Hello mortals!

Today we are going to talk about references from Mass Effect.

- One of the ME games makes a reference to Boo

- Tali's pet (and the associated dialogue) references a line said by Aerie. Her fish out of water situation and innocent nature are also similar to Aerie.

- There is a character you get a quest from in C-Sec named Jahleed; a combination of Jaheira and Khalid...maybe. There aren't any other clues aside from the similar sounding names. It might've been an accident, or maybe when they were doing his back story, his personality contrasted with his friend Chorban in the same way Jaheira's did with her husband. That's just a guess though, the information we get from Jahleed and Chorban are too superficial to make any conclusion.

- The thresher maw and ankheg. Probably another coincidence. The thresher maw is supposed to resemble the Dune worm, but it's attack method makes it more like the ankheg. This is because actual Dune worms are nigh invincible, and will one-shot the mako every time.

Did I miss anything? Did I get anything wrong? Let me know!

No. TWO of the games actually have Boo in them as a pet. ME2 & ME3 if you import a ME2 game that contains the hamster. It is not given a name, but there is only one 'Miniature Space Hamster'. This is typical Bioware: recycled characters, dialogue, story, etc. An example: nearly all Bioware game characters have father issues. Nothing unsurprising.
Addendum: it is not Tali's "pet", it is a tech drone that she gives a pet name. Also, Tali is not a "fish out of water" nor "innocent" in the way that Aerie is. Tali is young (22) when she meets Shepard, but by the time of ME2 she's commanding her own squad, and in ME3 she's an admiral of the fleet. That's just pushing it. Coincidental unoriginality.

Thanks for pointing that out. Speaking of coincidental similarities, do you think the Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect games were developed in a similar kind of pattern?

- ME1 & BG1: Focus on exploration. Not sure if they count as open world, but I'd say they're pretty close to it.

- ME2 & BG2: Takes a grim tone. The first games had their dark moments, but the atmosphere in general with these sequels are more gritty. More linear compared to the first games. The main character in both of these games are the center of conspiracies.

- ME3 & ToB: I feel like some parts of these games were poorly written and quickly put together.

Maybe it's just in my head. I sometimes see things that aren't really there.

Well I see similarities in themes. My view is that as games and game engines evolve... get more complicated, naturally the difficulty curve in producing follow ups rises steeply. Take, for example, the Mass Effect franchise. They have to catalog and incorporate thousands upon thousands of conditionals from the previous game/s, and even their in-house tools can't seem to cope: flags and variables that don't carry over, etc. And that's even before the graphics, audio, etc. are factored in. Story-wise, it's both a blessing and a curse that the same writers and coders (in many cases) are scripting things. A blessing because of continuity, and a curse because of stale ideas that somehow are not perceived as such by the devs -- they say they listen to the fan base, but defend their mistakes to the hilt. But yes, I do agree with you (if that's what you're saying) that each franchise got worse and worse, but not necessarily technically.

No.

BG2: Good or Great.

ME2: Bottomless pit of foul-smelling shit.

When Tali uses her attack drone sometimes she will cast it using the phrase go for the optics.

And in the citadel dlc for mass effect 3, when you are about to confront the 2 bosses who stole the normandy starship, you will see the you will see the the hamster cage (with him inside) in the garbage soon to be sent to an animal shelter. That is, assuming you purchased the hamster during the course of ME2 and recaptured him prior to this in ME3 (he escaped his cage and can be seen running in the engineer section where jack used to sleep).

If you click on him, Shepard will make a series of funny comments (the whole DLC in one major comedy), ending with

Ok, sit tight, little guy. If anybody gives you trouble, GO FOR THE EYES!

Wow, I completely forgot about the optics thing. Thanks for bringing it up.

There's also the whole Krogan - Korgan thing.

Baldur's Gate Korgan: Non-Human berserker who lives for violent bloody combat.

Mass Effect's Krogan: Non-Human berserker who lives for violent bloody combat.

Also, Tali's droid is a dual-reference. It's not just Minsc's "Go for the eyes, Boo!" line, the name of the Droid is "Chitika vas Paus", an obvious nod to the Gnomish deity Baervan Wildwanderer's giant badger companion "Chiktikka Fastpaws", a creature that Aerie references in-game with movement dialogue "Faster than Chiktikka Fastpaws!"

Finally, and this isn't something I've confirmed, but I heard that the "Squeak!" that the miniature space hamster on the Normandy makes uses the same sound file as Boo, the miniature space hamster in Baldur's Gate uses when you click on him.

Didn't know about that Krogan thing. Thanks for sharing.