[Col.Hornet]

Because this is HLP and therefore I disagree with almost everyone about almost everything, ME1 = best ME.   Obviously not as polished as its successors, but it had amazing and unique ideas that were abandoned and retconned to be replaced with bland generic crap.  ME3 tried to recover but didn't make it all the way.

ME: Great storyline, quite good characters, awful gameplay (my worst shooting experience in video games I swear)

ME2: mediocre/weak storyline (slowing the macroplot down),brilliant characters (I was so pissed that none of them were our squadmates in 3, except Garrus and Tali), good gameplay.

ME3: average storyline with tons of bad writing as mentioned above, good characters (Citadel DLC brings back ex-squadmates so it's a lot of fun) and the best gameplay and combat system of all trilogy (something the Andromeda bases on, so this aspect of the game shall be taken care of properly).

To my personal taste, I had the best fun with ME2, despite it's lack or macroplot development. Best squadmates with their unique stories. And hey, we are Cerberus, doing the things Cerberus was meant to be doing, not being a damn indoctrinated cannon fodder, because the devs needed some non- Reaper humanoid enemies for the player to shoot at! Such a waste here... I would be so awesome if we had a choice after ME2 to stay on TIM's side (and later help him fight- off the indoctrination or just take him out and take his place) or rejoin the Alliance. Something like in The Witcher 2 where at some point we ha to pick a party we wanted to help.

One more thing I like in Andromeda is that there is 99% certainty we will not see any "Alliance". I don't know why but I was always annoyed when their brass was around, maybe except Hackett and Anderson.

[Phantom Hoover]

ME2: mediocre/weak storyline (slowing the macroplot down),brilliant characters (I was so pissed that none of them were our squadmates in 3, except Garrus and Tali), good gameplay.

"Your choices matter! Your decisions will have consequences in the next game!"

"This game ends with a suicide mission in which every squadmate can die."

[Firesteel]

ME2's ending was probably in part why ME3 had so many issues. In an attempt to make choices have some kind of consequence in the game they wound up with far too many world states to be able to develop content for with equal care. I'd say ME2's ending was Bioware blowing their load early as far as having a consequence-palooza.

@Klaustrophobia I agree with you on ME1 being the best. Looking back, I realize that the vast majority of the player base had completely different interests than me, but as a cosmic horror fan, the Sovereign conversation was the highlight of the franchise. I was looking forward to another twist on ancient god-beings with motives we can't comprehend. I was in it for the plot and pretty much everything else was just a bonus. Yes ME2 had some of the best character writing of the time, but it also had far more pandering than I cared for (and I was ostensibly the exact demographic they were pandering to), and I feel, destroyed all momentum the plot had. I'll admit what I wanted was probably not what ME was ever going to deliver at my expectations, but jettisoning the tight and interesting plot in the middle of your planned trilogy never did sit well with me.

Add to that ME3 having to kick the plot into gear from a standstill and the final game has an uphill climb on practically everything.

[CP5670]

I liked ME3 the best overall, but they all had their flaws. ME1 had a great main quest and the Reapers were awesome and fear-inducing (like that Sovereign conversation), but it's ultimately quite short and the side quests are just generic and tedious. I recently replayed it (even got 100% on both paragon and renegade) and the gameplay and combat feel very repetitive compared to the later games. ME2 had the worst main quest but was all about the companions, and you spend 80% of the game with their side quests. The combat is definitely better although the grinding for resources was annoying (I just used console cheats for this). It did get old to hear "hur hur suicide mission, we're all going to die" throughout the game and then seeing everyone survive at the end. The Illusive Man is an excellent character but the portrayal of Cerberus is pretty inconsistent with both ME1 and ME3. ME3 had a fantastic main quest right up until the ending, and was much longer and more substantial than the previous games. I liked how you went to the homeworlds of all the major species and had a feeling of desperation as the quest went on, even though the Reapers had just become generic evil aliens by this point. The ending was ridiculous but I can overlook that given how good the rest of it was, and I didn't mind the fewer number of companions since I never used half the ones in ME2, although the lack of dialogue from many of them was disappointing. ME3 also had the best DLCs, particularly Leviathan and Citadel.

[Phantom Hoover]

my favourite part of the me2 ending was perfectly threading the needle of outcomes in the earlier game so that miranda and only miranda died

[Aesaar]

To my personal taste, I had the best fun with ME2, despite it's lack or macroplot development. Best squadmates with their unique stories. And hey, we are Cerberus, doing the things Cerberus was meant to be doing, not being a damn indoctrinated cannon fodder, because the devs needed some non- Reaper humanoid enemies for the player to shoot at! Such a waste here... I would be so awesome if we had a choice after ME2 to stay on TIM's side (and later help him fight- off the indoctrination or just take him out and take his place) or rejoin the Alliance. Something like in The Witcher 2 where at some point we ha to pick a party we wanted to help.

One of my favorite pet theories about Cerberus before ME3 came out is that they were still run by the Alliance and the terrorist thing was just a public front so the Alliance had a real black ops group that wasn't in any way tied down by diplomatic or PR consequences.  **** goes south and people find out about the terrible **** happening?  Condemn their actions but reap the benefits.

That would have been interesting.  Such a shame.

[Firesteel]

From what I remember Miranda's the hardest character to kill. I'm impressed.

[Col.Hornet]

From what I remember Miranda's the hardest character to kill. I'm impressed.

Spoiler:

In 2 she can die only in one moment. When she's facing the human reaper and wasn't loyal. In 3 however she can get killed very easily in several ways. If you don't talk to her, warn her about Leng, screw up the dialog while confronting Henry Lawson or finally if you break up with her.

Never happened in my playthrough though, as she was always my Shep's LI xD

[Firesteel]

I think it's interesting how difficult they made her to kill in 2 (wonder woman I guess?) and then made her one of the easiest characters to kill in 3 (raise tension by killing people?).

[Grizzly]

I think it's mainly because in the suicide mission she is the one that talks you trough everything. she always adresses you on "Which squadmate should we take?", because she's your second-in-command and because she's in your party for sure. Combine that with time and budget constraints, and there you go.

[Firesteel]

I was being a little facetious with that last point and ME2 shows its technical (hello 2 DVDs for the 360) and time constraints pretty quickly with how the main missions are laid out and how most of Legion's story were locked behind the time he joins the crew. I also have a feeling Miranda's character design had a fair amount of money put into it and that dovetailing with her being in the game from the beginning probably led to that decision.

[Col.Hornet]

I was being a little facetious with that last point and ME2 shows its technical (hello 2 DVDs for the 360) and time constraints pretty quickly with how the main missions are laid out and how most of Legion's story were locked behind the time he joins the crew. I also have a feeling Miranda's character design had a fair amount of money put into it and that dovetailing with her being in the game from the beginning probably led to that decision.

Well... that would make sense, considering that hiring miss Strahovski as a voice actor and model wasn't cheap for sure. I guess that she would probably had more screentime in ME3 (come on, ex Cerberus second in charge on our side would be a huuuuge ASSet xD) but if I remember correctly the production of ME3 was more or less the same time the last season of "Chuck" was in the making(please correct me if I'm wrong) so these two things most likely collided.

[Firesteel]

I'm sure other contracts factored into ME3's production with her. It's a similar reason (though not all of it) for swapping Dinklebot in Destiny for Northbot. I have nothing against actors doing voice work but contracts and schedules are something that should be thought about when signing them over dedicated voice actors. From my understanding, dedicated voice actors have far more schedule flexibility than other actors as recording sessions take less time than shooting a movie or TV show (forget about getting stage actors for anything if they have a show coming up).

[Phantom Hoover]

I think it's interesting how difficult they made her to kill in 2 (wonder woman I guess?) and then made her one of the easiest characters to kill in 3 (raise tension by killing people?).

I think it's mainly because in the suicide mission she is the one that talks you trough everything. she always adresses you on "Which squadmate should we take?", because she's your second-in-command and because she's in your party for sure. Combine that with time and budget constraints, and there you go.

Yeah she was very much being kept alive to talk in cutscenes. I'm not totally sure but I think she might even come back to life for one cutscene even if she died? (e: no she doesn't but she can't die before the last cutscene/decision point)

[Col.Hornet]

Fresh new trailer

[Luis Dias]

"I don't need an army, I've got a Krogan"

That was an ok line.

The trailer is scattershot though, it's not clear they themselves even know what the game is about.

[Col.Hornet]

"I don't need an army, I've got a Krogan"

That was an ok line.

The trailer is scattershot though, it's not clear they themselves even know what the game is about.

Check out the next briefing then  

https://www.masseffect.com/andromeda-initiative/training-hub/pathfinder-and-team

[Luis Dias]

I like that B Hole.

Is Cora Harper.... the illusive man's daughter or something? His last name was Harper too IIRC. And she's nuMiranda, apparently. I liked that briefing .

[Col.Hornet]

I like that B Hole.

Is Cora Harper.... the illusive man's daughter or something? His last name was Harper too IIRC. And she's nuMiranda, apparently. I liked that briefing .

My first thought when she introduced herself xD But... doubtful (but that could be awesome in a way. The whole show ran by a former N7 and Cerberus boss's daughter But I guess it's just a name coincidence)

And gosh... she looks nice with that hairstyle.

[Phantom Hoover]

will the illusive man's daughter have learned how to spell 'elusive' properly?