Citadel, the final downloadable add-on for Mass Effect 3, is a hell of a good time. It's so full of jokes, references, call-backs and gags that it's difficult to keep up.

Plenty of people have been taking to YouTube and elsewhere to share their favorite moments from Citadel, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share four of mine.

Spoilers follow, obvs.

Of course, it was Vega, because Vega is totally the dude who would order pizza during an important mission-briefing.

Aah, the moment when a guard realizes he's just a guard in a video game. A sad moment, indeed. While this doesn't quite match the brilliant enemy dialogue in No One Lives Forever, it made me chuckle. I also enjoyed the whispered banter leading up to it, particularly how Garrus pronounces "Sorry."

Of course, it wouldn't be a funny Mass Effect episode if they didn't get in one last elevator joke. I feel you, Garrus—I miss those elevator rides, too.

Easily my favorite bit from the entire thing, and the moment when I realized just how much fun the rest of Citadel was going to be.

There were plenty of other great moments in Citadel, but those were probably my four favorite. My video-capture software lost the bit where Specialist Traynor's toothbrush saved the day, though that was certainly another highlight. Also, Tali was dead on my playthrough, so I missed her hilarious musical interlude, and I haven't seen all of the other unique character interactions yet, either. If you've got any of your own favorite moments, I hope you'll share in the comments.

It was fun, Commander. Thanks for the laughs.

Weaselhammer of Vector Sigma Creations is the very talented person behind this magnificent-looking replica of the M-12 Locust submachine gun from Mass Effect 2 and 3. The overall creation process took about three months, during which Weaselhammer crafted the model piece by piece, attaching synthetic polymer components to a wooden frame, and then giving it all a nice coat of paint.

You can take a look at some in progress pics below, read a summary of what went on at Weaselhammer's blog, or follow the project from its inception at Vector Sigma Creations' Facebook page.

Weaselhammer Props - Mass Effect M-12 Locust SMG

For comparison, here's what the original weapon looks like.

Weaselhammer of Vector Sigma Creations is the very talented person behind this magnificent-looking replica of the M-12 Locust submachine gun from Mass Effect 2 and 3. The overall creation process took about three months, during which Weaselhammer crafted the model piece by piece, attaching synthetic polymer components to a wooden frame, and then giving it all a nice coat of paint.

You can take a look at some in progress pics below, read a summary of what went on at Weaselhammer's blog, or follow the project from its inception at Vector Sigma Creations' Facebook page.

Weaselhammer Props - Mass Effect M-12 Locust SMG

For comparison, here's what the original weapon looks like.

Without medi-gels—the life-saving healing salves in Mass Effect—our Commander Shepards would be toast. Out in the real world, though, we can't just apply medi-gel to our injuries: it doesn't exist. Or well, it didn't, not like this. Not until recently.

According to Mother Nature Network, Joe Landolina, a college student at NYU, has invented something called "Veti-Gel." Apparently it speeds up the clotting and healing process, enough that "even wounds to internal organs or major arteries are able to close up instantaneously."

Look at this video to see it in action (unless you're squeamish; there's a ton of blood). It's insane.

"I have seen [Veti-Gel] close any size wound that it is applied to," Landolina says. "As long as you can cover it, it can close it."

The article has more claims about Veti-gel's incredible properties, including the ability to heal second-degree burns in a day. Even more uncanny is the fact that they sometimes do call Veti-Gel medi-gel.

If you're curious, this is what medi-gels do according to the Mass Effect wiki:

Heals various wounds and ailments, instantly sealing injuries against infection and allowing for rapid healing by having the gel grip tight to flesh until subjected to a frequency of ultrasound. It is sealable against liquids - most notably blood - as well as contaminants and gases.

By contrast, Veti-Gel:

When any part of the body is wounded, the damaged extracellular matrix helps trigger a cascade of chemical reactions in the blood that ends in fibrin - fibers that join togehter to start blood clots.

If Veti-Gel reaches the blood's platelet cells, it helps signal them to change shape and stick together to further help plug the hole in a blood vessel. [See also: Artificial Blood Clots to Improve Soldier Survival]

And when Veti-Gel comes into contact with the extracellular matrix in the wounded tissue, it binds to it, forming a kind of cover over the area. That eliminates the need to even apply pressure to the wound. "It looks like, feels like, and acts like skin," said Landolina.

Veti-gel still has to go through the FDA, but even so, damn. Every day, we come a little bit closer to the future depicted in sci-fi like Mass Effect, people.

College student invents gel that halts bleeding [Mother Nature Network Via Ann Lemay]

Yesterday in New York City, Electronic Arts held a special event focused on queer issues in gaming. And it happened mostly because the company itself was willing to face its own stumbles in presenting gay characters in its video games.

The impetus for Thursday's Full Spectrum event—co-sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association and the Human Rights Council—began after the controversy surrounding the addition of Makeb, the so-called (not by EA) "gay planet" to the company's massive online game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

When I spoke to the folks from EA who were at the event yesterday, they all acknowledged that the publisher had "stepped in it" with Makeb.

"It," in this case, is the sudden controversy that erupted when they added same-sex romance options to The Old Republic.

From one corner of the internet, the publisher was getting blasted by anti-gay activists who felt offended by the inclusion of Makeb. And criticism came from gay advocates, too, who felt annoyed at having to pay for access to a place where those romance options were possible, though segregated from the rest of the game's universe.

According to VP of corporate communications Jeff Brown, it was the intensity and volume of the response that made EA decide to hold a forum where LGBT issues in both the creation and playing of games could be discussed.

Brown's colleague Craig Hagen was one of the organizers of Full Spectrum. While he acknowleged the pride he felt in EA creating a place like Makeb or allowing same-sex relationships to happen in their Mass Effect games, Hagen also said the company could have done better in crafting those options. Mass Effect didn't allow for male same-sex relationships until Mass Effect 3 and Makeb was added to The Old Republic more than a year after the online game's launch.

Hagen describes EA as a progressively tolerant workplace but a studio that still is learning how to do things right. "Ten years ago, it was very easy for me to move into the EA Sports studio [where Hagen works out of], to identify as a gay man, and to bring my partner to studio and company events without any experience whatsoever of homophobia. I saw the same sex relationship benefits that EA offered when I was hired."

"I was involved with the development of the transgender policy that EA adopted," Hagen continued. "I was around when Sims [included] same gender content. I saw all of that. Then when something like Mass Effect or the latest episode of Star Wars occurs, I just stand back and go, even as progressive as EA is, we still make mistakes and we still have a long way to go."

I asked Hagen what he would say to LGBT players who feel embattled in an online game like Battlefield 3. How would he tell them to hold on? "I don't know that you tell them," he answered. "I think you have to demonstrate to them...by the encouragement and the continual development of additional LGBT storylines in our products. The reinforcement inside of EA that this is an environment where you need to feel comfortable, free, and open to develop the right kind of storyline, the appropriate storyline that not only reflects the developer community but reflects the gamer and the consumer community out there."

It's not an "it gets better kind of message" then, I posited. It's a matter of actively making it better?

"Yeah," Hagen said. "That's the point of what [journalist and Full Spectrum panelist] Hilary Rosen made: it's not about defending ourselves, it's about defining ourselves. We recognize we're not perfect. No one is perfect. We're going to make mistakes. When we make a mistake let's learn from it and let's get better."

I threw a generalization about competitive online gamers at another Full Spectrum panelist Matt Bromberg, who helped found eSports company Major League Gaming before becoming general manager at BioWare Austin. Because of the hyper-aggressive nature on online gaming, it would seem that the players who spent the most time in the hothouses of FPS lobbies would be more likely to lob offensive epithets like "fag" to their opponents. But Bromberg said that wasn't the case. "My experience was the opposite," he countered. "I think the more skilled and hardcore a gamer is, when they get really good, their interest in spending time griefing people or doing really anything other than playing at a super high level drops to almost zero."

During the panel that Bromberg participated in, the idea was put forth that RPGs are a genre where progressive inclusion of gay characters and storyline possibilties can happen easily, because those games are all about options and crafting a virtual identity. I asked Bromberg if there was anything stopping a same-sex romance from being the main path, and not just a secondary option.

"I don't think anything does," he answered. "I think it goes back to, ‘What's the authentic story being told?' You're fighting off a race of machine creatures who are going to destroy the world? That's probably the main story. I think underneath that story, there's all kinds of combatants with all sorts of preferences. But I don't think anything stops it other than someone writing a game where it's authentic and meaningful and can sustain a whole game."

One of the best parts of Mass Effect 3's new 'Citadel' add-on—and there are a lot of good parts —comes near the end, when you have an opportunity to spend some quality one-on-one time with each of your companions from throughout the entire series.

I liked all of the interactions that I saw, but this video of the lovely Quarian Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya, shared by GenericHenle, has got to be my favorite. You don't get to see her face, but this is the next best thing.

Tali's actually dead in the game I used to play Citadel, but in my other game, she and my male Shepard had a fling. I'm looking forward to seeing her take his hand and make like The Sound of Music. Special props to Tali's voice actor, Ash Sroka. Way to go all-in.

Let's get this out of the way up front: Mass Effect 3's latest—and last—downloadable add-on, titled Citadel, is terrific. In fact, if you're a fan of the Mass Effect series, particularly one who's been there from the start, it was more or less made for you.

Citadel is fan-service of the highest order. That term can often be made to feel like a pejorative, but in this case, it's purer than that. At every turn Citadel displays an irresistible fondness for the series' history. It's an adventure written and designed with nothing but love for Mass Effect, an often goofy, ultimately touching farewell to the world and the characters that we've followed for the last six years.

I'm going to have to keep this write-up pretty short and light on spoilers, because much of what made Citadel work so well was that I had absolutely no idea what to expect going in. I previewed a bit of the Leviathan DLC but never finished it, and I skipped the Omega add-on. I hadn't even watched a trailer for Citadel. In fact, for a little while yesterday, I couldn't even remember how to activate the new content.

At the outset, Admiral Hackett contacts Shepard and instructs her to take some shore leave back at the Citadel, allowing her to stay in Admiral Anderson's swanky, massive apartment. In fact, Anderson more or less bequeaths the apartment to her, giving players a pretty sweet pad on the Citadel that they can upgrade and customize. Shortly after Shepard arrives, Joker calls her down to meet at a posh Citadel sushi place, and things go haywire in a hurry. As usual.

WHY: This one's for the fans. Citadel is a warm-hearted tribute to the fantastical world we've spent the last six years exploring and the characters we've met along the way.

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Mass Effect 3: Citadel

Developer: BioWare
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed)
Release Date: March 5

Type of game: Story-based downloadable add-on focusing on action, apartment upkeep, and even some stealth.

What I played: Completed the main adventure in 2 to 3 hours, hung around for another hour doing minigames, combat challenges, and meeting with my old friends.

My Two Favorite Things

• The in-jokes are great, and demonstrate an understanding of all the silly gags, idiosyncrasies and memes that the Mass Effect universe has generated over the years.
• In the end, it's all unexpectedly poignant. I was surprised to find that despite (or even because of) all the laughs, Citadel left me feeling bittersweet.

My Two Least-Favorite Things

• Combat isn't ever all that fun, and a late-game battle doesn't flatter Mass Effect's somewhat crusty third-person combat.
• The animations on the new character Brooks are wooden enough to make me laugh at the notion that we ever thought Mass Effect games had convincing digital actors.

Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes

• "FemShep forever."
  -Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku.com
• "This DLC has done the impossible: It's made me like James Vega."
  -Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku.com
• "Somewhere out there, my Commander Shepard is still dancing."
  -Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku.com

Before long, Shepard and her team are swept up on a fast-paced adventure through the Citadel, which ends up involving a casino heist (!!), plenty of difficult shootouts, and more story surprises than you can shake a stick at. The whole thing feels something like a one-off episode of Star Trek, with a self-contained villain, a bunch of wacky hijinks, and all the banter you can handle. Perhaps a bit more specifically, it plays out like the 18th episode in the old 22-episode season length, the breath of air before the plunge into the dramatic season (or in this case, series) finale.

The story certainly doesn't feel connected to the plot of Mass Effect 3, but that's almost surely intentional. After all, it's been almost exactly a year since many of us embarked on the epic (and somewhat controversial) grand finale of the Mass Effect saga.

Here we are a year later, so it's okay that the story of Citadel, ostensibly set during a forced "shore leave" period while the Normandy is undergoing repairs, feels less like canon and more like a dream-episode or a Christmas Special. Given how awkward it would have been to try to get players re-invested in the story of Shepard, the Reapers, and the end of all life in the galaxy, BioWare made the right call.

The focus here is on the team, not just on Shepard. And not just the team from Mass Effect 3, but eventually the entire cast of the trilogy, in one way or another. In a nice touch, Shepard starts the adventure alone and is eventually accompanied by an ever-growing cohort of followers. As they join her, the one-liners and gags increase in frequency until the game has become half action-spectacle and half out-and-out buddy comedy. Some of the past games' lightheartedness was necessarily set aside during the third game's apocalyptic storyline, and it's nice to see the jokes return.(Sample banter: "Commander, you got a plan to get out of here?" "James, I'm a professional!" "That's not a yes!" "It's not a no!")

Eventually the whole squad is reunited, quipping and wreaking havoc without missing a step. While Shepard is still fighting alongside the requisite two companions, the rest are up in the wings, visible but not directly engaged in fighting, hopping onto the radio and cracking jokes along with everyone else. Some of the best exchanges are written for the entire crew, so the writers were free to write a single joke, rather than having to write it multiple times for various possible squads. That makes the jokes feel bigger and more ensemble-oriented, and also a heck of a lot more fun. For example: The players who aren't in Shepard's squad form two groups: "Team Mako" and "Team Hammerhead." They immediately begin a playful competition to see who can take out more bad guys. "We all know the Hammerhead's better than the Mako," says a member of the crew, in one of many meta-jokes that are just cute enough to work.

The main adventure took me around two to three hours to finish, but Citadel actually continues for a while after the battle's won. It contains a lengthy denouement that has players exploring a festive new chunk of the Citadel seemingly untouched by the refugee crisis and war outside, drenched in neon and filled with minigames and diversions. (Again: The disconnect is for the best.) You can hang out with every member of your crew and share lovely little character moments, or you can go gamble, or engage in a very involved combat simulation tournament that's even got its own built-in economy.

There's plenty more: Every scene is stuffed with in-jokes and references, a bit in the Citadel archives allows you to relive various key moments in Mass Effect lore, and there's some great overheard enemy dialogue, if you take the time to listen. Some of the social sequences towards the end seem like they could play out dozens of different ways, given the fact that they involve each player's specific cast of surviving characters. I play as a female Commander Shepard, and the wonderful actor Jennifer Hale brought her A-game to Citadel. Shepard's last hurrah is a rangey, well-written part that's as surprising as it is warm and genuinely funny. Hale must have had a lot of fun bringing her character across the finish line.

And okay, sure, I could see people grumbling that it's all just too much—the wackiness may be over the top for some, and others may find the more blatant fan-service to be cloying or annoying. If we're bloodlessly analyzing the pacing and design, it's all a bit of a mess, and the whole thing doesn't remotely jibe with the elegiac energy that Mass Effect 3 often conjured so effectively. If you're just a casual fan, or came to the series at the second game and never got all that into the details or lore, this might not be your thing. And the combat can be a real nuisance, particularly the climactic encounter, which takes place in an oddly laid-out room that doesn't feel built for combat and highlights the weaknesses of Mass Effect's aging combat system.

But when all's said and done, Citadel is a winner. It's a loving tribute to Mass Effect fans everywhere—fans who, it must be said, can't have always all been that easy to love, even when their gripes were legitimate. BioWare didn't have to go all-out; they could have given us another adventure along the lines of Leviathan or Omega, or even the fantastic Lair of the Shadow Broker. Surely they're ready to move on to new things, to more-exciting, fresher projects. But these people seem to have had some things left that they wanted to say, and damn it all, they weren't leaving until they said 'em.

Citadel has the nostalgic enthusiasm of an action-movie reunion, a team of old heroes putting the gang back together for one final caper. It's a fine reminder of just how much care, talent and love went into building the world of Mass Effect in the first place. While debates over the actual ending of Mass Effect 3 will never truly be resolved, it's nice that the trilogy could go out on such a light-hearted, affectionate note. This is the sendoff Commander Shepard deserves.

If you're starting Mass Effect 3's new Citadel DLC, you'll have to follow a few steps to get going. It's a two-part download, the first part is the one you pay for, but you'll have to manually search for the second part. (I found it on the XBLA page with minimal hassle.)

Once you've downloaded both parts (they're both 2GB), fire up a save at any point after the Cerberus attack on the Citadel but before embarking on the final assault on the Cerberus base. After that, you have to go and check your in-game email to get the message about Anderson's apartment.

I'd actually forgotten that last step was necessary. It'd been so long since I'd played Mass Effect 3 that my memory of the game had atrophied a bit, and for a little while I couldn't for the life of me figure out why a new mission wasn't turning up in my journal. Then—eureka!—I remembered that I'd have to check my in-game email.

If you check your inbox, you should see the message above about shore leave. Follow those instructions and your final Mass Effect 3 adventure will get underway.

I'll have more on the Citadel DLC in the near future. Immediate impression: It's nice to see my Commander Shepard again. It'd been a while.

Remember the Mako in the first Mass Effect? It could brave insane terrain, sure, but that also meant it was far from a smooth ride. This remote controlled Mako by Laura Ducros, though? Smooth as butter.

To be fair, it's also just traversing flat terrain. Who knows what would happen if it was rocky alien terrain?

"On September 4th, 2012, I made an announcement that I was building a remote controlled Mako from Mass Effect," Durcos explains in the YouTube description. "Exactly 6 months later, it's a reality! It drives and the cannon turns. I'm not able to scale 89 degree walls just yet... that will come in due time."

She uses this Mako as a prop when cosplaying as Shepard at conventions. Cool.

Mass Effect RC Mako [Laura Ducros]