Especially being this far from Black Friday deals... From CDKeys.

Use code PERKSPOT5 to get that extra $1.50 off.

I bought from them last year, and the year before. Both times, my credit card company flagged the purchase as dodgy, and didn't let it go through. (Last year, they actually locked my account after I tried, I had to call to unlock it again.)

Both times the purchase went through eventually, and I was not robbed of either money or identity... but it was a hassle both times.

Just a heads-up.

Use code PERKSPOT5 to get that extra $1.50 off.

Yeah, the Architects are awesome fights. I totally did not expect them at all!

I didn't expect it either. It's a pretty easy fight, but it was still pretty neat. Definitely a cool follow up to the Trasher Maw from the OT.

As for the busy work. Yeah, it is... but, I thought it fit with the role of starting these colonies and with the role of being the Pathfinder / troubleshooter. While there are a lot of fetch missions, some missions do turn out to be more interesting and involved.

It does fit, it's just sort of . . . exhausting. I guess my biggest gripe is there's no easy way to tell which are going to pay. Like that one is starts as literally, hey, go place these things to tap underground water, and that ends in the Architect fight. One was finding research sites from a scientists from the first colony, and it's just some data pads that talk about how she thinks the Remnant tech can be used to help the planet. Like, yeah, I know, I already activated that shit like ten hours ago. I mean, it's still a neat little story.

I guess maybe if I was smart enough to pick up a bunch of the fetch missions at the same time rather than spending 30 minutes driving around the map to different waypoints, only to get back to the settlement to pick up another missions to have to spend another 30 minutes driving around the map to waypoints . . . I'm on my 3rd go around now!

And finally, definitely do all the squad loyalty missions. They are some of the best in the game and have that great ME2 / ME3 feel.

I did Cora's and Vera's and Drack's last time. I just never progressed the rest of them by the time I did the final mission, and after that happened I was pretty much just done playing the game. I'll definitely do them all this time.

I do like the way they progress in this game. They're all multi-stage quests that progress as you go through the game, rather than the single quest ordeals of the previous games. It really does make it feel like you're building a relationship with your crew a bit more.

Andromeda really does do a lot of things right, the more I get into it. It's a lot of really cool ideas and little stories. I think the biggest issue is that's exactly what it feels like . . . a bunch of cool ideas that didn't quite come together to form a complete game. ME2 and ME3 feel like really tight packages in comparison. Andromeda feels like it's like 90% there, and it's just missing something to bring everything together in the same way.

I'm having a blast playing it, though.

As for the busy work. Yeah, it is... but, I thought it fit with the role of starting these colonies and with the role of being the Pathfinder / troubleshooter. While there are a lot of fetch missions, some missions do turn out to be more interesting and involved.

And finally, definitely do all the squad loyalty missions. They are some of the best in the game and have that great ME2 / ME3 feel.

1. I missed a ton of stuff on my first play through, which was admittedly rushed. I was just doing a mission on Eos to tap water, and I encountered a Remnant Architect, something I didn't see at all my first time through the game. There's definitely too much busy work (go find all this missing drones, go find all these research sites, go find all these Kett spy beacons, etc, but there are also a lot of really intriguing and neat missions that I just never did). I don't think I ever really fully explored most of the maps.

2. Apparently Tali was reincarnated as a Turian:

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/cheapLEY/video/47125958

But when I try to gift it, it shows up as $25. Guess it only applies to lapsed accounts, and you can't gift it after all. My mistake, Sorry!

Theoretically speaking, there is no limit to how many times you can gift it to yourself, so you can possibly use this deal to snag a year of Gold for $40!

The Art of Andromeda book is really good. I bought that along with the game a year ago.

Did this thread get you thinking about the game again? I saw you playing a bit ago.

I finished ME3 today and started Andromeda. I played it once at launch. I liked it well enough, even though I also think it is somewhat disappointing. I'm looking forward to continuing to go through it again. It's a real shame, the game has a really interesting setup. I really, really wish they didn't feel the need to shove in a new galaxy threatening big bad guy (especially one that echoes the Reapers with their weird assimilation stuff so closely).

I hope we get a new Mass Effect sooner rather than later. It doesn't seem like they'll follow up Andromeda now, which is a shame with all the dangling threads they left. But I hope we get something.

As I said, I love art books, but they're so expensive, I have to be pretty choosy about which ones I actually buy. Ten dollarydoos is a steal, though.

There's some neat stuff in there. I'm gonna pick up the art of Andromeda book for $10--I'm a sucker for art books.

That Mordin statue looks amazing, but it's still $200!

I wish that Nomad model was a model of the Normandy or even the Tempest instead. I'd be all over that.