We launch into an arc covering one of the most significant games of the last decade — and a hell of a sci-fi story to boot. We lay out the basic story of ME1, followed by a deep discussion of gameplay mechanics and how Bioware manipulates extra layers of abstraction to extract emotional meaning from remarkably few plot forks. And we run down the week in geek, including some awesome new music, the Secret World of Arrietty, Transformers 4 possibilities, the future of Shia compared to other possibly-typecast actors, and lots more.
Ahhh! I was listening to the New Hope cast at the gym and heard you were doing this arc and rushed home to download it. Thanks gang, I think I’m gonna love this arc to prep for ME3!
Mass Effect is probably my favorite video game series, and I’m so excited for ME3 to come out. Can’t wait to hear your show on ME1.
Downloading now, can’t wait to listen.
Enemies everywhere!!!Go Go Go!!!
Enemies everywhere!!!Go Go Go!!!
I will destroy you!
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my Favorite podcast on the Citadel!
Mass Effect has my favorite storyline in a video game ever. It is my second favorite game of all time, next to Mass Effect 2. I remember way back hearing all about it on Galatica Watercooler, and how awesome it sounded, but annoyed I couldn’t play it because I didn’t have an Xbox and wasn’t going to spend the cash. Later when they came out with the PC version I was still out of luck because my computer at the time was not quite powerful enough to run it. That changed one lucky day when my video card died, and I was forced to upgrade. 
The game ran at around 15 FPS but it was so worth it. A great story is a great story no matter how many frames per second you get.
When I got my new PC last year I got to play Mass Effect at maximum settings with my original character and had a blast. Then I dove into Mass Effect 2.
The storyline for Mass Effect combines a lot of classic sci-fi ideas, and manages to be original at the same time. Just in the first game you have: AI evolving and rebelling against it’s creators, ancient powerful races from outside the galaxy, political intrigue with aliens, humans earning their place in the galaxy, hot blue alien babes, pretty much all the great space opera tropes. That, and the fact that you can make decisions that actually matter and are carried out through the rest of the game(s).
I consider the universe of Mass Effect up there with Star Trek, Star Wars or Babylon 5 as far as how deep into it you can get, and how much detail there is. My hope is that even after Mass Effect 3, the universe goes on in some form, even though the main Shepard storyline will be done.
Definitely a great game with a really nice universe, I remember reading every one of those codex entries and wanting more. I was also hugely pissed when I got one of the prequel books with the awesome captain Anderson when they start just before the first contact war and then they do a few years later thing since I really wanted to see that.
Talking about some of the plot points and decisions so yeah spoilers below for any crazy people who haven’t played it yet. I found some of my main decisions were based on stuff which wasn’t directly in the question (also I played first time as a super me so just gut feeling) like the choice on vermire I always sent ash with the assault team because she is a soldier and kiaden with the bomb because he is a tech which of course means kaiden always dies because I save the team of salarians rather then going back to a back to the bomb (even on femshep when she was romancing him poor girl). And the council always gets saved because they happen to be on the destiny ascension and I wanted to save the biggest friendly ship in existence figured it should be easier to destroy the geth while they are still engaged rather then allow them to regroup so couldn’t see the intended motivation to let the council die other then just because you hate them.
It is such a great story and now I’m going to have to rapidly replay before number three damn you! But I do think especially for people new to the style the first game really does suffer from inverse difficulty since at the beginning your guns over heat to fast you have no shield buffer and your powers are weak but then it just gets more easy until you just blow through everything without getting depleted shields which unfortunately made a couple of people I tried to get to play it give up in frustration.
…I do think especily for people new to the style the first game really does suffer from inverse difficulty since at the begining your guns over heat to fast you have no shield buffer and your powers are weak but then it just gets more easy untill you just blow through everything without getting depleted shields which unfortunatly made a couple of people I tried to get to play it give up in frustration.
Agreed, that is one thing I think they did a lot better in the second game. I like the first better as a story but they made so many improvements like that in the gameplay of the second, and it is a much more well rounded action/RPG.
good cast, +1 for “Almost Famous” reference 
I thoroughly enjoyed ME2. Never played ME1, but now might revisit it for missed story, content.
Stay classy San Diego.
ME1 definitely has a different “feel” than the other game(s). Not saying this is good or bad, it just has a more chill acid jazz atmosphere. ME2 is more Daft Punk. Which means ME3 will probably be Rammstein.
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Hey Sean, what’s this about a Transformers anime with a Cylon girl and the Matrix of Leadership? Heheh… ^_*
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