Mass Effect 2, part 20: More DLC

This post will contain spoilers.

I worked on the DLC called Firewalker. Each mission uses the Hammerhead, a vehicle similar to the Mako from the first game but more maneuverable.  I got the hang of driving it pretty quickly, and I had more fun with it than with the Mako.

First. I went to a frozen planet and had to collect data from sites there before the engines froze. I only got 9 out of 10, but that was good enough and I’m not going to bother to replay it. Cerberus is analyzing the data, and who know what they’ll do with it?

Next was a volcano planet. I had to get information on where two scientists had disappeared. I found the information, then had to get out before the volcano erupted. It was a fun but stressful mission!

The information led us to another site, protected by a forcefield. I had to destroy the generators and fight off some little geth rocket turrets, because the geth were also trying to find the scientists. They had recovered a Prothean artifact and I guess the geth wanted it too. Fortunately, we got it first!

The artifact was very large when we got to it, but conveniently shrank down so we could bring it with us!

That was it for missions I completed in this session. The rest of my time I spent talking to my crew. I’m getting very close to most of them, except for Miranda! I looked up how to regain her loyalty, and I should have enough paragon points. At this point I think it might be a bug, which is really unfortunate. I have no idea how to solve this issue, and I guess I’ll just have to keep playing and see what happens. I hope the consequences will not be too dire!

Mass Effect 2, part 19: Tali’s Loyalty Mission

This post will contain spoilers.

I completed Tali’s loyalty mission. It may be my favorite one. I had fun learning more about the quarians. Their situation reminds me of Battlestar Galactica, which I’ve been meaning to finish watching for a while! Fighting the geth to take back a ship for the quarians was also a lot of fun.

First, the point of the mission was to get Tali back to the Migrant Fleet so she could stand trial for treason. She had been sending geth parts back to her father, who was using them for some experiments on finding strategies effective against the geth. The ship he was working on had somehow been taken over by geth, and Tali was accused of treason for sending geth to her father. She was sure she had deactivated all of them, but no one knew how they had taken over the ship.

We went to the trial, and Tali found out her father was likely dead on the ship. No decision was made, and we were sent to try to take back the ship and also look for evidence of Tali’s innocence.

It was pretty straightforward. Of course I had Tali with me, and I had brought Garrus along as well. None of the fights gave me too much trouble. Poor Tali found her father’s body, and I comforted her. At this point, I was almost crying. I lost my father myself, although when I was very young so I hardly remember. I can only imagine how much worse it is to lose a parent when you are older and actually know them well.

We cleared all the geth and got the evidence we needed, except Tali begged me not to use it because it made her father look bad. I told her we would decide what to do at the trial.

They weren’t expecting us back at the trial because they didn’t expect us to survive. I gave a great speech about Tali and didn’t use the evidence. I wish I could speak that well in real life! They found Tali innocent, and we returned to the Normandy after I asked them not to go to war against the geth because we need their help against the reapers. I hope that actually will help!

I went back to the Normandy, and talked to all of my squadmates. Unfortunately despite all my paragon points, Miranda still won’t talk to me. I need to get her loyalty back! I also talked to Mordin, who wanted to talk so he could tell me that he doesn’t like me that way. I just kind of laughed, but I guess he thought I had a crush on him because I was coming to talk to him often! I also talked to Jacob, and it’s getting harder to choose the options that are not flirting with him. My friend warned me that if you end up with him, he cheats on you. Having too recently experienced that in real life, I do not want to have it happen in the game too!

I’m looking forward to finishing the game a lot more now, because I got Mass Effect 3! I found out about a deal to get the trilogy for $10 for PC, and it was the best deal I could find even though I already have the first two games. I’m not sure if I want to count it as old enough to blog about, but I’ll decide when I actually start playing it!

Mass Effect 2, part 18: DLC

This post will contain spoilers.

I had a pretty busy weekend and not much time to play, and the time I did I have I mostly spent figuring out how to access the DLC. The DLC came with the version of Mass Effect 2 that I bought, and also I’m doing everything I can to put off the ending!

I went and visited the crash site of the original Normandy. I had to find 20 dog tags belonging to dead crew members so they could be returned to their families. There were little cutscenes of the original Normandy and her crew. It was a short little mission, but full of memories.

I then went to get the Hammerhead vehicle. Again, it was a short little mission, but learning to fly the Hammerhead was pretty fun. Although with the amount of times I crashed it into rocks, we should all be dead!

Next, I went and found Zaeed. He just joined right up with us. However, he still had a job to do so we headed over there. We had to take back a refinery from the Blue Suns. It seemed straightforward at first, but then Zaeed had the idea to blow up the whole place to kill all the mercenaries including their leader. It turns out that Zaeed had helped found the Blue Suns, but Vido had turned everyone against him and taken it over. Well, I didn’t like that very much. There were still workers trapped inside the refinery. Sorry Zaeed, I know you had tracked Vido for 20 years, but I won’t let the innocent workers die just so you can get your revenge. We saved the refinery, but unfortunately Zaeed is not loyal to me. Oh well, it’s not worth it to me to replay the mission and let all the workers die.

I am frustrated with how I’m ending this session. Next time, I’ll finish up more DLC and hopefully also complete Tali’s loyalty mission.

Mass Effect 2, part 17

This post will contain spoilers.

I didn’t do too much during this session. I finished up some assignments I had left over. I also spent some time talking to my squad, and I got to hear Mordin talk about how he used to sing. He even sang for me! This is another one of my favorite moments.

I spent some time exploring more systems that I haven’t been to yet, including the Skepsis system. The planets here are all named after famous biologists! I am hoping to be a famous biologist myself someday, so I liked this.

First, I took care of the Blood Pack base. It was a straightforward mission of shooting the Blood Pack mercs, making it to their power station, and blowing the whole place.

Next, I took out a Blue Suns base where they had a false distress signal to lure in unsuspecting ships. Once again, it was simple. Shoot the mercs, deactivate their signal, and leave.

I also found an anomaly on one of the planets I explored. Some batarians were threatening a human colony, and I had 5 minutes to stop their missiles from hitting the colony. I had to fight my way through to the missile controls and then deactivate the missiles. But plot twist! I could only stop one. I could either save the industrial part of the colony or the residential part. I decided to save the residential part, because I think the human lives were much more important!

The last assignment I had was to take out the Hadne-Kedar facility, which had been overrun by mechs infected with a virus. This was the most challenging of these three assignments, but also the most fun. I had to fight through a maze of mechs to get to the control room, where I could stop the production of the infected mechs.

I keep trying to talk to Miranda as well, but she won’t talk to me. I’ll just have to keep trying to see if anything will change. I would be surprised if the problem is that I don’t have enough Paragon points, because these are my current stats.

Next time, I will keep trying to win Miranda back over and take care of Tali’s loyalty mission!

Building Self-Confidence Through Video Games

I wrote a piece for another blog, and I’m putting it on my own blog too. Here it is!

FemHype

Growing up, I was not allowed to play video games. My parents were very against them and claimed that playing video games would cause me to become violent and less intelligent. Their ban didn’t stop me, though. I found ways to play games anyway—such as having a secret Game Boy Color with a copy of Pokémon Blue I borrowed from my cousin. I also got very quick at switching tabs when playing games from Newgrounds on our desktop computer.

For so long, gaming was such a secret, forbidden thing I couldn’t let my parents find out about. It’s a little strange to be writing about it so openly now. I always thought it would be a secret and that I would never play any really big games like Mass Effect or Portal. I would hear friends talking about those games and not realize that I could actually play them too…

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Mass Effect 2, part 16: Jack’s Loyalty Mission

This post will contain spoilers.

I did finish Jack’s loyalty mission, along with some other side missions.

For Jack’s mission, she wants to return to the facility where she grew up so she can blow it up. She was tortured and experimented on, which does explain why she is so misanthropic now. In fact, I’m surprised she isn’t worse!

It was a pretty straightforward mission at first, with us going through an abandoned and overgrown facility. We fought off some Varren. And then, we ran into Blood Pack mercs! Their leader threatened to kill us, so we killed him first. We then found the person who hired the mercs. A man named Aresh had hired him, because just like Jack he had lived at the facility and wanted to return.

We talked to him some more, and he wanted to rebuild the facility and resume experiments, “to unlock biotic potential”. I was asking him why he would want to do it, and he said that his suffering must have been for suffering. Jack wanted to kill him, but I didn’t let her. We told him to leave, and then we blew the place up.

We returned to the Normandy, and Jack and Miranda had a fight. Miranda wouldn’t admit to Jack that what Cerberus had done to her was wrong. I had to side with Jack on this one; what happened to Jack was very messed up, and even if it was a facility that had gone rogue, Cerberus should have been monitoring them better and put a stop to it. Why would they just let a facility stop reporting to them? That was irresponsible. But now, Miranda hates me and is no longer loyal. I hope there’s a way to regain her loyalty. I’ll have to work on that.

I also prevented the MSV Broken Arrow from crashing into a human colony. It had been taken over by geth, so I had to fight them off and restore power to the engines so the ship could be maneuvered away from the planet. It was a timed mission, and I always feel stressed watching the time tick down. I’m more used to it now, and handled it just fine.

I also took care of an anomaly I found while scanning planets. The geth had set up a climate change thing, and I stopped it and fought them off. Now we have it, and maybe it will be useful later? I’ll have to find out.

Next time, I’ll continue to finish off side missions and maybe finish Tali’s loyalty mission.

Mass Effect 2, part 15: Samara’s Loyalty Mission

This post will contain spoilers.

I did get to finish Samara’s loyalty mission. It was really interesting and different. There was absolutely no combat, only dialog. Samara is trying to find her daughter, who has been murdering people by having sex with them. I had to basically talk to her daughter, Morinth, so that she would take me back to her apartment. Then once we were alone, Samara would take her out.

I was given all kinds of hints about how to talk to Morinth, so it wasn’t too hard. I just had to be careful because she doesn’t like modesty and my first reaction is often to be modest. Before I could even talk to her, I had to get her interested in me. I simply walked around the Afterlife VIP area and talked to other patrons, being careful not to pick a fight. She finally noticed me, and we talked about things I had been told she liked. It wasn’t too long before I got invited back to her apartment.

I had to keep her distracted until Samara got there, so I looked around her apartment and talked to her about things in it. I ran out of stuff though, so I sat next to her. We talked some more, and I was getting very concerned that she was going to seduce me before Samara got there. I don’t know if that was done on purpose or if it would have been different if I’d chosen different options, but it was close. Samara finally got there, and they fought. Samara won.

Like Jacob, Miranda, and Thane, Samara’s mission involved her family. At least Thane and Miranda got happier endings than Jacob and Samara. Once again, the mission summary stated that now she can focus on our mission. How can she, when she just killed her own daughter? I guess that’s part of being a Justicar. I’m sure she knows how to deal with it.

I also finished off some other missions here and there. I think next time, I will do Jack’s loyalty mission. I only have hers and Tali’s left, and Jack has been waiting for a long time. I don’t know what to expect from hers; it sounds so straightforward but there must be more to it. I’ll just have to wait and see what it is!

Mass Effect 2, part 14: Jacob’s Loyalty Mission

This post will contain spoilers.

Now that I have finished Jacob’s loyalty mission, I only have Tali’s, Jack’s, and Samara’s left to do. I feel like the end of the game is coming up way too quickly! I still need to recruit one more person too. Unfortunately I had it spoiled for me that the last member of my team is a geth, but I have no idea how that would come about so I’m still excited for that mission.

So, Jacob’s loyalty mission. It was certainly an interesting situation and story, but I felt gross afterwards. Jacob was trying to find his father, whose ship crashed 10 years ago. He had been presumed dead, but someone slipped Jacob information that suggested he was still alive.

Jacob and I confront his father.

He was indeed still alive, living on the planet where he crashed. Eating food from this planet causes neurological issues, so he kept all the food for himself and the other officers. Okay, that is justifiable. They would have to keep their minds sharp to fix their beacon and get help. But why did it take 10 years?

Because Jacob’s father started enjoying himself too much. He kicked out all of the male crew members, and the female crew members were “assigned” to the officers to do whatever they wanted. Then the other officers died, probably killed by Jacob’s father, and then he had all the female crew members for himself. I feel so gross just thinking about that. I had Jacob’s father arrested and he will be put on trial for his crimes. I’m glad we could bring him to justice, and hopefully the surviving crew members will recover.

I’ll probably do Samara’s mission next, since I ended up at Omega looking for more upgrades to buy. I hope this next mission won’t be as distressing to me as this one was.

Mass Effect 2, part 13

This post will contain spoilers.

I went back to the Citadel next, to complete Garrus’s and Thane’s loyalty missions. I did Garrus’s first, just because he’d been around longer than Thane. I brought him and Tali with me for it, for old times’ sake. At one point Tali said something like “Do you remember this, Shepard? This is near where we first met.” I haven’t really been too interested in romancing anybody so far, but Tali had me looking up if I can romance her. Too bad I can’t, because I’m playing as female. Oh well. I had it spoiled for me that she gets together with Garrus if they both remain single, so I think I’ll just let that happen. They’ll be cute together.

Garrus’s mission was longer than I thought it would be. He wanted to track down Sidonis, a former mercenary who worked with Garrus and got Garrus’s troop killed. First we had to track someone down, then go and fight through a warehouse. There were lots of LOKI mechs and YMIR mechs, so I ended up being very glad to have Tali along with us! Finally we got to the Fade, who is Harkin from the first game.  He got Sidonis to meet us somewhere.

I went to go talk to Sidonis, and Garrus was hidden with his sniper rifle ready to kill Sidonis. I didn’t let him. It seemed wrong, and I didn’t want to look suspicious because I’m sure it would get out that I had been talking to someone while they were assassinated. Anyway, Garrus now trusts me.

Thane’s mission was short, and didn’t involve any fighting! He is searching for his son, who is attempting to become an assassin and is somewhere in the Citadel. We had to track a couple of people down, and eventually found the guy who hired Thane’s son. We were interrogating him, and of course I end up threatening him right when his lawyer walks in. I look great now! We finally got the information, and started following the target.

I failed the mission the first time. I didn’t go into the room where Thane’s son was hiding. I looked it up, then tried again and was successful. Thane talked his son out of becoming an assassin, and now trusts me.

I was very amused at the name of the achievement for completing this mission. It’s a reference to this song.

I’ll continue to work on all the loyalty missions. I still have the Jack, Jacob, Samara, and Tali missions.