, but I wanna see what happened, and then pick back up with Kaidan after' run. Jacob's was ridiculous, though it then leading into a Kaidan-mance worked considering the *waves hand at everything about his romance in ME3,* and Garrus's was okay. Probably enjoyed it as much as I did because I played an Infiltrator Shepard for him and they were Sniper Boyfriends. I do enjoy Steve's to a degree but he still has less content and I can't help but feel a little predatory pursuing his romance on the tail end of his husband's death, but that's just me. Still salty that we can't take him with us to the Casino even though he's right there with us. He'd look great in a suit. (I don't feel too bad not romancing him often just because I ship him with Vega more than I do my Shepard so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
but I'm ready for the shirtless scene 
I will be using it again + rondeeno's mods when I play MELE + MEA in preparation for ME5 
still a long way for that though 
: like I did the Andromeda ones hehehe so here it is:
