Mass Effect

How does one stop the yearly (or seasonally) urge to replay the entire trilogy?
It's just too fucking comfy.

Have kids and raise them non-violently. Then you won't give a shit about para-social relationships.

Play other addicting games..

How does one stop the yearly (or seasonally) urge to replay the entire trilogy?

By having some standards.

Being based isn't a sickness

Any way to bypass the EA launcher without resorting to downloading a cracked version? It's dirt cheap on Steam right now but I don't to run that shit on my PC.

I finally ran out of platforms to get all the achievements/trophies on so that seemed to help.

I've only played 3 once, but I do 1 and 2 regularly.

I hate the ending with the fire of a thousand suns but the gameplay of 3 really is a big improvement on 2.

I stop playing at the suicide mission because it's the peak of the trilogy

It's not just the ending of 3. It's everything outside of:

Leviathan

Taking Back Omega

Drunk Tali

there were workarounds before april 2025, but it seems like they don't work anymore.

I've played through ME1, 2 and 3 twice, good and "evil" playthrough, all three times I was a heterosexual man Shepard who romanced Liara and killed Ashley because that's what normal people do. Very little changed. I can't see a reason to go through it all again a third time or forcing myself to make different, retarded options.
I like the entire trilogy, and I think ME3 is unfairly maligned because people are retarded and had unreasonable expections on BioWare. They're simply not good enough. Hopelessly overrated, always has been.

Omega DLC is shit

I asked grok a few weeks ago and it turned up nothing. Time to set sail.

people are retarded and had unreasonable expections on BioWare.

As a zoomtard it's crazy to go back and look at the reaction at the time. People were legitimately expecting BioWare to change the ending after release.

People were legitimately expecting BioWare to change the ending after release.

They did. It was even shittier before the patch.

I thought it was boring but at least it wasn't the total dogshit that you find in 95% of 3.

I like it, though killing Nyreena was cheap and gay.

just edit the config file, guide is on steam discussions

Finally find female turian

She's a dyke and you can't fuck her

I think Leviathan is actively damaging. Reducing the Leviathans to fucking morons that forgot to program the Reapers to

If sythetics_kill_organics = True

>then don't
Like, come the fuck on. Come. The fuck. ONNNNN!
You expect me to believe these mother fuckers were in charge of an entire fucking galaxy? These fucking morons?
I mean what was the reasoning?

For some reasons our organics keep making synthetics that keep killing organics

Maybe we should make synthetics to find a solution to synthetics killing organics

Think we should tell them not to kill organics beforehand?

Nah, it'll be fine

It also undermines the Quarians to begin with, but that's just par for the course, because the Quarians are fucking idiots that got exactly what they deserved. If anything they didn't go far enough.

i liked it, especially music
youtu.be/HuwL12aCaFI?si=eiyLp_pgTqCIcXJh

The only things I liked from ME3 was Mordin's sacrifice, meeting Jack on Grissom and Grunt surviving the Rachni mission. The rest of the game is mid, the level design is absolute shit, and the worst in the entire franchise, worse than ME1, worse than ME2's chest high wall bonanza, worse than ME:A's open world fuck ups.

I stop playing after the prologue as siding with a group like Cerberus shatters all of my immersion and I know the game doesn't even provide decent options at undermining them

You expect me to believe these mother fuckers were in charge of an entire fucking galaxy? These fucking morons?

they were sabotaged by one of their slave races that used to build all of their stuff. They intentionally built in a flaw in the logic of that AI because they realized they are slaves to an unknown race that breeds and uses them as builders and food.

source?

my ass

I was waiting for the big reveal of "Illusive Man put a control chip in you to keep you docile and loyal to Cerberus" but it never came.

Even then, that's equally dumb.

Why are our organics making synthetics that end up killing them?

I don't know. How about we have one of our organics that made synthetics that killed organics, make synthetics that tell organics how they can make synthetics that don't kill organics

Won't that backfire in a spectacular fashion?

Nah, it'll be fine

I hate liara. bitch is mad obnoxious.

dumb

It worked fine for them, presumably for millions of years, since they were so advanced. Why not make another AI to deal with a chore problem? Narratively, it works well with them being ultra-arrogant and above everyone else in their minds and goes along with the theme of unforeseen consequences (we created geth and fucked up, we uplifted krogans and fucked up, etc.). My point is it's working storywise; it's just not polished, obviously, for the reason that existance of Leviathans is a narrative patch for the ending.

What would you guys say are the hardest combat encounters on Insanity? For me it's the first combat section on the collector ship, and that part in ME3 with the 3 geth primes.

finaly get romancable turian waifu in the next game

its fucking shit

Vetra was the best thing about Andromeda
her sister was cute too

I just beat ME2 on PS3, so at 12 fps, on insanity for the platinum a few months ago. Horizon was a nightmare.

more like best romance since it actually did something interesting with the potential house of cards-like dynamic

Yes but what i meant is that the game is doodoo, monkey paw shit

You don't.

It worked fine for them

If it got them killed, then it patently didn't.

Why not make another AI to deal with a chore problem?

How about doing that, but not retarded?

Narratively, it works well with them being ultra-arrogant

That doesn't work. If you're ultra arrogant, you're getting fucked. Unless you have some clear signs of degredation, you don't go from super competent, no mistakes, to full on holocaust the next. I don't accept it. Historically, that has not happened. You can be crippled, and then eradicated. You can have circumstances beyond your control. Man made fuck up on this scale has never been witnessed by anyone. Willingly making the mass suicide/extinction machine. I find it unacceptable, and a mere badly written plot device to justify something, simply because the writers wanted/needed it to. These always put people off. Like the great M. Night Shamalamadingdong twist in TLoU that the Fireflies need to kill Ellie. Go fuck yourself game.

My point is it's working storywise

I'd say it's serving, but not working, without undermining something greater, and thus making the setting worse overall. I'd say it's the worst way they could have gone about it.

Anything with Scions or those flying bug things was horrible.

Kill all Turians and Turian fuckers. Kill all Quarian and Quarian fuckers, kill anyone that wants Batarians as squadmates.

that fucking mission in the orphanage in 3 where you are resucing jack. I think its like an outdoor atrium area with multiple enemy spawning locations and those turret dudes. Was awful to do on my biotic that early in the game

Idk, never played 'em

Whats wrong with the EA launcher

flying bug things

You mean the praetorian? The thing that keeps reapplying it's barrier?

I played both games for the first time on insanity ~10-15 years ago w/o DLCs anther other stuff and didn't know much about the game mechanics. The hard parts were the end of the Horizon mission, the ambush on the Collector ship, and the Grissom Academy.I had played MP shooters for days back then, so I wasn't new to all that stuff.

It's shit, often crashes games with its overlay, sometimes it will crash games while trying to start them up, and is overall a shitshow.
You're better off cracking the game, than playing it as EA wants you to.

Diversity is our strength

How does one stop the yearly (or seasonally) urge to replay the entire trilogy?

Remember how awesome the world was when these games came out and then think about the world today. You'll realize that it's like visiting the graves of people you once knew.

Turians are based. Quarians will be used as fleshlights for the new Human-Krogan-Turian empire.

Kill them all.

and I think ME3 is unfairly maligned because people are retarded and had unreasonable expections on BioWare

No, it isnt unfair to expect basic fucking writing competency and not have retarded plot convienience that breaks the narrative. It isnt unfair to expect you choices to matter when they promised this over and over again. It is not unfair to expect a good ending after spending $180 over the course of three games.

I dont care that you have gotten used to or were born in slop and have infinite forgiveness. Its fucking dogshit and was one of the beginnings of everything wrong with what vidya has turned into, down to the devs getting asspained and screaming that gamers were "entitled" for expecting a satisfying conclusion. Fuck you, you arent going to do the zoomer faggot bullshit where you play an older, rightfully shit on game and go "a-actually it was ok guise you were all over reacting". No, go eat a fucking dick.

Turians = Boring
Quarians = Mid
Asari = Kino + horny
Krogan = Kino
Salarians = Boring
Geth = Kino
Volus = Funpilled
Elcor = Cringe reddit humor
Hanar = Kino
Drell = Cuckolds
Protheans = Super fucking boring omg
Yahg = Cool
Vorcha = Mid

Truth. Total zoomer death when?

Your post seems like you are arguing with yourself.
You have X amount of money and work hours to create a DLC that would explain the origins of the Reapers; this is what they came up with. You would do better? I don't think so. There is always something you can fix, but in 99% of cases, good enough is enough. Maybe not for you, but for a lot of people to buy the DLC.

Go fuck yourself game. I'd say it's the worst way they could have gone about it.

You can't change it anon. It's over.

I don't care about changing it. I know it's done. It's still bad for the franchise.
I would do better, yes.

Yes

Shut the fuck up Trashley.

orphanage

It's a school

I think even the devs knew what a pain in the ass they were because you only fight 2 throughout the whole game

expect basic fucking writing competency

From BioWare? Who has *always* been overrated at this aspect? Yeah maybe if you're underage or retarded, or both. They were the Marvel/Disney slop of CRPGs even back in the Baldur's Gate 1 days.

I was just surprised that it was normal to expect a studio to rewrite an ending. I've never seen that happen before.

They didn't rewrite the ending, just fleshed it out a little. It's still bad. The intelligence controlling the reapers taking the form of a child to lecture you is honestly the worst way they could have ended things.

2 and 3 are just too dumb to play. also the beginning of 2 is so spiteful and mean spirited towards shepard as a character it feels malevolent

BioWare sucks.

Shit, you sound like a pussy.

how? he sacrifices himself to save joker

theres a noble sacrifice and then theres forcing the player to watch shepard get slammed around the normandys bulkhead by explosions, drift into space while his air starts leaking, and then notice the air is leaking and fucking choke to death in space before burning up on reentry as he falls into orbit. its actually bizarre replaying it because they spend so much time on shepard fucking dying one of the worst ways possible

Its fucking dogshit and was one of the beginnings of everything wrong with what vidya has turned into

True, for many people this game was their first hard reality check. I still remember being mad that no review mentioned dogshit writing and broken promises about the ending. At least it taught many people some lessons about preordering, being hyped etc.

sacrifices himself to save a cripple

literally jesus tier hero

Shepard, I heard you're siding with Reapers, to abduct women

beginning of 2 is so spiteful and mean spirited towards shepard as a character it feels malevolent

Mein Neger, Cerberus spends a shitload of money to bring him back from the dead because he's unironically The Chosen One™.
I can see the argument that the game discarded many aspects of the previous entry to make way for new additions (Normandy was literally destroyed so you can use their brand new ship, Ashley/Kaidan abandoning you for the most nonsensical reason ever, Liara being so different as a character it borders on fanfiction, Council ignoring the Reaper threat like the ending of the first game never happened so you're forced to work with Cerberus, etc), but to say they hated Shepard is just wrong.

Council ignoring the Reaper threat

I mean their reasoning made sense no? Shepard never proved that the reapers were real, they had no reason to change their opinion. For all they knew sovereign was still just Saren's ship and Shepard was just going schizo from touching the beacon.

This. It doesn't even really make sense that Anderson and Hackett believe Shepard at all either. Even his party members are a stretch. They weren't all there for the convos with Sovereign and Vigil.

Be Black Isle Studio

Parent company asks you to publish an RPG made by a no name studio

Oh shit the game is good

Wait no! Now people have forgotten about Fallout 2!!

Decide to one up the upstarts by using their own engine to make Icewind Dale

Release it way before Baldur's Gate 2 comes out to mess with Bioware

People still by Baldur's Gate 2 despite your attempt at sabotage

Spend next few years playing second fiddle to new guy

Pitch idea for BG3 and get shot down

Bioware goes on to become a big name studio

Years later, studio is firmly in the cuck she'd

All the talent jumped ship and either went to Bioware or Obsidian

Obsidian clung to the rivalry and ultimately became as pozzed as modern Bioware

Nobody won this war.

all the ME1 armor has cameras attached to it. the sovreign conversation was recorded. the saren confrontations were all recorded. its just bad writing

Nobody won this war.

Why'd Legendary Edition change Port Hanshan so much?

What did they change?

where did you get this?

it-

it could be a fabrication!

mass effect 3 retroactively created this plot hole

Best companion?

Mordin > Garrus > Thane > Wrex > Grunt
Fuck the rest frankly

In 1 Wrex being both a tank and having biotics. In 2 Miranda for having overload and warp and having that passive buff to allies. In 3 Garrus if you spec him right shreds through anything.

What's the Krogan stance on biotics anyway? Do they distrust them like Humans or Turians?

Wrex, Garrus and Mordin are by far the best companions. Some of the others are also okay but not on their level.

Played my first run as a soldier/sniper, what should I do for the next?

Adept

Soldier every time. Magic users are sissies.

Because of pic related, and because the dlc for the original versions of the games are pain to acquire.

that's why I don't play it

not because I'm on a phone

but because of that

you believe me, right?

What?

Malarkey

It's funny how the fags who post here keep repeating the same lies, even after getting BTFO every time. The council didn't believe Sovereign's claim of there being thousands of reapers waiting to attack. They thought Sovereign was a single threat, and the fact that it took so long for the reapers to show up in 3 made it seem even more farfetched.

wrex was a biotic in 1 but they sort of forget about it afterward.

Levithan makes no sense the more you think about it. The fact that these niggas knew everything about the cycle and can remotely mind control people means that could have stopped the cycle anytime they wanted.

Enslave random stone age species

Give them reaper tech and where the citadel is so they conquer the entire galaxy for you

You know about sovereign so you can simply stop him and spawnkill him so reapers have to slowly invade

Just have to build the crucible in 50000 years with your unified galaxy with reaper tech

BRAVO BIOWARE

he uses his biotics in 3 to throw some salarian cucks around on sur'kesh

There's only like 3 of them and hundreds of thousands of reapers. Trying to stop the cycle means putting themselves out there when their only goal is survival.

thanks, 3 is just one big fever dream for me

You just uplift one species early on in the next cycle, disappear for 50k years and, I don't know, reproduce maybe. Clone yourself. Whatever. Then you have no Reapers, a species that literally sucks your dick, and no opposition in the Milky Way.

It's worse than that.

Find out that the 'Star Child' is actually the AI that leads the Reapers and that it's always in the Citadel

This means that Control and Synthesis are 100% fake out endings because the AI would never allow those outcomes, but would consider destruction because it would mean their job is complete

Imagine keeping that faggot alive after he sois out and pulls a gun on you. I played paragon Sherpard and still merked him anyways.

I mean that whole interaction was justified. Why should he help you destroy a potential cure for his race?

Because an immediate cure obviously isn't worth letting Saren win. It was extremely short sighted and childish to threaten to kill the only person on your side who has a real chance at pressing the council for a cure. He deserved to die for that 100%.

Uplift them how? They're stuck on that planet in the ocean, they require thrall races to build and pilot ships to take them anywhere. And any potential races would be stuck on their planet that early in the cycle.

Don't they say that they've witnessed the cycle repeat countless times, but chose to remain hidden? Implying that they have the means to intervene, but chose not to? So they definitely have some means, regardless of whether we know what form these means have. Probably undisclosed, because Bioware themselves didn't care about them. But obviously, to even be there in the first place, they must have got there some how. Unless, in addition to getting in those depths, they also took fucking crowbars and just smashed their means of transport into useless pieces. I just can't see that happening. Anything else could probably be repaired. Even fish could be controlled by their orbs to operate specific tasks to help them in that effort. Clearly, they aren't without resources to achieve their goals, they just don't use them.

Did you play leviathan? They have orb everywhere in the galaxy they use to control and monitor things. That's literally the whole point of the first part of the dlc

Because an immediate cure obviously isn't worth letting Saren win.

Yeah and he sees that when you talk him down. Anon, his entire reaction to the situation makes sense

So who is she?

So? Even if they control a pre-spaceflight species what are they going to do? At the height of their empire they might have been able to share resources but not now. How are they going to turn a bunch of cavemen into a spaceflight spiecies in a reasonable amount of time?

Yeah but my Shepard ain't a pussy so he wouldn't stake his life on some retard seeing reason after he already established himself as a reckless idiot earlier on the Citadel. I barely even know him at that point.

Jane T'soni

How could an asari be an N7?

That's fair. But at the end of the day. Wrex initially not wanting the facility to be nuked made sense.

I think he means femshep took Liara's last name

The Milky Way is just a hodge podge of race mixing.
Don't forget, sub-navarch is a Turian rank, Soa'Rhal is Quarian and Zhilian-Jones is at least one half human.
Also, for some reason, the N7 program has persisted through the ages, and is still relevant 700 years later. That's like using the Phalanx training regime during the Anglo-Scottish war.

I get the urge only to remember the bullshit and then get angry

It hurts because there isnt even another scifi game to flock to. No mans sky doesnt scratch the narrative itch.

I'd hope they include fatalities in the game, just so I can kill her in the worst ways possible.
That would be the only thing I'd be doing in game, if I played it at all, and not just watch the fatalities on youtube.

kotor?

I am trying to play the trilogy for the first time, and I just cannot bring myself to continue. Maybe I am getting too old, but the writing comes across as the same reddit cringe you see today just marginally less woke. The combat is a tedious slog. The planet exploration is the same going from checkmark to checkmark as any other slop made today.
The lore is the only good thing about it and has a way of staying in your mind, but I cannot see myself trudging through this entire thing just for that.

I play all my games on YouTube. Cheers from Brazil.

Sometimes I start wanting to just make my own Mass Effect-like game just because I have zero faith in the current AAA industry. Then I realize that one person couldnt possibly make something like ME, or atleast not within a decade. Also not sure Im good enough at writing to even approach the lore experience

I meant stuff coming after ME. If a fantasy game gets raped, you can usually look forward to another one on the horizon. With scifi theres fucking nothing for the foreseeable future

I hope you're not replaying the demaster edition

NEW BAD NEW BAD NEW BAD
suck my dick faggot lmao

That's great and all, no judgement at all, but Bioware should also aim to make their game saleable, not just a youtube watch of pronouns guy shouting for 30 minutes.

but the writing comes across as the same reddit cringe you see today

The fuck? How? It takes itself pretty seriously and doesnt have a bunch of "dude did I just X with my Y???" shit. What is your fucking criteria?

Kek I'm about to replay Mass Effect 1 after finishing Andromeda, I cannot imagine how jarring the shift will be.

Nta but I was thinking of playing it. I know that they fucked up the lighting in ME1, but I found some mods on nexus that seem to restore it mostly. What else is wrong with it? I dont care about Manranda's ass because shes boring, though Im still getting the mod to restore her ass shots on the principle of the matter.

kys nigger

Never played Andromeda because I was still burnt on ME3. Was the writing full of that shit?

shepard and tali's crossbred child

Lots of we have to accept the aliens racism le bad. Dumb shit like the asari reproducing regardless of the sex or species of the other person with reproducing with the same species considered bad. Characters lack depth and join you just because. You are expected to like characters just because they exist. You see this a lot with modern reddit slop like baldurs gate 3.
Not hard to immediately tell the game was written by mentally ill californians devoid of the ability to write good characters or a good story and certainly unable to stop themselves from inserting their cringe views into everything.

Andromeda doesn't have paragon/renegade. Most of the dialogue choices are between MCU quipping and taking the situation seriously. It gets old quick.

The sky over Khar'shan burned.
Stratospheric winds tore at the edges of the thermonuclear cloud towering over the horizon, stretching its mushroom plume into a vast, blackened scar across the heavens as the Batarian capital was consumed by the firestorm rising in its shadow. The Hammerhead's outboard sensors screamed warnings—50,000 Roentgen and climbing—as Jane Shepard guided the hover-tank through the shattered remains of the city's once-proud avenues. The streets were tilted by the bedrock's tremor, with collapsing apartment blocks, twisted vehicles, burning banners, shattered statues all grotesquely amalgamated by the atomic heatwave. The air outside was no longer breathable, thick with the stench of random cadmium alloys, ionized ozone and microwaved flesh.
Morinth lounged in the co-pilot's seat, her lips curled in a lazy smile. "You do know how to make an entrance, Shepard."
Shepard's grip on the controls was white-knuckled, her gaze fixed forward. The massive hulk of the Batarian parliament palace was close now, its once-imposing facade blackened and cracked by an atomic shockwave that was still powerful enough to toss skycars, even after traveling from another continent. The courtyard gates stood as the last barrier between them and justice.
"Wrex," Shepard said, her voice a razor.
"Shepard." The Krogan leaned forward in the gunner's seat, eyes glinting in the glow of the Tartarus unfolding outside. "They will hear the screams of their pathetic ancestors before this day is done," He nodded gravely as his hand came to rest on war machine's fire control. "On the way."
The gates disintegrated in a storm of shrapnel and flame. The hover-tank surged forward, crushing wreckage and bone of the obliterated checkpoint beneath the roar of its thrusters. The moment the vehicle shuddered to a halt, Shepard was moving—Claymore in hand. Morinth, Wrex and Jack jumped out next, forming a line, eyes steady behind their helmets' visors.
The courtyard was a nightmare.

Batarians—soldiers, officials, civilians—staggered in the open, their skin sloughing off in wet, blackened strips. Radiation sickness had cooked their eyelids into bleeding sores, turned their movements jerky and uncoordinated as they pawed at clothing melted into charred flesh. Some screamed. Some begged. Most simply moaned or vomited, their slurred voices a discordant chorus of agony as every cell in their bodies began to disintegrate.
Shepard's snarl was rictus.
"For Mindoir."
Her shotgun boomed, and the first Batarian's head exploded in a wet burst of gore. Jack cackled, her shockwave ripping through the crowd, sending bodies flying apart like overripe fruit. Wrex's Revenant reduced faces to geysers gushing red, long bursts snaking across the quickly thinning crowd like a scythe. Morinth lingered at Shepard's side, her Locust spitting death in controlled bursts, her laughter melodic as her biotics finished off survivors.
They pushed forward, a wedge of righteous violence carving through the wicked as the black snow began to fall from leaden clouds.
The parliament house's main doors were reinforced - but the wall wasn't, not enough for Shepard's breaching charge. The interior was a labyrinth of smoke and flickering emergency lights. Batarian secret service—those of them still capable of standing—fired wildly, their shots going wide as their bodies betrayed them. With a booming roar, Wrex charged ahead, not giving them a chance to regroup. Wing by wing, floor by floor, room by room the slaughter continued as offices became abattoirs and hallways ran carmine and faltering news broadcasts screamed about a death toll in the billions. As Shepard's shotgun overheated, she drew her Phalanx and kept firing without pause.

In the cavernous main hallway, a barricade awaited their approach, a makeshift fortress made from an overturned skycar limo, from tables and cabinets carved from real wood, from bodies of the dead stacked like sandbags. The surviving men of the Special Intervention Unit crouched behind cover, rifles trained down the ruined hall; the last stand of the Batarian military. Defense Minister Vorkath led them personally, his three remaining eyes narrowed, his face disfigured by scar tissue. A grizzled veteran who put down a dozen revolts and led as many slaving campaigns, he cradled a customized Terminator rifle, its muzzle ready to unleash hell.
"Come and get it, you human filth!" he bellowed as rows of medals clinked across his broad chest. "See how real Batarians die!"
"Oh, I intend to." Shepard snarled, then tossed a smoke grenade over her shoulder as she turned to Morinth. "Ready to have some fun?"
The Ardat-Yakshi was already gliding forward, her hips swaying as if she were dancing into a lover’s embrace. She emerged from smoke on the other side, smiling like Death itself might smile. The Batarian bullets sparked off her biotic barrier as she vaulted over the limo. She cut down two with her Locust as her biotics flared, dark energy coiling around her slender fingers before lashing out like a whip. Invisible tendrils slithered through the air, wrapping around the inside of Vorkath’s skull. His body stiffened, rifle muzzle lowering as his free hand flew to his temple.
"Ahh—!" His scream was strangled, his pupils dilating. She was behind him already, her arms embracing him. Her eyes turned into black holes. She licked his neck and whispered right into his ear hole, her voice dripping with honeyed arsenic.
"Shhh, my puppy... you'll do as mommy says now."
Vorkath’s body jerked, his muscles spasming. His hands, once steady, trembled—then his gun went up in a fluid motion as her hands slithered up to his neck.

"Kill those traitors," Morinth purred, her voice a nerve agent.
"Yes, Goddess."
The first burst struck his sergeant between the eyes, splitting his skull into two chunks. The second blew out another’s leg from under him. Batarians shouted in horror, some still refusing to raise weapons against their master—and that had sealed their fate. Shepard and Wrex were already on top of the barricade, cutting down anything that moved with a barrage of assault fire. Morinth laughed low and musical as the last Batarian fell, his spine severed by his own father's gunfire. Vorkath stood twitching, chest heaving, hands shaking. Blood tears streaked his cheeks as a dark spot grew on the pants of his dress blues.
"Such a good boy..." Morinth murmured as she pushed him off. Realization of what he did dawned on him a second before Jack’s biotics dropped the limo onto him, bursting his body like a watermelon.
The central chamber loomed ahead.
Radiation shielding had spared the Batarian leadership the worst of the gigaton blast. The doors were thick, designed to withstand siege. An intercom crackled to life by their side.
"C-commander Shepard? We are... prepared to negotiate a surrender. Please-"
A *Batarian* voice. When Shepard spoke, it wasn't to the intercom.
"Jack."
The biotic's grin was manic, tattoos glowing as her arms went wide, unleashing a blast that slapped two tons of steel off of their tungsten carbide hinges. "Hello, dead *people*!"
Inside, the head of the Hegemony cowered surrounded by his surviving ministers, faces contorted by animal desperation. The room's holoscreens flickered—cameras were broadcasting live feeds to every corner of the galaxy.
Shepard stepped inside.
The Agriculture minister lunged at her. Shepard caught him by the throat, her biotics flaring as she lifted him off the ground. His legs kicked uselessly before she squeezed—his trachea collapsed with a wet crunch, and she dropped his twitching corpse. An appetizer.

Isn't it established that Humans and Quarians can't breed?

Wrex killed the Minister of Justice with a single headbutt. Morinth was already feeding on the female press attache, lips slurping hungrily. Jack leaned on an ancient bust of some ugly Batarian, breath heavy from exertion, sweat gleaming on her satisfied face as a streak of blood ran out her nose.
"Damn, do I feel good..." She said, smiling vacantly as she sent the bust crashing onto the ivory floor.
High Chancellor backed away, his four eyes wide. "Wait, Shepard! You—you are a Spectre! You answer to the Council! To Alliance!"
"Not anymore."
Shepard's omni-tool flickered—Admiral Hackett's face appeared on her wrist. "Shepard, stop this madness! The-the Batarians have surrendered—"
With a flick of her finger, Shepard muted him like an ad. "Cuckold." She glanced at Wrex. "Do the whole fucking Parliament."
She turned back to the Chancellor as her omni-blade unfolded, humming with crimson malice.
"No, please-" He whimpered.
"That's what my mother said, remember?"
He screamed as billions watched.
When his fingers and toes and hands and feet were gone, when his face was degloved, when his arms and his legs and his genitals and all four of his eyeballs were neatly lined up next to his torso, Shepard stepped back, breathing heavily, her helmet off as sweat streaked down her face. With his vocal cords tattered by screaming, Chancellor squealed his death rattle quietly, a twitching slab of pork.
Shepard reached out with her biotics.
The space-time twisted around him, dark energy coiling like a boa constrictor. His spine arched. His ribs splintered as he gurgled. The pressure mounted—his remaining skin flayed off of him, veins and arteries and kidneys and liver bursting—then with a final, brutal wet snap, his body contorted into an impossible circle, bones jutting through flesh like broken spears.
As the mass of ruined flesh thudded back onto the floor, silence reigned over the house of Parliament.
Then Morinth's lips were on hers, the kiss tasting of blood and void.

not with that attitude

My headcanon says otherwise.

Create one of the most popular, rich and diverse sci-fi IPs of all time, an easy playground for stories

Cripple it from the offset by making its main story be about its utter destruction

At what point do you think Bioware first realised how badly they'd fucked up? Certainly by Andromeda where they desperately tried to resurrect the setting by porting it to a different galaxy, but surely it must have crossed their minds some point between making 2 and 3 that they were slaughtering their golden goose for no good reason?

It was just the play of the time to make everything a trilogy I think. Souldnt have been like 10 mainline games honestly. Then again they were already shitting themselves by the third game so not like it would have mattered

At what point do you think Bioware first realized how badly they'd fucked up?

When they ended ME1 knowing they were going to do a trilogy but not write out from beginning to end how to do it before finishing the first game. It lead to them sidestepping the issue with ME2 and then having to deal with the consequences in the third game, not unlike what happened with the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

In the hands of a good writer, it's not a huge problem to do it that way. Sometimes plotting (instead of writing organically) works against you.