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• 2Sep 12

  Mass Effect 3: Leviathan And Why It Matters To Me

  Obviously, SPOILERS for Mass Effect 3 AND Mass Effect 3: Leviathan follow.

  So the reason I feel Leviathan is one of the greatest DLC packs for the Mass Effect trilogy is because it answers one of the biggest questions in the lore, a question the Catalyst and his little speech tried to allude to vaguely: Where did the Reapers come from? It totally renewed my love for the series because, honestly, the whole debacle with the ending of ME3 and everybody hated the ending and they were clamouring for a change, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't think the original endings were all that bad. I feel as though people couldn't get past the fact that all their questions weren't answered, and they don't know what happened to their team.
  If anybody knows BioWare, they know that there is going to be DLC. I assumed that before ME3 even came out. If someone makes a movie with a cliffhanger ending, nobody gets up in arms and cries, "I need closure now!" You'll just have to wait until the next movie! Is it a little different because all of our choices seemingly had little to no effect on the final outcome? Yes, of course. But still, I felt the whole outcry and "Hold The Line" movement was just kind of... childish. ANYway...
  Back to Leviathan.

  
  So these aliens, the Leviathans (even though that's not their proper name), we saw at the depths of the ocean on a far-flung planet. They reveal that they were the first apex race of the galaxy, and that they have the power to control other organic lifeforms. They referred to other races as their "tools" to accomplish whatever they wanted done. It's similar to the concept of Reaper Indoctrination, but less sinister. These Leviathans observed other races and found that they would eventually (read: over countless generations) build for themselves synthetics to carry out their will. Basically, making robots to do all the hard work and make their life easier. The synthetics would sooner or later realize who they were and rise up against their makers (Quarian and the Geth). So these Leviathan, being the haughty god-complex-imbued race that they were, realized that "Tribute does not flow from a dead race." They then built The Intelligence.

  

  This Intelligence was created by the Leviathans and was given one purpose: preserve organic life at all cost. This Intelligence grew and studied the development of organic races, and came up with the idea for the Reapers. Once an organic civilization would reach the apex of their evolution, their kind would be "harvested" and then "preserved" in a Reaper. The Reaper would have the entire essence of a species within itself and would be a kind of monument to that race, thus "preserving" them.
  
  So basically, these guys were the first race in the galaxy to achieve sentience and rise to power. Their actions brought about the Reapers and started this whole cycle of harvesting. Insane.
  
  This just makes me love Mass Effect even more because it adds a whole new dimension! These Leviathans are basically the creators of the Reapers, even if they were made by the Intelligence betraying them. This just makes me so excited at the possibilities of stories about these creatures, before and after the ME trilogy. Crazy.

  • Posted Sep 2, 2012 1:32 pm GMT
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• 28May 12

  Dragon Age III or Bodahn and Sandal are the new C-3P0 and R2-D2

  So I was playing Dragon Age II today (still am, in fact) and at the beginning of Act 3, Bodahn asks Hawke if it would be okay if they left his service in the near future. He says that Sandal got offered a position in Orlais because the Empress was impressed by one of his enchantments.

  

  Now, before this I had a conversation with Sandal because he said he had seen a "scary lady" by his bed and her laugh frightened him. And I was already thinking about how cool it was that they were in Dragon Age: Origins as well as Dragon Age II. So when Bodahn said that they were headed to Orlais after this, I thought to myself, "Maybe Dragon Age III will be set in Orlais?"

  

  Now if we look at this map of Thedas (which isn't the entire Dragon Age Universe, incredibly), DA:O started out the series in Ferelden, in the south-east. Next, DA2 went to Kirkwall, a city on the southern border of the Free Marches. It would only make sense that the Dragon Age saga continues on towards Orlais and the west, because who doesn't love a good romp through a mystical land? Going to Orlais would continue to open up the Dragon Age universe while still being close to Ferelden and the Free Marches (lands with which players are already familiar. I just think it would make sense to do that: reveal the lore going from one town/province/country to the next.

  Obviously, this is all just speculation, but it would be awesome if it were true. I have high hopes for the Dragon Age series (which were not tarnished by DA2), and I seriously look forward to the next installments.
  Oh, and about that scary lady in Sandal's room, I wonder who that could be?

  

  Anyway, I also found this, which furthers my excitement, and shows I'm not the first to notice this. There are some people who have put WAY more thought into this that I have. Either way, if it's in Orlais or not, I will definitely be pumped for the new game. So that was it; I just wanted to say that Dragon Age lore continues to surprise and enthrall me, and I expect it to do so for the foreseeable future. Cheers!

  P.S. So, if Bodahn and Sandal are to be staples in every Dragon Age game, then I guess that would make them the C-3P0 and R2-D2 of Dragon Age. Always there, observing and helping, never really major players? I don't know, just throwing it out there.

  • Posted May 28, 2012 1:43 pm GMT
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• 18Jan 12

  Mass Effect Loose Ends

  So I am anxiously and eagerly awaiting Mass Effect 3. I have my pre-order all in line and I am sooooo excited. Anyway. So, in my anticipation I wanted to complete another playthrough of Mass Effect 1 and 2, playing as FemShep (I've never seen that side of the ME galaxy, might as well now!). Going throught the first game again, I've been noticing some things. And this really has no far-reaching implications, just a few observations. ^_^

  I'm pretty sure I remember Casey Hudson saying that they wanted to do a lot more DLC than they ended up doing for Mass Effect, and that leads me to believe that there are things in the game that would have been developed more with the addition of DLC. For instance, in Fallout: New Vegas, there's a bunker that you can see and travel to, when you get the first DLC pack, you can actually go into it. But it is there without the DLC. I believe they built similar things into Mass Effect.

  For one, there is a giant room in the traffic control center of C-Sec that looks like a big Ender's Game battleroom. There's also an elevator-looking thing right next to it which leads me to believe they had plans to make a DLC for that area. How cool would that have been? I would have loved to face off against VI enemies yelling at my squad "THE ENEMY'S GATE IS DOWN!!" You could have even done online multiplayer or leaderboards with your friends, etc. the possibilities are... well, not endless, but full of potential!

  Furthermore, there's that Dr. Chloe Michel on the Citadel who is being harassed by persons claiming to work for someone named Banes. If you follow the leads and track down any information on this guy, it leads to a dead end. Captain Anderson says he's dead and that Admiral Kahoku knows about him; if you ask Kahoku about him, he says Banes is dead and that's the end of it. Something just seems a bit fishy with it, fishy in the Mass Effect "there's-more-to-this" way, and I bet that's another loose end that was never tied off with a DLC pack.

  I was just thinking about how cool it would have been to have more DLC for Mass Effect 1, and I would even be happy if they released it some time after Mass Effect 3, even. Sure, the game came out over 4 years ago, but that doesn't mean people don't still play it. I fully expect that, once Mass Effect 3 comes out, I'm going to want to go back to Mass Effect 1 and start a new career, shaping the world with the end in mind. I know I'm a bit of an eccentric weirdo when it comes to this, but I'm sure there are others out there like me... right?

  

  No? That's okay.

  • Posted Jan 18, 2012 6:14 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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