about ME1

[BLOBERT]

BRO QUICK GOOGLE HARD SCIFI SO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT

LOLLOLLOLLOLOLOL

I GOT MAD AT THE WALL YESTERDAY AND HAD A MORE PRODUCTIVE AND INTELLIGENT DISCUSISSION LOLLLOLLOLLOOL

 

[Gragt]

But is ARMA hard sci-fi enough?

 

[MetalCraze]

Yes bro, why won't we google it?

One requirement for hard SF is procedural or intentional: a story should try to be accurate, logical, credible and rigorous in its use of current scientific and technical knowledge about which technology, phenomena, scenarios and situations that are practically and/or theoretically possible

Please tell me more about Unobta... No wait - The Force... No no wait - Spice.. Eeeh I mean Element Zero(tm) and why is there sound in space?

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I SAID ME WAS HARDER THAN MOST OTHER SHIT AND YOU ARE FUCKING CALLING IT STAR WARS

BRO YOU DONT EVEN HAVE THE BRIANS TO DEAL IN SHADES BLACK OR WHITE LOLLOLOLOLLOL

ME ISNT HARD SCIFI BUT IT DEFINITELY ISNT FANTASY LOLLOLL

YOU WANT TO WIN SO BAD YOU FORGET THE ARGUMENT LOLOLLOLOL JUST LIKE YOU FORGET PNHYSICS

 

[MetalCraze]

And Mass Effect is fantasy. Just like Dune and Star Wars.

All three have a single magical element that has not a single root in science to explain every unrealistic stuff in them. Especially magic spells.

If it has no roots in science how can it be 'science' fiction?


Just because huge sandworms on a planet that looks like Iraq shit out magical Spice which is used to extend life, do FTL travel and control the universe doesn't make it sci fi.

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO NOW YOU ARE RETARTED

ALL SCIENCE FICTION IS MADE UP BRO YOU HAVE TO MAKE UP SOMETHING FOR IT TO BE FICTION

STAR WARS HAS NO TECHNICAL EXPLANATION
DUNE DITTO
BRADBURY DITTO
STAR TREK MAYBE A LITTLE
MASS EFFECT TRIES
HEINLIEN TRIES A LITTLE SOMETIMES
ASSIMOV TRIED HARDER
STEPHEN BAXTER JERKS OFF OVER IT

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I SWEAR MY DOG JUST FARTED AND IT SEEMS MORE PART OF THE DISCUSSION THAN YOUR RANDOM DIVERTING BULLSHIT LLOOLOLOLLOLOLOL

 

[MetalCraze]

There is a difference between technical explanation and a "magical element that controls every fiction in our universe" which is my point.

There is a difference between ships using rotating parts to create gravity like in B5 (which is based around real scientific theories - oh and look ships have newtonian physics there too) and "we manipulate Unobtainedu Eremento Soopice Zero and create a magical gravity in our ships".

And B5 is anything but hard sci fi. It's a quite light sci fi in fact. And somehow there are no Grey Wardens in it that run around shooting spells out of their hands.

 

[Metro]

Skyway vs. BLOBERT -- this is like Hogan vs. Piper!

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I LOVE YOU AND I AM HAVING FUN BUT IT IS TIME TO GO TO BED

MY POINT IS THAT ME IS HARDER THAN MOST OTHER VIDEO GAME SHIT PART OF HARD SCIFI IS ATTEMPTING TECHNICAL EXPLANTIONS EVEN IF BASED ON SOME CLEARLY FICTITOOUS ELMESNTS

BRO YOU ARE TOTALLY TROLLING NOW I GET YOU

YOU KEEP MENTIONING NEWTONIAN PHYSICS YOU KNOW THAT HARD SCIFI NEED MORE THAN THAT

BRO HARD HARD SCIFI IS HUMANS NEED TO BE PUT TO SLEEP AND COMPLETELY ENCASED IN FOAM BECAUSE YOU CANT DO A 50G TURN WITHOUT TURNING THEM TO JELLY OR MAKE IT TO A NEARBY STAR IN LESS THAN 20 YEARS OR WHATEVER AND THEN THE SUPER SPECIAL UNHEARD OF IN UKNRAINE RELATIVISTIC EFFECTS MAKE EVERYONE YEARS OUT OF DATE WHEN THEY GET THERE BUT BRO THAT SHIT IS HARD AS IT COMES

BRO LET ME GUESS YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY RELATING WITH OTHERS LOLOLLOLLOL

 

[Esquilax]

The BRO is correct here. Mass Effect is pretty much a soft sci-fi setting. Hard sci-fi settings are almost nonexistent in gaming ad just about the only title that comes to mind is maybe Alpha Centauri, and even that had a lot of out-there stuff in the expansion. Star Control 2 as well, but keep in mind that 4x games lend themselves to this kind of shit much better. At the very least, ME tries to come up with some sort of explanation for stuff like biotics in the setting lore, it's not fucking LotR in Space, that's just typical skyway hyperbole.

There are some more fantastical elements that I dislike, but it's on par with Star Trek at least.

 

[TNO]

I think I should contribute to this thread.

ME1 and ME2's plot is contrivance layered on implausibility. You could list the failures of plausibility in both for ages (like the start "ooh look, Saren's here!/Random reboot", or the "thanks for solving this completely unrelated issue in our planet, here's a plot coupon!/Secret intel! Go here and frob plot coupon!"), or how the main characters/entities creak implausibly for whatever set piece the writers want next, and so on and so forth.

But ME2 wins on the story/narrative front. Your main NPCs are far better: I confess Jack didn't trigger my cringe gland, but regardless, I'd take her over Kaiden, and although Wrex > Grunt, he's not as good as Mordin or Legion. Garrus2, Liara2 are greater than their earlier counterparts (ditto Tali, if we just ignore the semi-pedo romance option). The party also is (slightly) less contrived. Picking up a crew of already-accomplished badasses grates less than how the randomers you pick up in ME1 all turn into lethal badasses.

ME2 sticks to its strengths in having most of the game driven by the NPCs. Granted a) these are often pulled out of nowhere ("I'm Yeoman Chambers, your angst barometer. It's time to do a loyalty quest!"), and b) they are poorly integrated into the already dodgy main plot arc, but ignoring these, they are usually good vignettes. Again, Legion and Mordin have the pick of the loyalty missions, but they were all pretty good and fleshing out characters etc. It is almost as if the design team spent all their time at making these sidequests and then tacked them together at the end.

ME2s dialogue is variable, but usually fairly good in a schlocky Joss Wheldon way. ME1 is usually dire.


ME2 wins on combat, but only just. ME1 switched from pretty stodgy MMORPG-esque mechanics of stacking your +3% buffs and scaling up your loot to probably the most static cover-shooter ever devised.

As others have noted, the cover mechanics are awful: a good system should encourage careful tactical movement to try and outmanouever your enemies etc. etc. In ME2, leaving the cover you are stuck behind for any length of time is suicidal. So your tactics are for most encounters are to pop up, shoot a bit, wait for your shields to recharge, and keep doing it. The enemies, most of whom don't have regen, obligingly pop up periodically to let you kill them, instead of bum-rushing you en masse. (There are some enemies who do this, but usually in small enough numbers to be picked off). The level design rams the 'stay here and pop moles' tactic down your throat - many of the set piece battles happily have a C-shaped chest high wall for your team to cower behind to prevent yourself getting outflanked.

But rarely it does pull off to give some interesting combat. Cowering behind walls while elevated opponents hail rockets on you whilst others with flamers walk to up to toast you, or dodging charging husks whilst trying not to expose oneself to collector potshots, or timing powers to shield-strip then send flying incoming platforms of opponents, or a running battle after a miniboss trying to kill Garrus, etc. etc. Now, for each of these memorable moments there's endless dull popamole, trash mobs, and silly kiting, but its something. Besides the colossus on Therum, I can't think of anything else interesting in ME1.

Oh, and ME1 has the sodding Mako sections.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

If you enjoy cover shooting for 30h through identical corridors

First, there are no identical corridors. There are only corridors and most corridors look the same because they're corridors. That said, they differ slightly in real life and they differ slightly in Mass Effect 2 as well.

At least ME1's combat has the decency to let you go through it quickly. ME2 insists on dragging on through every single encounter.

whereas in ME2 I'm forced to engage in the "get into cover, pop up and shoot" routine.

I suppose you two aren't very good at this then? The only time I press up against a wall is when I desperately need to recharge my health. Most of the time though, I'm busy using my powers to kill shit as fast as possible. Bullet time in particular can make encounters into a matter of seconds, and also there's the use the right weapon for the right enemy thing. Remember: blue ammo for robots, green for fleshies, fire for armor, purple for jack of all trades.

Listen, people. All Mass Effect 2 did was to remove the shit that didn't work, which incidentally happened to be over 50% of Mass Effect 1.

Absolutely. But, since removing 50% of ME1 would leave you with no gameplay, they of course had to replace everything they removed with something else. And hey, guess what they replaced it with? Oh right, shit that also doesn't work.

Really? Well, why don't we think a bit about all the things they kicked out the airlock then?

1. The inventory and weapons & armor in general.
Explanation unnecessary, but hey, it's almost christmas so here we go. The inventory system in ME1 sucked and it was all about collecting shit until you found something that was better than what you were currently carrying. Sure, that's how most games like that work, but this didn't take long for me at all. I'd barely left the Citadel and I was practically swimming in useless junk that I either had to sell or turn into omnigel. And you must do this individually for every item. I consider it the most tedious console crap I've ever had to deal with. ME2's solution was to completely rehash the inventory, no more looting, and the smaller array of guns and armor are more than just a palette swap. They actually have ups and downs and special uses. For example, there's a shotgun that can charge, megaman style, to fire a more powerful shot, but it takes a while.

2. The combat.
Combat in ME1 is slow, clumsy, and also suffers greatly from what I like to call "poorly ported X-Box game". It's obvious that whoever ported the controls over to keyboard had no idea how it should be done, but I digress. Again.

3. No more tedious "exploring" and no more car.
The car sucked. It controlled like shit and was only useful to cannon snipe enemies. Most importantly, you could easily get stuck in a crater somewhere together with a mineral deposit with no way out but to pull out your map and click Return to Normandy and then do the planet again if you had unfinished business. Also, why a car? What use is a car on an alien planet? Surely some kind of flying vehicle would be superior? And if it has to be a car, why make it a tank of all things? I'm looking for excuses. Is Star Trek: Nemesis the favorite movie in Canada?

3b. Sidequests are not tedious in ME2, + minigames and C&C.
Like all quests, you're instantly placed where you need to be. I like that kind of service. Also, no more mineral deposit collection shit. Of course, in its place we have a minigame where you mine for resources but I definitely think it's the less annoying thing. Of course, the collection shit in ME1 is completely optional, right? Right, but on the other hand you get loot for absolutely everything in ME1. Kill an enemy = get new items and 2000 credits. Money is never an issue in ME1. Some people like that. I get it. But I on the other hand like how the new limited resources thing made me have to think about what to upgrade because there's really only so much you can do unless you edit your save file. It added a kind of 'strategic' element, but of course I use that word loosely. Here's the thing, there's a suicide mission coming up that you're preparing for. If you upgrade your ship but neglect your weapons and armor, then chances are your squad will make it down there in one piece but you're gonna get your ass kicked as soon as the Collectors show themselves. If you do vice versa, then maybe some of your squad dies but you're (hopefully) gonna have a powerful surviving team. It's more choice and consequence than I've ever seen in a BioWare game, frankly.

Lastly, ME1's minigames suck ass. Take that!

4. Recycled environments.
I don't care about that stupid, wrong shit you said about corridors. It's stupid, wrong shit. Even if it was true it beats having to go through that one mine level, that one corporate bunker office level, that one hangar level, that one derelict spaceship level and those multiple palette swapped planets.


The end. Now I'm tired and feeling for writing this shit (AGAIN). Hope you enjoy.

edit: fixed typos i'm going back to ff8

 

[Phage]

IMO:

Overall: ME2>ME1>DA:O

Story: ME1>ME2>DA:O

Combat: ME2>DA:O>ME1

Companions: Wrex > Mordin > Alistar > Morrigan > Legion > everyone else


If you're enjoying ME1 so far you may as well continue. I honestly thought that the worst part was the first third.


edit: Andyman I'm not sure if you limited yourself or something but I bought every ship upgrade and had close to all the weapon/armor upgrades... Whole game was a cakewalk (as was ME1). Frankly I had the most difficulty with DA:O's ending sequence just because I had no idea I would need equipment for a second party, lol.

 

[Ermm]

Mass Effect is enjoyable only if you're a sci-fi fan IMO. If you don't like science fiction, the game just isn't worth playing.

Yeah, yeah, same old, same old. You forgot to tell ''It is enjoyable because it's like a B-movie,'' or ''good for what it is.''
Also I am interested in sci-fi (don't know if I am a fan of ANY specific genre) but this game is boring from A-Z.

And lol, someone here say ME is a B-movie material and at the same time someone else says it is hard scifi. hahahahaha priceless.

Actually it is also not B-movie material. It more really feels like one of those Dark&Gritty 90s comics, especially that old and shitty ''Guardians of The Galaxy'' (or whatever it was called) from Marvel.

I don't like to say that I agree with Skyway, but he is 100% right. ME is just as hard scifi as ''Chronicles of Riddick.''

 

[Sceptic]

First, there are no identical corridors. There are only corridors and most corridors look the same because they're corridors.

That's the point

Really? Well, why don't we think a bit about all the things they kicked out the airlock then?

See this is the difference between us. You think ME2 is amazing because of all the bad things in ME1. I'm criticizing ME2 because of, well, all the shitty things IN ME2 ITSELF. So I'm not going to really reply to anything you said, because I agree that all these things sucked in ME1. I will, however, diss all the shitty things they introduced in ME2. Without going into details, because I don't want to feel

tired and feeling for writing this shit (AGAIN).

1. Shitty inventory gone? great. Replaced by shitty system where I have to pick 3 weapons and stick to them until the next magic locker where all the weapons I have on the Normandy magically beam down so I can change my outfit? shit.
(oh and regarding seeling items in ME1 - it takes one click. ONE. CLICK. to sell one item. Seriously, it took more clicks to sell items in Dark Sun)

2. Pimping my Shep with this awesome custom armor that makes him look all hip and cool-looking? sorry, but I'm not into dressing up dolls.

They actually have ups and downs and special uses.

Technically true, except it doesn't matter because there's one DLC weapon in each category that is 100x better than anything else, so there's exactly no point in using any other weapon for the entire game.

Combat in ME2 is slow, clumsy, and also suffers greatly from what I like to call "poorly ported X-Box game". It's obvious that whoever ported the controls over to keyboard had no idea how it should be done, but I digress. Again.

Fixed

3. Was the Mako shitty? not that much, but this is about why ME2 sucks so I won't go into details. What did it get replaced with? The hovercar. Guess how the hovercard controls? yeah, like shit. Mmm, now that we have a hovercar with shitty controls, what kind of activity should we make the player do? hey I have an idea! let's make them do some shitty platforming! 'cause we all know that shitty controls + shitty platforming = AWESOME!
Can I please please have my Mako back? At least I didn't have timed jumps in my Mako. At least I could fucking SAVE in my fucking Mako!

Also, why a car? What use is a car on an alien planet? Surely some kind of flying vehicle would be superior? And if it has to be a car, why make it a tank of all things? I'm looking for excuses.

So am I. Especially since ME2's hovercar DOES hover!... a few centimeters above ground. Yeah that's useful.

Sidequests are not tedious in ME2

4. Minigames! Yeah, ME1's minigames were shit, but then so are all minigames. BUT, you can skip them!

Fast forward to ME2: minigames are even shittier and YOU CAN NO LONGER SKIP THEM.

Yeah I totally see how ME2 is a huge improvement. I mean, unskippable shitt minigames >>>>>> skippable shitty minigames.

It added a kind of 'strategic' element

Yeah it sure did. "Do I want the upgrade at the cost of my sanity playing a minigame?" Deep strategic element man.
(protip: there's enough money in the game to get everything upgraded, and then some. Advantage of DLC's: less minigames to have to go through. Almost worth the price of admission just for this)

It's more choice and consequence than I've ever seen in a BioWare game, frankly.

See above. Me, I like my C&C to be about the GAME, not about whether I'm willing to risk my sanity, my mouse and the feeling that I'm wasting my life on a stupid minigame. Though I guess that's the ultimate C&C evar.

Hope you enjoy.

I did, and I still love you

OK, so I lied. I did write too much and I did end up replying to things you said. But that's all because you're my favorite horse

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

The whole "is it SciFi?" schtick is pointless. Regardless, both Mass Effect are shit games. Of course, to me any sticky cover + health regen POPAMOLE shooting range is a shit game regardless of anything else because both are ultimately shit and dumbed down game mechanics. But opinions aside, I don't recommend either. Save yourself from disappointment unless you are very easily entertained like a certain portion of the Codex that embraced the decline and want lesbian alien sex and romance simulators.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

You think ME2 is amazing because of all the bad things in ME1.

Well, yes, but most of all I think ME2 is amazing because of all the bad things in ME1 BioWare improved or removed in ME2. I'm not saying ME2 isn't without flaws. I can think of plenty of things that made me go But, well, I'd need an "about ME2" thread for that post.

1. Shitty inventory gone? great. Replaced by shitty system where I have to pick 3 weapons and stick to them until the next magic locker where all the weapons I have on the Normandy magically beam down so I can change my outfit? shit.

What's so shitty about that? I don't see an explanation. Just like in Mass Effect 1 you gradually get better and better equipment. For me it just makes sense to stick to the best equipment at all times.

(oh and regarding seeling items in ME1 - it takes one click. ONE. CLICK. to sell one item. Seriously, it took more clicks to sell items in Dark Sun)

One click for every item. You have room for over 100 items in your ME1 inventory. You don't even have to open crates like crazy to fill it up. Shoot an enemy = free item! remember? So selling items = bullshit. And converting to omnigel takes two clicks. Convert -> Are you Sure?

2. Pimping my Shep with this awesome custom armor that makes him look all hip and cool-looking? sorry, but I'm not into dressing up dolls.

Just changing armor is not the same as dressing up IMO. I mean most armor in RPGs tend to slightly change the appearance of your character. Fallout, for example. Does Fallout count as dressing up? I hope not. So armor in ME2 can't be dressing up either. But! The Alternate Appearance Packs for the party members are definitely dressing up, because they're just cosmetic changes, maybe a few cool blinking lights here and there but otherwise they don't affect anything but visual appearance.

They actually have ups and downs and special uses.

Technically true, except it doesn't matter because there's one DLC weapon in each category that is 100x better than anything else, so there's exactly no point in using any other weapon for the entire game.

I think that's up for debate. I for one wasn't very keen on the DLC assault rifle since while powerful it was semi-automatic and only carried 64 shots and 16 per clip. It ran out of ammo quickly and like so it wasn't very reliable sometimes.

Combat in ME2 is slow, clumsy, and also suffers greatly from what I like to call "poorly ported X-Box game". It's obvious that whoever ported the controls over to keyboard had no idea how it should be done, but I digress. Again.

Fixed

3. Was the Mako shitty? not that much, but this is about why ME2 sucks so I won't go into details. What did it get replaced with? The hovercar. Guess how the hovercard controls? yeah, like shit. Mmm, now that we have a hovercar with shitty controls, what kind of activity should we make the player do? hey I have an idea! let's make them do some shitty platforming! 'cause we all know that shitty controls + shitty platforming = AWESOME!

Hovercar can jump higher.

Can I please please have my Mako back? At least I didn't have timed jumps in my Mako. At least I could fucking SAVE in my fucking Mako!

They are bringing it back, but I hope you have to buy the Save Game While In Your Fucking Mako DLC. :wink:

Also, why a car? What use is a car on an alien planet? Surely some kind of flying vehicle would be superior? And if it has to be a car, why make it a tank of all things? I'm looking for excuses.

So am I. Especially since ME2's hovercar DOES hover!... a few centimeters above ground. Yeah that's useful.

Fair enough, but it is capable of jumping and it can withstand lava for more than 0 seconds. It is also much faster and most importantly it doesn't have wheels. Climbing a mountain, come on, baby, just one more centimeter, oh no don't slide down, you can do this, baby, come o--oh what the fuck I guess I'll take the long way around then. Meanwhile, hovercar can accelerate and jump on to the platforms. I'd like to see you do that in a Mako.

Sidequests are not tedious in ME2

ohyou.jpeg

4. Minigames! Yeah, ME1's minigames were shit, but then so are all minigames. BUT, you can skip them!

At least one is, to my knowledge, not skippable. Liara's Dig Site with a Simon Says laser drill.

Fast forward to ME2: minigames are even shittier and YOU CAN NO LONGER SKIP THEM.

Sure you can. Both hacking minigames and the mining minigame are only there if you want money and resources, which I suppose you do somewhere along the road. It's a good thing they're better than the entirety of Mass Effect 1.

Hope you enjoy.

I did, and I still love you

OK, so I lied. I did write too much and I did end up replying to things you said. But that's all because you're my favorite horse

And you're my favorite Sceptic!

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

I enjoyed both Masterfects for what they were (EXTREME COCK COMMANDING SHEPARDS!), but Mass Effect 2 made some of the blandest fucking combat ever. It forced you to do stop and pop against enemies who had 2+ health bars each, of which only 1 was typically effected at all by the lame powers in the game. Sure, it came together for a few encounters (first part of the suicide mission), but was less-than-mediocre much of the time, and laughably bad other times (thresher maw and t-100 boss fights)

Mass Effect 1 was a clunky mess in combat, but at least you weren't stuck doing stop and pop HP attrition and could actually use more than one power in a row, all without having to fill your enemies with tons of bullets.

Then again, both are pretty lousy action games in general, not even being as fun as decent popamole offerings like Gears of War 2 or Vanquish. But we don't play it for the action...we play it for the SHEPARDSSSSSS!

 

[SoupNazi]

Hmm... deja vu

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE ALL RETARTED FOR EVEN DEBATING ABOUT ME

LLOLLOLOLOLLLO

 

[TripJack]

BROS YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE ALL RETARTED FOR EVEN DEBATING ABOUT ME

too true

the game fucking blows why is this thread 4 pages long

 

[sea]

The original Mass Effect is probably worth a play if you like 70s-80s sci-fi and don't mind some incredible derp from time to time. I don't think it has aged well at all, especially when put next to Mass Effect 2 (which itself has plenty of issues, but is still miles better in many ways). I tried playing through it again recently... after all the improvements in most other games over the last few years as far as visuals, storytelling, pacing, etc. go, Mass Effect frankly comes across as pretty amateurish if you discount the budget. It's very obviously a case of a studio with no shooter experience trying to build one, and failing miserably. Everything else BioWare does, i.e. story, characters and world design, is fairly competent and even good by their standards, but again, if you don't like sci-fi in the vein they're going for (Star Trek and Star Wars ripoff, basically), I can totally understand feeling underwhelmed by it.

As for redeeming qualities... the story becomes more interesting near the end and the final sequence of the game is genuinely very well done and actually manages to be suitably "epic" without being stupid. The world and characters are memorable from time to time, and there are some quests that have somewhat interesting choices or outcomes, especially on Noveria and Virmire. The Reapers actually come across as a pretty intimidating villain before they were ruined in Mass Effect 2, and the Prothean background you get, again near the end, is rather entertaining to learn. The sad thing for me, aside from the poor gameplay, is the illusory choice and consequence, which only begins to hit home once you try to replay it. It doesn't really matter how long you wait to do X, or how you resolve situations... sometimes generic NPC #37 might die, or live, but you can bet there are almost no long-term consequences, and the personal background choices you make only come up a handful of times and only really determine whether you get X, Y or Z personal side quests. It's not significantly worse than other BioWare games in this respect, but because there is less content overall than some of the others, it becomes all the more apparent.

 

[Metro]

Both games are mediocre at best. I can't believe people are arguing over their distinctions. Both play like adventure games (sans puzzles) with shitty tacked on cover shooter combat (don't tell me ME1 isn't a cover shooter, it's fucking designed in the game, the fact that you don't have to use it just means it's too easy) and half-hearted RPG elements.

 

[Sceptic]

But, well, I'd need an "about ME2" thread for that post.

I would go make one right now but I suspect Jaesun will just retardo it

What's so shitty about that? I don't see an explanation.

It's the whole "can only change equipment at lockers" that gets to me. If the lockers had only been on the Normandy, would've made sense. But if they're strewn about the level, this means that the squad is carrying all the weapons with them. And if they are, why can't I change my weapon layout at any time, like in ME1?

One click for every item. You have room for over 100 items in your ME1 inventory. You don't even have to open crates like crazy to fill it up. Shoot an enemy = free item! remember? So selling items = bullshit. And converting to omnigel takes two clicks. Convert -> Are you Sure?

I'm trying to remember now if you could immediately convert all items you picked to omni-gel before they went into your inventory. I think you could. But I'm not sure.

And now you just reminded me of how bad KOTOR's inventory system was. Horrible stuff.

I think that's up for debate. I for one wasn't very keen on the DLC assault rifle

I was playing a vanguard, so I wasn't even allowed to use Assault Rifles

Hovercar can jump higher.

You may win this round horsey, but do not think you got me!

They are bringing it back, but I hope you have to buy the Save Game While In Your Fucking Mako DLC.

Nah, I'll just pirate it
(TBH, at this point I have serious doubt I'll ever play ME3)

At least one is, to my knowledge, not skippable. Liara's Dig Site with a Simon Says laser drill.

Mmm, I don't even remember this one... Which is weird, because I remember the Tower of Hanoi one. Or more accurately the rage when I saw the ToH one, followed by intense relief when I noticed it was skippable. Thank Bioware for small favors.

Sure you can. Both hacking minigames and the mining minigame are only there if you want money and resources, which I suppose you do somewhere along the road.

Of course you do, because if you skip them you don't have enough money, and if you don't have enough money you get parts of your squad dying in the finale

I can't believe people are arguing over their distinctions.

You must've missed the plot analysis of Battle Los Angeles we were having last week