Mass Effect 2

[Madame Adequate]

With the US release a few days away, and the rest of us getting it within a couple of days (Boo hiss etc.) it's time for the thread of the greatest of justices fgj.

Launch trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2O-0-fQOOs). It made me jizz in my pants. Martin Sheen knows how to speak words, yes he does.

Who else is :omghey: :hyper: about this?

[Bunny]

I am buying this the day it comes out and not leaving my apartment for a week. School can wait.

[Jowy]

I should really play Mass Effect. I bought it a month ago and haven't had time to even touch it.

[Madame Adequate]

I am buying this the day it comes out and not leaving my apartment for a week. School can wait.

I have a presentation I can't avoid on the day it's released. After that I am fucking off indoors for as long as it takes.


I should really play Mass Effect. I bought it a month ago and haven't had time to even touch it.

You should really play Mass Effect. It's one of the greatest games of the generation and is pure beauty.

[Iceglow]

I'm very very excited about this, my girlfriend is getting the sims 3 expansion pack so that when it comes out I can sit back and relax knowing she's pre-occupied on the laptop whilst I have a week long festival of this and my beloved Dragon Age Origins.

[Jowy]

Maybe I'll break it out this weekend. Lost Odyssey's too damn good to stop though.

[G13]

Lost Odyssey's too damn good to stop though.

And how!

I've got a stiffy that's how excited I am for this game!

[JKTrix]

I'm on a bit of a push to finish the first one, but I've already pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe version on Steam. So as soon as the clock ticks over to midnight on that day, I should be able to boot it up.

[AntRid]

I’m one of the few that weren’t crazy about the first one. They story didn’t pick up until near the end and even though the universe seems large yet they only populated it with a dozen alien species and gave you very small spaces to explore.

I’ll probably play ME2 later on but I’m not really excited for it.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I never even finished the first one, I really should do that first.

[LunarWeaver]

Really looking forward to it. Gameplay videos make the first look weak, and I liked playing the first. I watched the short Adept, Infiltrator, and Soldier trailers that shows them off. Adepts look much cooler this time around. Their powers are largely the same but work better as far as I can tell. I like how Soldiers can activate different types of bullets to freeze enemies or set them on fire and such. And Infiltrators turning invisible for sniper shots will be a Godsend. The sniper rifle is steady now too, thankfully. The first game's rifle was like a reflex mini-game more than anything. Of course, there is the mixture of these classes, but I have the gist of it.

I hope they ditched the vehicle entirely. What was it, Mako or some :bou::bou::bou::bou:? I'm never a fan of vehicles. They probably didn't, though, so I'll merely hope they made improvements based on feedback.

At any rate, very excited.

[Slothy]

I’m one of the few that weren’t crazy about the first one. They story didn’t pick up until near the end and even though the universe seems large yet they only populated it with a dozen alien species and gave you very small spaces to explore.

I’ll probably play ME2 later on but I’m not really excited for it.

I'm with you, and for more reasons than you stated. In fact, I didn't even think the story really picked up towards the end. Even when it was supposed to be going full steam ahead it was so predictable that I had trouble caring.

When I can pick up ME2 for $15 like I did the first one, then I might buy it. But since the first was nothing special I won't be going out and grabbing it anytime soon.

[kikimm]

I'm so fucking excited about it, and last month I replayed the first one two times to get ready for this, because I thought I'd be buying it right away. But unfortunately I'm trying to save money now, so I'm probably not gonna get it for awhile. *sigh* I will just have to continue watching the trailers over and over again. :(

[Iceglow]

I’m one of the few that weren’t crazy about the first one. They story didn’t pick up until near the end and even though the universe seems large yet they only populated it with a dozen alien species and gave you very small spaces to explore.

I’ll probably play ME2 later on but I’m not really excited for it.

I'm with you, and for the single reason I am a complete sony fanboy who cannot admit microsoft did something better than any game released purely for the ps3.


I fixed your statement. :greenie:


On topic however, the Mako was good fun and was pivotal in the game plot in more than one instance I hope it is back though it was wrecked during the end scenes so I guess it would be the Mako 2 not the Mako 1. Also, sniping was easy in Mass Effect, early on ok it wasn't particulary easy but by the time you were getting 3rd stage stabilizers and buffers the rifle sights would be very stable indeed especially if you trained sniper rifles such as the infiltrator class does. Still a form of optical camo/stealth for those critical shots sounds good to me. I'm also interested in the way Heavy Weapons will work, it could be something that was deeply lacking in the first game or something which will prove ultimately useless.

[Madame Adequate]

I’m one of the few that weren’t crazy about the first one. They story didn’t pick up until near the end and even though the universe seems large yet they only populated it with a dozen alien species and gave you very small spaces to explore.

I’ll probably play ME2 later on but I’m not really excited for it.

I'm with you, and for the single reason I am a complete sony fanboy who cannot admit microsoft did something better than any game released purely for the ps3.


I fixed your statement. :greenie:

Steve you are a bad, bad man and iawtc.


On topic however, the Mako was good fun and was pivotal in the game plot in more than one instance I hope it is back though it was wrecked during the end scenes so I guess it would be the Mako 2 not the Mako 1. Also, sniping was easy in Mass Effect, early on ok it wasn't particulary easy but by the time you were getting 3rd stage stabilizers and buffers the rifle sights would be very stable indeed especially if you trained sniper rifles such as the infiltrator class does. Still a form of optical camo/stealth for those critical shots sounds good to me. I'm also interested in the way Heavy Weapons will work, it could be something that was deeply lacking in the first game or something which will prove ultimately useless.

I really didn't have much trouble with the Mako. Yes, it could have been better, but something that's merely 'good' didn't seem to bother me as much as it did others. I don't really care whether it returns or not itbt. And I liked sniping a lot, partly because it did start out hard and got easier as you either learned skills or applied bonuses to your weapons.

[Dreddz]

Hopefully they can fix the combat in this one.

[Madame Adequate]

What's to fix? :confused:

[Slothy]

I’m one of the few that weren’t crazy about the first one. They story didn’t pick up until near the end and even though the universe seems large yet they only populated it with a dozen alien species and gave you very small spaces to explore.

I’ll probably play ME2 later on but I’m not really excited for it.

I'm with you, and for the single reason I am a complete sony fanboy who cannot admit microsoft did something better than any game released purely for the ps3.


I fixed your statement. :greenie:

How does not liking the game make me a PS3 fanboy? Especially when I bought it on the PC? It just wasn't that well done. The dialogue choices didn't matter to the overall story, and the story itself was pretty run of the mill sci-fi, and the combat was kind of mediocre. Not to mention the sidequests just didn't draw me in and exploring random planets was pretty damn boring. I'm sorry I didn't jizz in my pants like the original game was the second coming of Jesus.


What's to fix? :confused:

I'm not sure why he wants the combat fixed, but it wasn't very interesting in the first game. For regular enemies you could pretty much just pop out from behind cover, shoot the enemy until your gun was about to overheat, pop back behind cover, rinse and repeat. Bosses weren't really more complicated than throw up a couple of buffs and debuffs and do the same thing. It wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lot of strategy and it was rarely that difficult.

I'll give the new game credit in that I like a lot of the changes I've been hearing they made to the combat system, but I'm still not going to get the game anytime in the forseeable future.

[Ouch!]

What's to fix? :confused:

I'm not sure why he wants the combat fixed, but it wasn't very interesting in the first game. For regular enemies you could pretty much just pop out from behind cover, shoot the enemy until your gun was about to overheat, pop back behind cover, rinse and repeat. Bosses weren't really more complicated than throw up a couple of buffs and debuffs and do the same thing. It wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lot of strategy and it was rarely that difficult.

I'll give the new game credit in that I like a lot of the changes I've been hearing they made to the combat system, but I'm still not going to get the game anytime in the forseeable future.
I'm going to go ahead and guess you never played on Insanity like a real man.

[Madame Adequate]

What's to fix? :confused:

I'm not sure why he wants the combat fixed, but it wasn't very interesting in the first game. For regular enemies you could pretty much just pop out from behind cover, shoot the enemy until your gun was about to overheat, pop back behind cover, rinse and repeat. Bosses weren't really more complicated than throw up a couple of buffs and debuffs and do the same thing. It wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lot of strategy and it was rarely that difficult.

I'll give the new game credit in that I like a lot of the changes I've been hearing they made to the combat system, but I'm still not going to get the game anytime in the forseeable future.
I'm going to go ahead and guess you never played on Insanity like a real man.

Or Insanity starting a new character, either.

[Skyblade]

What's to fix? :confused:

I'm not sure why he wants the combat fixed, but it wasn't very interesting in the first game. For regular enemies you could pretty much just pop out from behind cover, shoot the enemy until your gun was about to overheat, pop back behind cover, rinse and repeat. Bosses weren't really more complicated than throw up a couple of buffs and debuffs and do the same thing. It wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lot of strategy and it was rarely that difficult.

I'll give the new game credit in that I like a lot of the changes I've been hearing they made to the combat system, but I'm still not going to get the game anytime in the forseeable future.
I'm going to go ahead and guess you never played on Insanity like a real man.

Or Insanity starting a new character, either.

Considering you have to play through the game multiple times to unlock Insanity, if he got bored with the combat system, he most likely never made it that far.

Also, to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled with the quality of the higher difficulties. The primary difference was that the enemies would deal more damage and could take a ton more hits (seriously, every enemy, even Husks, seemed to have Immunity, it was stupid).

[Madame Adequate]

Also, to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled with the quality of the higher difficulties. The primary difference was that the enemies would deal more damage and could take a ton more hits (seriously, every enemy, even Husks, seemed to have Immunity, it was stupid).

Enemy immunity is explicitly stated as an aspect of the higher difficulties :p


Considering you have to play through the game multiple times to unlock Insanity, if he got bored with the combat system, he most likely never made it that far.

This is a fair point and one I had not considered.

[Moon Rabbits]

I haven't been this mother smurfing ass ball :bou::bou::bou::bou: cock sucking damn cunnilingus tit crackin' excited about a game in a long time.So, you're excited, but the rest wasn't necessary and I do censor it ~hero

[Psychotic]

And yet we censor smurf and :bou::bou::bou::bou: :confused:Double standards there, sport. For shame. :colbert:

[I Took the Red Pill]

I borrowed ME from a friend a while back and got real damn far in it, but had to give it back. I thought it was awesome but I wasn't dazzled by the combat (not to say it was bad) and the parts where you were driving around planets to mine ores and :bou::bou::bou::bou: in your little Rover couldn't have been more boring. Also the elevator sequences pissed me off although there were some funny announcements. That being said it is likely I will pick up Mass Effect 2 at some point down the road, probably not on launch, 'cause if possible I wanna finish the first.

[Madame Adequate]

The announcement of Francis Kitt's all-Elcor production of Hamlet remains one of the funniest moments in any videogame ever.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I'm not sure why he wants the combat fixed, but it wasn't very interesting in the first game. For regular enemies you could pretty much just pop out from behind cover, shoot the enemy until your gun was about to overheat, pop back behind cover, rinse and repeat. Bosses weren't really more complicated than throw up a couple of buffs and debuffs and do the same thing. It wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lot of strategy and it was rarely that difficult.


I'm going to go ahead and guess you never played on Insanity like a real man.


Considering you have to play through the game multiple times to unlock Insanity, if he got bored with the combat system, he most likely never made it that far.

Also, to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled with the quality of the higher difficulties. The primary difference was that the enemies would deal more damage and could take a ton more hits (seriously, every enemy, even Husks, seemed to have Immunity, it was stupid).
Combat was fairly easy as soon as you get access to the first level of spectre gear, I ended up have having a full set for all of my characters not long after making it to the Citadel.

[Moon Rabbits]

And yet we censor smurf and :bou::bou::bou::bou: :confused:Double standards there, sport. For shame. :colbert:

:bigsmile:

[smittenkitten]

I still haven't finished the first Mass Effect. Daniel kees bugging me to finish it before I start the second one so I can transfer my game over. If I have time and get back into I will. I know Daniel is VERY :hyper: about Mass Effect 2, if I had the money I would buy it for him. =/

[JKTrix]

http://i46.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/261cldh.jpg

Gonna sleep a little earlier on Monday so I can wake up at midnight and start playin'.

[Shoeberto]

I borrowed ME from a friend a while back and got real damn far in it, but had to give it back. I thought it was awesome but I wasn't dazzled by the combat (not to say it was bad) and the parts where you were driving around planets to mine ores and :bou::bou::bou::bou: in your little Rover couldn't have been more boring. Also the elevator sequences pissed me off although there were some funny announcements. That being said it is likely I will pick up Mass Effect 2 at some point down the road, probably not on launch, 'cause if possible I wanna finish the first.
I thought all of the Mako sequences were really well paced. They always seemed just the right length to keep them exciting without being so short they were unsatisfying.

The PC version's load times were significantly shorter, I guess, so I never minded the elevator scenes. I went into the game expecting to despise them, but I never understood what all the complaints were about. I think a lot of the time the elevators were extended to accommodate the announcements for me. So, I'm a little disappointed that they're out.

Looking forward to buying this on the cheap cheap after a while. I really did love the first game, but I'm a tightwad, so...

[Jiro]

Looking forward to buying this on the cheap cheap after a while. I really did love the first game, but I'm a tightwad, so...

I'm going to have to agree. I was all set on getting this once I could rustle up the money, but the money tree never sprouted. I'm looking forward to getting it in like 10 years time when I do have the cash :(

[Ouch!]

Finished a playthrough of ME1 to carry data over for tomorrow night. I've got class all freaking day tomorrow, so I'm gonna be getting a late start. So stoked.

[Rase]

My suitemate is all over himself about this game, and is gonna be playing it solely until beating it with both characters he is bringing over. I personally couldn't get into ME but I'm gonna give ME2 a try once he's finished with it. Maybe it'll grab me this time. Luckily I know the story thanks to him and watching him play through his Renegade character.

[Skyblade]

No comments on this game since release? Odd.

Well, while I'm downloading and installing one of the DLCs that came with it, I might as well give my opinion thus far.

It has been an excellent experience this far in. The characters and dialogue are tops, and generally exceed my expectations, which takes some doing, after the bar ME1 set. Squad building and research are nicely done.

The missions, though, are probably my favorite thing. Each one is a long, involved recruitment or team building excercise. It may sound odd, but it really works. It keeps the story flowing, and the missions are diverse and fun.

Still adjusting to the new combat style (and, even worse, the adjusted controls). But Infiltrators, my class of choice, are now insanely deadly with a version of Assassinate that also cloaks them from view and lots of various damage boosts.

[JKTrix]

I can see how people can have issues adjusting to the RPG 'downgrade'. It is weird not being able to check my inventory.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Wait, what?! You can't check your inventory? =\

[Rase]

I played my friends copy for two hours today. Very fun, I actually may finish this one as opposed to getting bored after four hours like the first. Playing as an Infiltrator and totally being a Ruthless jerk. I hope I'll be able to transfer save files over once I acquire a 360, or I'll have to play through it again. Of course if it's that good it shouldn't be a problem...

[Skyblade]

Wait, what?! You can't check your inventory? =\

The inventory system in Mass Effect drew such huge criticism they almost completely removed it. Rather than an inventory of items, new equipment is unlocked as you progress. Before each mission, and occasionally during mission checkpoints, you can change which weapons you carry, or which armor you wear.

There are only a few variations on weapons this time. Rather than 10 different grades of 15 manufacturers of Pistols, for example, there are 4 or 5 different types through the game, with much larger differences between them. A fast weapon with low power but a lot of ammo, a slow but powerful pistol, etcetera.

Armor is broken down into body parts (shoulder armor, head armor, etcetera), but rather than being strictly damage absorbtion, each upgrade gives a particular type of boost. A monocle similar to Garrus's from ME1, for example, boosts headshot damage by 10%, while a straight helmet yields +5% health.

Rather than pure stats, ability augmentation is the primary focus of your squadbuilding and min-maxing. It is a fairly large change, and takes some getting used to.

[eestlinc]

is me2 better than fallout 3?

[LunarWeaver]

Wait, what?! You can't check your inventory? =\

The inventory system in Mass Effect drew such huge criticism they almost completely removed it.

Thank God.

[Bunny]

I picked it up on Tuesday but have yet to play it. I'm going to start it up tomorrow afternoon once I'm done with classes and possibly play it all night. I need to fix my sleep schedule some how and this gives me the perfect opportunity. Let's just hope I don't go insane before then.

[Moon Rabbits]

I give thumbs up to the sounds of the new inventory system (or lack thereof). The original was balls and confusing and made me not care about weapons and armor eventually. I just sorted through :bou::bou::bou::bou: til I found something that made the little stat bars turn green instead of red. :jess:

I can't wait to plaaaaaaaaaaaay~ Is the demo on XBL? Ohhh, and I do hope that they took the Mako out. That :bou::bou::bou::bou: was stupid yo.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Wait, what?! You can't check your inventory? =\

The inventory system in Mass Effect drew such huge criticism they almost completely removed it. Rather than an inventory of items, new equipment is unlocked as you progress. Before each mission, and occasionally during mission checkpoints, you can change which weapons you carry, or which armor you wear.

There are only a few variations on weapons this time. Rather than 10 different grades of 15 manufacturers of Pistols, for example, there are 4 or 5 different types through the game, with much larger differences between them. A fast weapon with low power but a lot of ammo, a slow but powerful pistol, etcetera.

Armor is broken down into body parts (shoulder armor, head armor, etcetera), but rather than being strictly damage absorbtion, each upgrade gives a particular type of boost. A monocle similar to Garrus's from ME1, for example, boosts headshot damage by 10%, while a straight helmet yields +5% health.

Rather than pure stats, ability augmentation is the primary focus of your squadbuilding and min-maxing. It is a fairly large change, and takes some getting used to.
Man, I had no problems with it the way it was. =\

The weapons system sounds gay. The armor seems decent enough.

[Madame Adequate]

I was a bit o_O about the inventory thing, so thanks for explaining. :p It sounds pretty good, and it's definitely good to have fewer things with more difference than to have fifty options with bugger all variance.

Tomorrow... :hux:

[Skyblade]

It is different, but it works out so far.

Although there are fewer weapon choices to make, you do still get to upgrade weapons as you go. One of the other new large parts of the game is a research system. As you collect minerals (from both unexplored planets and from caches during missions), you can use them to research new upgrades. You can research upgrades for particular weapons (and buy a couple of the upgrades outright from the shop). These upgrades affect an entire item category, like +10% damage to Sniper Rifles. While an increase in damage is the simplest type, it is not the only type. As you unlock enough boosts, you'll get more advanced research, like an increase in armor penetration or an increase to headshot damage while using Sniper Rifles.

You can also research upgrades to unlock new heavy weapons, or to increase particular characters attributes (for example, there is a research to upgrade the Tech Damage of a particular character by 10%).

And, not to be forgotten, you can upgrade the Normandy's systems. As you are searching to fight a more technologically adept foe, your ship needs some enhancement as well. You will need to upgrade the ship's armor, weapons, and shields to have a better chance of survival. Other ship upgrades offer more directly useful enhancements, such as cutting the time it takes to search out new minerals and missions on planets, or increasing fuel you can carry, which will increase the distance you can travel from refueling bases on the galaxy map (and, thus, the planets you can visit).



Oh, and Moon Rabbits, the Mako is gone. There is a drop ship which will drop you at points to start ground missions on unexplored planets, but the exploration and fighting is done on foot. Although according to the wiki, there is a Hover Tank availible for DLC, I have not yet encountered it (I haven't done the DLC missions yet). But it is not required.

[DK]

Tomorrow... :hux:

Had my copy for a while now, love having a game store owner who doesn't give a fuck about release dates. :love:

[JKTrix]

The Mako is still around, you just don't use it (just did a mission where I saw it :P).

Aside from the two starting humans, the rest of the characters are bloody awesome. Zaeed (downloadable character) is basically Clint Eastwood, Mordin has some excellent lines (and talks like Captain Kirk), and Archangel is just slick.

I'm kind of disappointed to find out that the 'bonus' from playing the iPhone game is just some extra dialogue between the two characters involved. Want my $2 back.

'Nother part of the RPG 'downgrade' is in your actual stats. It seems everyone has only 5 abilities to upgrade. Much like the inventory system though, compared to the first game each single upgrade makes a big difference compared to adding individual points.

The ability combinations are pretty sweet too. They did it in Dragon Age as well, if you combine certain techniques they are more powerful. I froze a guy while he was suspended in mid-air, and when he fell he shattered to pieces. I actually defeated the krogan Garm while defending Archangel by freezing him after his protection was down (with full health) and shooting him to shatter him. Great stuff.

[Madame Adequate]

Everything sounds so sweet, I cannot wait. On that note,




Tomorrow... :hux:

Had my copy for a while now, love having a game store owner who doesn't give a smurf about release dates. :love:

You are a bastard who does not deserve to live :nonono:

[Ouch!]

So far the thing that's standing out the most to me is the way that conversations have drifted away from the static face-to-face interaction from the first game. A majority of conversations now involve more dynamic and cinematic elements. Characters are more frequently interacting with their environment and with each other. It's wonderful.

[NorthernChaosGod]

The ability combinations are pretty sweet too. They did it in Dragon Age as well, if you combine certain techniques they are more powerful. I froze a guy while he was suspended in mid-air, and when he fell he shattered to pieces. I actually defeated the krogan Garm while defending Archangel by freezing him after his protection was down (with full health) and shooting him to shatter him. Great stuff.
This sounds hella sweet.

[DK]

Am I the only one who Finds Jacob's disturbing facial similarity to Kanye West distracting?

[JKTrix]

You are not.

I'm finding Jacob and Miranda to be the least interesting so far. Archangel, Zaeed and Mordin are all muuuuch more interesting.

Weird thing just happened. I got to the citadel, and there's a store owner that says "IrraSHAYMAAAASU", pronouncing a Japanese greeting incorrectly. I played a little bit of No More Heroes 2 earlier (released the same day), and there's another store owner who also pronounces "Irrashaimase" incorrectly. I thought it was funny.

[Mogi]

I want this game so bad, but I have no money!
>.<

[Shiny]

I want this game sooo bad, but I didn't even get the first Mass Effect yet.

[JKTrix]

I just had my first "Holy Effin' Plot, Batman!" moment when I figured out who Aria (the Asari 'Queen' of Omega) was. The other links to the minor plot elements of the first game have been cute, like news reports and such, but this is the first one that kind of blew my mind with how it was presented.

You really have to go digging for it too. Colour me impressed.

[Moon Rabbits]

Can man Shepard still not sex "asexual but very male looking" aliens?

[Skyblade]

The announcement of Francis Kitt's all-Elcor production of Hamlet remains one of the funniest moments in any videogame ever.

Oh, yeah, and Francis Kitt's Elcor performance of Hamlet was an award winner that is now availible at home, or in a 14 hour live performance. Watch the advertisements on the Citadel.

And the poor sap from the citadel wards markets who was trying to get a refund is still trying, after two years.

[Madame Adequate]

I got this yesterday, only to discover that because I have a new 360 my old ME1 file was just plain doggone absent :monster: I burned through it on Easy in a few hours and started on 2, which I've now played for a little bit.

Mostly my reaction is "Holy smurf this is awesome". Combat is mostly improved. Conversations are better and it's nice to be able to interrupt properly sometimes, and it's definitely good to see people interact more with each other and their environments. The characters are even better than they were in the first one.

I have three gripes, though. One: Why the hell do I have ammo? I don't mind it as a mechanic but it doesn't add up. It would make sense to be able to swap a hot gun barrel but that should be an alternative option, probably one which you specifically have to adapt the gun for. Two: I do miss how customization and inventory worked. I really miss armor and I don't like how I can't bloody well see which guns do what in stat terms. Yes, the old inventory screen was clunky as hell, but that was an interface issue much more than a mechanics one. Three: Skills feel in short supply. I miss how I could put points into so many different things. Now it really just feels lame and like it doesn't have much effect. Class choice is far more important than choices made within that class, at least so far.

However none of these complaints are seriously damaging my enjoyment of the game. My grenade launcher is beautiful, I can actually use melee when it is convenient for me (haha I punched out a Krogan), and it's really hard for me to stay in-character as an alien-hating xenophobic Human supremacist with so many completely smurfing awesome alien characters around.

PS: Oh and I hope I can totally screw Dr. Chakwas finally.

PPS: I can't wait to play through both and do things differently to see the consequences.

PPPS: Asari x Hanar porn lol

[Captain Maxx Power]

Am I the only one who Finds Jacob's disturbing facial similarity to Kanye West distracting?

Commander Shepard doesn't care about black aliens.

Right now I'm at the very last mission. Will post my thoughts on the whole game when I've done it right, i.e. without any of my ship mates dying. I will reload until I get it done.

[ANGRYWOLF]

will show up on the PS3 someday.

I suspect they will.

:)

[Jiro]

Hired it out and didn't sleep. Yeah I have no words to describe the awesome. I think I'll take my latest paycheck and go buy it.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Right. Finally managed to get through the game and finish the last mission "successfully". So here goes my thoughts. This'll be long people.

First off the gameplay itself is pretty much lifted verbatim from the first game, which is generally a good thing. It's a relatively solid drop-n-pop shooter which feels kinetic, action-orientated and exciting. Combat is hectic but not so much that is becomes confusing, and the inclusion of different powers to use mix things up sufficiently that you'll rarely be doing nothing but shooting at the enemy. My primary gripes with it are that for the most part being out of cover is suicidal, at least for my playthrough. The enemies stick to Shepard 90% of the time even if your allies are attacking them, so you can take advantage of the AI and just stay hidden until your teammates take out the targets. This does mean you have to learn to use cover effectively however, and I suppose it would be boring if only one enemy were shooting at you in each firefight. Speaking of cover, there were a number of times where I found myself cursing due to Shepherd not obeying my commands. It can be a deadly mistake if you run forward to get to cover and immediately end up hoping over the barrier you wanted to be behind, thus putting yourself in fire and probably getting yourself killed. The whole "cover then hop over" mechanic is also a bit sluggish, though it can create some unintentionally funny runs when Shepherd is unnecessarily running up to cover and jumping over something you could probably step over (think Jason Nesmith rolling around in Galaxy Quest).

Equipment has been gimped to buggery in this game. What I mean by that is you no longer find weapons on the battle field. Instead you either buy them from vendors or have your team research different guns you scan. This does mean you don't have to micromanage your entire squad's inventory since they'll always have the best weapons you've managed to find, though the options are sparse. There's probably only two to three of every weapon type in the whole game barring heavy weapons, and most of the time you have no idea what effect if any they have when you select them in the weapons loadout screen. It's seemingly arbitrary to allow obviously better weapons and their inferior counterparts to both be selectable, unless you feel the need to gimp your team for the sake of making the game harder. Still there's no reason to activate the weapons loadout menu unless you want to change Shepherd's heavy weapon. The upshot of this is that individual squad members are no longer "favouritised" due to needing particular bits of equipment, meaning you can switch members in and out without impunity, though it does ruin the sense of gradually building up stronger team mates and makes who you do decide to run with more arbitrary.

Improvements to your existing gear come from upgrades, and this is where things get annoying. You get upgrades from two sources; either you buy them from shops or you research them on your ship. In the case of the first for some reason the game starves you of Credits for the majority of the game. If you're like me and obsessed with getting everything in the game you may as well forget it. Even if you complete every single mission and search every nook and cranny and nook's cranny and cranny's nook, there's no way you'll have enough credits to have everything bought by the end of the game. Since you can't sell equipment now there's not even an efficient way to farm for credits now. Conversely when you research items, you need to use "resources". These are basically the seams of metals you used to find in the first game on planets, except now you store them on your ship and you need x amount of a certain element to research something. But there is an excess of resources in the galaxy. How much you ask? I'd estimate I probably used about 1/20th of the resources I gathered on research. The rest just sort of sat uselessly on my ship. There's literally nothing you can do with the resources; you can't sell them or anything. My advice to anyone playing would be to only buy probes and search for resources as and when you need them, otherwise you'll end up with a pointless huge surplus.

That's the other gripe I have regarding this; the bloody mineral scanning. Now I know that the Mako from the first game was widely unpopular, but really I never held much venom for it. It was an interesting distraction from the standard gameplay and though it was a tart to control, you always felt a sense of achievement when you finally managed to get over a crevasse. Now instead you have this excrusiantingly boring mini-game where you slowly run the cursor over a planet and try to find resources. In all honesty I think someone at Bioware spent months making the Mako sections and was pleased as punch. Then the game came out and everyone hated them, so he was told to make something else. Out of revenge he made the most boring, tedious and pointless minigame as punishment against the community. This is what it feels like; Bioware are saying "You didn't like our Mako? Well up yours! Go scanning for minerals you jerk!". Coupled with the highly reduced need for resources throughout the game and you have to wonder if all these changes to "streamline" the inventory were really worth it.

Now then the story. This'll all go into spoiler tags since I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Insofar as the story goes it kind of feels a bit weak. The Collectors are the main badguys but it becomes obvious pretty early on that they're just puppets. For the sake of the story they may as well be wind-up toys or something similar. They're not particularly menacing, they just feel like a group doing their job. They're not malicious they're just there. There's certainly no charismatic central leader like Saren from the first one that you feel compelled to take out. Really you're just on a clean-up operation. There's Harbinger I suppose, but you "kill" him so many times he ends up feeling more like a generic enemy. It would have been much more effective if Harbinger had appear a lot less frequently, and if his appearances were more significant. Apart from that it's your standard "Get peoples, do things, save galaxy" spiel, nothing special.

Party members are a mixed bunch. Miranda is your standard human female love interest. She's apparently "genetically superior" but damned if I see it. Jacob looks like Kayne West and sounds like Samuel Jackson. They're both pretty boring in terms of personality. Mordin cracks me up because he's off his nut, but also has some genuinely interest ethics and actually is convincing when he explains the necessity to sterilise an entire species of Krogans. Jack scares the living crap out of me. She's basically made up to be as ridiculously bad-ass as possible; Kills anyone, tattoos all over her body, swears every other words. Personally I found her to be grating and her backstory doesn't fully account for how much of a bitch she is now. Garrus and Tali return, which is frustrating because they were the least used members when I last played the game. Other character's include Grunt a Klingon, er sorry Krogan, grown in a tank who has to go through a initiation ritual to become a "man" but is stopped by Worf. No really, Michael Dorn plays a Krogan, go figure. Legion is easily the most compelling character, being a sapient, individual Geth which if you know your lore should be impossible. Thane is broody and has artistically pretentious flashbacks. Samara is mystical and slightly bonkers. Really the characters are nothing particularly special, and like I say with the hamogeonisation of the gameplay mechanics you won't notice any difference who you take along with you. Except for one bit...

I'll say this now, the end mission is bullcrap. It's supposed to be a "suicide mission" with your actions during the game deciding if everyone survives. In actuality it's really just a "Select squad member x to do y to make sure they don't die". It doesn't matter if a member is loyal or if you've upgrade your equipment, all that really matters is who you choose to go where. There's literally zero indication what will happen if you send someone to a given task, and sometimes one person may die to your selection of another person and so on. Your own personal performance doesn't matter either, since the story will play out the same whether you get through an area quickly or not. There's even a few kicks in the teeth, primarily that one of your team members will randomly die outside of being saved if you don't have them in your team for the final battle, even without you assigning them to anything. I'd recommend doing the last battle until you've got everyone alive since there's no significant changes to the ending if anyone dies; you just go down to the cargo deck, look mournfully at your dead team member's coffins and then go about your business. Plus with ME3 promising to import your saves it'll be a good starting point having everyone alive for the sequel.

So, for all my wittering on, is ME2 a good game? Sure. If you're a fan of action-orientated adventure games (I'd classify this as an RPG with minimal customisation, especially compared to the first one) and liked the first one and can deal with the possibility of simplified gameplay then jump to it. I'd not go raving about this game but then again very few games ever get that honour with me. It's pretty much your bog-standard Bioware game, and considering how insanely high Bioware's standards usually are that's definitely a recommendation.

And as a little aside, here's my alternate title for the game;Seth Green stars in Cripple Simulator...IN SPAAAAAAACE!

[Markus. D]

The announcement of Francis Kitt's all-Elcor production of Hamlet remains one of the funniest moments in any videogame ever.

Oh absolutely.

[Ouch!]

Not sure what the Captain is on about, but I thought the game was fucking fantastic in just about every way. Only thing I can agree with there is that the mineral scanning was mind-numbing and credits were obnoxiously sparse. Maybe I'll write a fuller response later, but I thought the final mission was all kinds of awesome. I got out with the "No One Left Behind" achievement the first time as well, so I must have done something right Legion as my tech specialist for the ducts, Samara as my biotic specialist for the barriers, and Garrus both times leading the alternate squad. Then again, I did have loyalty of all my squad members as well as having researched all their suggested upgrades for the ship. I also did every assignment available to me and explored all clusters to 100%. Don't know if those latter bits affect the outcome at all.

[NorthernChaosGod]

will show up on the PS3 someday.

I suspect they will.

:)

After we'll all done with it of course.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Not sure what the Captain is on about, but I thought the game was smurfing fantastic in just about every way.

Did I give the impression that I hated the game? It's criticism; pointing out parts of a product which are notably flawed in some manner in order to fully appreciate the entirety of the package. Honestly, I really liked the game. Loved it. Just wouldn't consider it "TEH BESTO GAME EVAR!!!!111one".

[Ouch!]

Seems you had a lot less that was nice to say about it and a lot of gripes. Normally if you want to give the impression that you liked something, you do have to mention something about it which you liked. If you devote a significant amount of time to its flaws and comparatively little to what you actually liked about it, it does tend to give the impression that you weren't fond of the title.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Seems you had a lot less that was nice to say about it and a lot of gripes. Normally if you want to give the impression that you liked something, you do have to mention something about it which you liked. If you devote a significant amount of time to its flaws and comparatively little to what you actually liked about it, it does tend to give the impression that you weren't fond of the title.

If I didn't say something sucked, I probably liked it. No need to project unwarranted hatred of the game on me as opinion when I never expressed such a thing.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Seems you had a lot less that was nice to say about it and a lot of gripes. Normally if you want to give the impression that you liked something, you do have to mention something about it which you liked. If you devote a significant amount of time to its flaws and comparatively little to what you actually liked about it, it does tend to give the impression that you weren't fond of the title.

If I didn't say something sucked, I probably liked it. No need to project unwarranted hatred of the game on me as opinion when I never expressed such a thing.

I didn't read your comment as it was way too long, but if it was all criticism like it sounds from others' posts, it would be doubtful for anyone who read it to assume you liked the game.

[Madame Adequate]

Honestly, weird as it is for me to ever come to CMP's defense, his post seemed both reasonable and to pretty clearly convey that he liked the game a lot.


It's pretty much your bog-standard Bioware game, and considering how insanely high Bioware's standards usually are that's definitely a recommendation.

I don't think people who have a problem with a game note that the dev has "insanely high standards" :p

[Ouch!]

Seems you had a lot less that was nice to say about it and a lot of gripes. Normally if you want to give the impression that you liked something, you do have to mention something about it which you liked. If you devote a significant amount of time to its flaws and comparatively little to what you actually liked about it, it does tend to give the impression that you weren't fond of the title.

If I didn't say something sucked, I probably liked it. No need to project unwarranted hatred of the game on me as opinion when I never expressed such a thing.
Who said anything about hatred? All I said was that your post seemed to pay a great deal more attention to the game's faults than anything else. All I'm saying is that when a majority of the post is picking out problems with a few good comments thrown it, it doesn't tend to give the impression of enjoyment. That doesn't mean I think you hate it. "If I didn't say something sucked, I probably liked it," is a poor way of expressing your enjoyment of, well, anything.

[Rye]

I'm excited to play this - I just started ME1, so I'll start this soon. Seeing how hot Hux's Shephard is (really dreamy Chinese/half Mongolian dude, as Hux describes him), I'm a little dissapointed when I made my character in ME1 since the facial characteristics are more bland, and the hair all looks like bad Sims 1 hair. :(

[JKTrix]

The female hair does make my heart hurt.

[LunarWeaver]

So, finished my first run through. As I am using Gamefly, I am torn to send this back for Bioshock 2 or keep it. I feel I'm not finished, but...

I thought it was absolutely awesome in nearly every way. I personally liked the severe reduction in equipment management because I am an impatient ho. I played as an Adept and finally felt like I had true biotic control of battles. There were entire fights where I barely even shot a bullet (shields and such first here and there). No Mako is love, yay. I'm now playing as a Paragon Infiltrator and it's great how different of an approach I take compared to my last character. The cover system is just so much better, too. To be frank, I would recommend IGN's 6 minute condensed synopsis of the first, skip it, and move along to the second.

Complaints: Why is there an ammo system all the sudden; scanning planets is ridiculous; AI still needs some fixing, especially Jacob, who seems to die every other second; teammates all over the ship became annoying when I needed to speak with multiple members; and why won't Illusive share his cigars and alcohol with me.

[JKTrix]

If you only want to get the gist of ME1' story, then yeah, IGN's synopsis of the game is adequate in addition to the brief review you get from the game.

If you really want to get into the story and side-stories and stuff though, playing through the first game makes the 2nd game *so* much more rewarding.

[Skyblade]

So is it time to start speculating about ME3, or do we wait another week or so?

[Madame Adequate]

The female hair does make my heart hurt.

She did a darned good job, the only problem is that there are sharp cheeks, and then there are Rye Shepard's cheeks, which will quite literally impale the next krogan to charge her. I was all like "Damn girl, I ain't seen polygons like that since Cloud Strife's head"

[Ouch!]

I find the best way to make a custom Shepard that doesn't look strange in some way is to not deviate too significantly from the preset options. Change hair style, eye color, skin tone or complexion, sure, but only very minor tweeks to any of the more drastic changes. It never ends up looking as normal in-game as it might in that creation screen otherwise.

[Skyblade]

The bone structure and face shapes are definitely the most difficult ones to adjust. They tie in with each other too closely and need a lot of balancing to come out with a good result.

I have to give props to BioWare on their work with the races. They did a lot of work expanding each race's roles and personalities, without ever seeming disconnected from the racial identities set up in ME1.

I never thought I would find myself comparing the Quarians to Klingons, but it happened. Specifically, I was comparing Tali's loyalty mission with an episode of The Next Generation, where Worf's father is accused of treason against the Klingon Empire, and Worf has to go back home to defend his honor. Both Tali and Worf are serving distinguished positions outside their people's culture. Both have their commanding officer come in to speak for them and assisst them in their case. Both sacrifice their personal honor (you can get Tali out of it, but you need good Paragon/Renegade) taking false charges. And both of the treason accusations truly centered around the actions of their fathers, and were cover ups for a deeper political infighting.

Not that there are no jarring moments with characters who have developed in unexpected ways.

Liara turned into a ruthless, revenge obsessed cut-throat. It was a huge and extremely surprising direction for her to take, after her indrawn and naive nature in ME1. I wonder how things will go for her in ME3.

[LunarWeaver]

I find the best way to make a custom Shepard that doesn't look strange in some way is to not deviate too significantly from the preset options. Change hair style, eye color, skin tone or complexion, sure, but only very minor tweeks to any of the more drastic changes. It never ends up looking as normal in-game as it might in that creation screen otherwise.

Yeah, in both games I tried to make a head more personal and it came out a catastrophic ostrich. I was about ten minutes into this second play through when I decided it's best restart and only change his hair, eye color, and ditch the beard. He looked so much better.

I am doing my best to ensure every single member lives at the end of this "good guy" game. When I played a biotic bitch, I didn't give a :bou::bou::bou::bou:, but now I do. I've read it's possible if you choose the correct options for everyone.

With so much that happened at the big finale, I do not envy Bioware; their work creating 3 must be stressful as hell.

[Rye]

Does anyone else feel motion sick playing the Mass Effect games? I feel sick just watching them. Nothing has ever made me so motion sick since the Katamari games. It's really hard to play through ME1 like this. :onoes:

[G13]

You'll get used to that eventually. Playing Halo a lot helps.

[Madame Adequate]

She only seems to get motion sick when she plays 3rd person games. Weird, I know. We think it's the camera zooming which does it; Halo has never bothered her.

[Ouch!]

Gears of War always used to make me feel a little awkward. Not necessarily queasy, but awkward certainly.

[DK]

http://i48.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/2q0vng6.jpg

Wrapping this sucka around spoiler tags so it won't stretch the tables and because it's MJ post-op. ~Shiny

[Ouch!]

Fuck you, Dan. Now it cannot be unseen. :|

[Rye]

Khumar, you're banned. :|

[Madame Adequate]

Cannot be unseen :(

[JKTrix]

Like Beyonce says, "If you don't like it you can put a paper bag on it"

[DK]

It serves her right, she always goes on about how she was "made to be hot" when she looks like MJ. She is a beast.

Any freak who decided to bone her over Tali should be locked up in a mental institute with Jack :colbert:

[JKTrix]

I think it's important to note that, before we bash her *too* much, Miranda is actually real.
Yvonne Strahovski, the face and voice of Miranda. Also one of the stars of NBC's "Chuck".
http://i48.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/25i182r.jpg

[NorthernChaosGod]

I think it's important to note that, before we bash her *too* much, Miranda is actually real.
Yvonne Strahovski, the face and voice of Miranda. Also one of the stars of NBC's "Chuck".
http://i48.:bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou::bou:/25i182r.jpg

Yum.

[Skyblade]

It's nice to see the game still has the lovely hints of comedic genius that gave us Elcor Shakespeare.

Blasto the Hanar Spectre (born on the BioWare forums after massive popular reaction to a dev's joke) is the main character of a movie being promoted on Illium. And, lest we forget, if you listen to Mordin alot, you can hear him singing Gilbert and Sullivan in a rendition of the classic I am the Very Model of a Scientist Salarian.

[Madame Adequate]

Mordin killed me when he did that. Absolutely killed me.

[Jings]

I feel a little betrayed that I didn't get to see Tali's face. Sheperd got to see it. I am Sheperd. I should have seen it too. Oh well, next time I guess.

I do agree with the gripes about resource collecting though, it got pretty mind numbing. I managed to get every upgrade I wanted after having scanned only a handful of planets though so it wasn't that time consuming. Oh and the microscopic text on my non-hd tv gave my eyes a veritable workout.

I wasn't a huge fan of the original Mass Effect (which I'm playing through for a second time now) but ME2 fixed almost everything that I didn't like about it. For me it's definitely Bioware's best effort to date. Shadows of Amn has finally been surpassed.

[Skyblade]

Oh, yes, and be sure to check out the Cerberus News Network. The announcements are interesting. Today we got a rundown of Super Bowl CCXIX (219). The New York Giants took down the Beijing Dragons. The star of the game was their Krogan quarterback.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Who said anything about hatred? All I said was that your post seemed to pay a great deal more attention to the game's faults than anything else. All I'm saying is that when a majority of the post is picking out problems with a few good comments thrown it, it doesn't tend to give the impression of enjoyment. That doesn't mean I think you hate it. "If I didn't say something sucked, I probably liked it," is a poor way of expressing your enjoyment of, well, anything.

Fine, I'll never express my thoughts on a product unless I preamble it with five paragraphs of how bloody wonderful it is. Happy now?

[Alex151]

I loved the game for the most part, but I think ME1 was still a little better, I got a lot more play time out of ME1 anyways. I'm interested to see what all of the DLC will hold, though I hope none of it is too expensive.

[Skyblade]

For those with the Free-With-Original-Purchase Cerberus Network IDs, there is new free DLC availible. A new Shotgun, the Incisor, and a new set of Armor, Cerberus Assault Armor, featuring +10% to Heavy Weapon Ammo, Shields, and Health.

[Madame Adequate]

Okay so I finished this a couple of days ago fgj and I basically concord with the mainstream opinion that it's bloody brilliant. The writing is great, the characters are brilliant, the gameplay is amazing, and just yeah all around win. Though my QTE reactions kind of dicked me because my renegade Shep kept doing paragon things when I saw the paragon icon pop up without a corresponding renegade one. :( Just force of habit from Resident Evil 4 and 5; monkey see, monkey press!

That said my earlier complaints stand, and I append to the inventory issue - I liked that my inventory made me unique. Everyone (Players I mean) has the same upgrades and each gun is appreciably better than the last. Compared to the first ME where I might set up some mental sniper with maximum damage + mods and ammo, whilst someone else might be a lot more interested in specializing one each weapon to deal with a different type of enemy, this one just feels significantly inferior in that respect. I like that the interface is a lot cleaner, but I do miss it.

Can't wait for ME3 though, to see just how much of everything ties in together, how much your choices in 1 and 2 change things, and to continue to adore Garrus and Wrex with all my body and soul.

[Skyblade]

The Viper is hardly a more effective Sniper Rifle than the Mantis. Sure, you get more shots, but they do significantly less damage, and the recoil cripples your aiming to the point that your rate-of-fire only sees a minimal increase. Stick with the Mantis until you can pick up the Widow. Then never look back, because that thing is awesome.

[demondude]

Oh my god I love this game. My initial reaction was bad, because it I hadn't played the first game and it seemed like a shooter with a shallow leveling system. I have played for about six hours and I'm completely addicted.

First off I love the characters and how they tie in with the story missions. I can put any combination of characters in together and somehow their dialogue makes it seem like the mission was made for them. It's completely seamless and the personalities come through so well without them being forced on you. I didn't touch Zaeed and I knew nothing of his character to the point of him being a non-entity, but I used him for a few missions and suddenly he is rich with personality and dialogue.

I also thought the missions would be just run in and gun, and even though to an extent they are, they have enough twists and variety to keep me on for ages. Going back to the seamless point, I was so impressed by the way that you could do any mission in any order, and there would never be plot holes or sections where a character should of had dialogue but they weren't there, or an existing character didn't speak because they were intended to be obtained later. In that way, the game seems perfect.

I'm not a great fan of the skill wheel, and I find it hard to stick to a Paragon or a Renegade because some options just seem too right to ignore it for the one you would have for your alignment. My two gauges are roughly the same, but maybe the game was designed so that could happen, and you aren't supposed to have a set alignment. It doesn't matter, this game rocks. Bioware is easily my favourite video game company, from Baldur's Gate to Neverwinter Nights to Mass Effect.

:)

[Madame Adequate]

The Viper is hardly a more effective Sniper Rifle than the Mantis. Sure, you get more shots, but they do significantly less damage, and the recoil cripples your aiming to the point that your rate-of-fire only sees a minimal increase. Stick with the Mantis until you can pick up the Widow. Then never look back, because that thing is awesome.

I had no difficulty using the Viper rapid-fire, I rarely missed =o


I'm not a great fan of the skill wheel, and I find it hard to stick to a Paragon or a Renegade because some options just seem too right to ignore it for the one you would have for your alignment. My two gauges are roughly the same, but maybe the game was designed so that could happen, and you aren't supposed to have a set alignment. It doesn't matter, this game rocks. Bioware is easily my favourite video game company, from Baldur's Gate to Neverwinter Nights to Mass Effect.

:)

I think the exact reason you can gain both paragon and renegade points is to try and move away from the diametric, mutually exclusive system they've always otherwise used. Though I think Dragon Age is even better because it gets rid of it entirely.

[Loony BoB]

Finished. Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooved it. The only downside for me was the lack of missions - I missed driving around on random planets and beating up random geth. This meant a lack of credits, which means I'll have to play through again (which I'm okay with) if I want to get every research option done. But yeah, I just wouldn't have minded more exploration on a tank rather than using the dumdum radar. It would be far more fun to drive around than to just move a radar thing to the left and right until a planet is depleted. Makes things a bit more interesting after story completion. I've done ever mission possible and just want mooooooooooooooooore.

[Shiny]

Why is this 65 dollars?

[Skyblade]

Since when is it 65 dollars? I got mine for about 35, and even the special editions are only 50 right now.

[Fonzie]

I loved the hell out of this game, and I sure as hell loved the hell out of Miranda in the Engineering Core.

[Shiny]

Since when is it 65 dollars? I got mine for about 35, and even the special editions are only 50 right now.

Since Gamestop over here decided to make it 65 dollars. There are no new ones selling for lower than 59.99 at Gamestop or Toys R Us. It's completely lame. I guess I will have to wait till I can afford to spend my lunch and travel expenses for the regular edition.

[Loony BoB]

Order online?

[Skyblade]

Since when is it 65 dollars? I got mine for about 35, and even the special editions are only 50 right now.

Since Gamestop over here decided to make it 65 dollars. There are no new ones selling for lower than 59.99 at Gamestop or Toys R Us. It's completely lame. I guess I will have to wait till I can afford to spend my lunch and travel expenses for the regular edition.

EA Store has the Digital Deluxe Edition for $49 dollars right now, and last I checked it was even cheaper on EBay.

[LunarWeaver]

Though my QTE reactions kind of dicked me because my renegade Shep kept doing paragon things when I saw the paragon icon pop up without a corresponding renegade one. :( Just force of habit from Resident Evil 4 and 5; monkey see, monkey press!

This happened to me the first time :mamu: I'm so accustomed to PRESS THE BUTTON OR FAIL MISERABLY these days that it's reflex.

[Ouch!]

I'm not a great fan of the skill wheel, and I find it hard to stick to a Paragon or a Renegade because some options just seem too right to ignore it for the one you would have for your alignment. My two gauges are roughly the same, but maybe the game was designed so that could happen, and you aren't supposed to have a set alignment. It doesn't matter, this game rocks. Bioware is easily my favourite video game company, from Baldur's Gate to Neverwinter Nights to Mass Effect.

:)

I think the exact reason you can gain both paragon and renegade points is to try and move away from the diametric, mutually exclusive system they've always otherwise used. Though I think Dragon Age is even better because it gets rid of it entirely.
I just found that this time they've made it significantly more difficult to be a Renegade this time. Not in that the game becomes harder, but more in that people generally hate you this time around.

[Shiny]

I just finished Mass Effect and just wow. It was amazing. I am definitely playing this a second time and eventually I will pick up Mass Effect 2 -- hopefully during spring break.

There were a few deaths that I was just really wtfing hardcore. I had an "omg Aerith/Aeris no" moment where both the freaking characters I used the most died. I mean what the hell. Okay, so technically I had something to do with one of those -- but still! efffff that

It was a great game. I am very map challenged and got lost countless times and the marker didn't even help half of the time. I spent most of the game wandering around in the tank with very piss poor driving skills. I just don't know. The conversations were really amusing and for once I didn't mind sitting through long dialogues to hear people explain stuff. I really got in to the story. Now THAT'S an rpg done right. The only thing I can say is, it definitely needed more elcor and more variety of music.

I also think the character of Commander Shepard is better as a female...maybe I'm bias. I just can't imagine playing the game as a dude now. The voice fit everything that was going on and the look of the character. There was a point where my squad were all standing all heroic like and shiz and we all had colorful armors on with our helmets. It was amusing cuz it was like we were some ghetto version of the power rangers. Anywayz yeah, great game. I hope the second is better.

[Skyblade]

I just finished Mass Effect and just wow. It was amazing. I am definitely playing this a second time and eventually I will pick up Mass Effect 2 -- hopefully during spring break.

There were a few deaths that I was just really wtfing hardcore. I had an "omg Aerith/Aeris no" moment where both the freaking characters I used the most died. I mean what the hell. Okay, so technically I had something to do with one of those -- but still! efffff that

Wrex's death is avoidable if you get enough persuasion points and complete his sidequest!


It was a great game. I am very map challenged and got lost countless times and the marker didn't even help half of the time. I spent most of the game wandering around in the tank with very piss poor driving skills. I just don't know. The conversations were really amusing and for once I didn't mind sitting through long dialogues to hear people explain stuff. I really got in to the story. Now THAT'S an rpg done right. The only thing I can say is, it definitely needed more elcor and more variety of music.

The Mako tank and the wide open uncharted worlds are gone. And the music does have more variety. In addition to each area having its own music, each mission also has its own music and battle music.


I also think the character of Commander Shepard is better as a female...maybe I'm bias. I just can't imagine playing the game as a dude now. The voice fit everything that was going on and the look of the character. There was a point where my squad were all standing all heroic like and shiz and we all had colorful armors on with our helmets. It was amusing cuz it was like we were some ghetto version of the power rangers. Anywayz yeah, great game. I hope the second is better.

The second improves a lot, but still has room for improvement. You will probably like it.



Anyway, the first new DLC pack is confirmed for late March. Containing the Hammerhead hover tank, and five missions using it. This DLC is free for all people with the Cerberus Network. We'll get to see how much they improved the vehicles.

[Shiny]

There were a few deaths that I was just really wtfing hardcore. I had an "omg Aerith/Aeris no" moment where both the freaking characters I used the most died. I mean what the hell. Okay, so technically I had something to do with one of those -- but still! efffff that

Wrex's death is avoidable if you get enough persuasion points and complete his sidequest!

:stare:

[Iceglow]

I've finally found time to play this game a bit further than the normal "well thats a nice 20 minutes"

So far my opinion on the story and gameplay is good however I too would definitely agree with the fact that the element scanner was a terrible idea. At least in ME1 you'd hit a button and the planet got scanned for you and came back with results also, I know a lot of people disliked the mako for "clumsy controls" ect but frankly I actually enjoyed the mako levels because it made it interesting and at least going through a planet surface finding element deposits and doing the little 4 button memory game was more pleasurable than the scanner minigame. God help me but I think they birthed the most boring minigame ever created that was actually necessity to complete the game.

[Madame Adequate]

I do not comprehend the thinking behind that scanning business. I mean really.

"Okay guys, we've got a hell of a game here, it's pure gold. What can we do to make it a bit crap?"

[Rase]

Maybe they wanted to put it in so that when/if it's removed from ME3 people will be ecstatic.

[Jings]

I don't really see what the big deal with the scanners is. Mine a handful of planets at most and you have enough resources to upgrade everything you want. I spent no more than a couple of hours on it throughout the entire game.

[Iceglow]

The fact that a decent sized planet can take a good hour or so to mine properly anyhow means that you're wrong Jings. Not to mention just how rare Element Zero can be when doing it...

Needless to say, I never understood why the general agreement about the Mako levels was one of hate, personally I liked the Mako levels ok, so it was irritating in it's inability to shoot anything closer than 10 meters and inaccurate as hell in doing so at longer ranges however I primarily used it merely to get from point a to point b, if I needed to fight something enroute, I'd use the mako to get myself to a great vantage point and utilize my sniper rifle of mass destruction (gotta love maxing the sniper rifle with change of ammo shot for different enemies once they were confirmed as a certain type) to take out pretty much everything and anything (I even took a geth armature out in 2 or 3 shots with the sniper rifle I finished the game with) and I quite liked the simplistic way you scan deposits of minerals.

Though I do feel the hacking and new lock bypass styles are brilliantly done since the bypassing game of matching the nodes feels right, hacking is well executed as well however I dislike the fact that I can't hack with brute force if I fail to bypass the system with omni-gel is a sorely missed feature.

[Loony BoB]

An hour!? Man, I never took that long. Maybe 5 minutes, possibly 10 minutes for a troublesome one. Mostly just a few minutes, though, and I got everything I could. I still agree that it was a pain in the arse, though, and I also agree that Mako levels were fun enough. I loved trying to get to the awkward little high up places that you needed to wrestle with the terrain in order to get to. :D

[Jings]

The fact that a decent sized planet can take a good hour or so to mine properly anyhow means that you're wrong Jings. Not to mention just how rare Element Zero can be when doing it...

If you're carefully and slowly going over the entire planet then yeah, it's going to take you forever. You don't have to do that though seeing as there is a lot of planets in the universe. Plus if element zero is on a planet it's generally quite abundant, so you won't have to scoure an entire planet looking for it.

[Madame Adequate]

For the record I never had any real problem with the Mako. Not the best part of the game but hardly the disaster people seem to see it as.

[Shiny]

What did people decide to be this time around? I was a Vanguard in the first Mass Effect now I chose Engineer , but I might change that again because I'm not crazy about it.

[Skyblade]

Infiltrator in both games.

[Iceglow]

My imported character is a soldier, I chose soldier on the original mass effect because I wanted to fire assault rifles and sniper rifles effectively, no other class really gave me the options I wanted. Therefore... I do have a female character for ME1 what is an infiltrator I need to do some biotic class characters as I've never really felt a need for them but in ME2 it looks like biotics are definitely the way to go.

[Freya]

I beat it but lost the trust of miranda and choose the wrong person for other things in the end so I lost 3 people. WHOOPS!

Never played the 1st one but I loved this one. I was sniping shiz left and right. It was awesome.

I enjoyed the paragon/renegade thing but as others stated when it'd pop on my screen i'd just want to hit it without paying attention to what side it was for.

[Iceglow]

I'm very close to the end (just the suicide mission to go really, thats going to be fun) I'm surprised I'm here so soon, I've played ME1 several times and never made it to the end of the game missions inside of 48 hours before. ME2 is a hell of a lot shorter than ME1, not sure if I count this as good or bad, yes Mako missions did make up a hell of a lot of the time I spent in ME1 but the scanning mini-game, whilst for the majority of it quicker is less enjoyable.

Somethings I have enjoyed more and found incredibly useful for the game so far compared to ME1 systems, little things such as showing a percentage of how much completion there has been on a star system, I would often end up landing on a planet in ME1 and realize looking at the area map for the level I've done this system in the end I needed to keep an actual txt file documenting explored systems.

I'm also equally surprised and enjoying the twists in the story in this one tagging this baby because I don't wanna ruin it for people who are yet to get the game but I particulary like the character Legion he's actually quite funny, if you press him for information about himself he'll explain how he was sent to Eden Prime, got shot by a sniper rifle but lived (hence the battle damage) and then ended up going to pretty much all the planets from the first game and a couple of dozen uncharted worlds before finding the wreckage of the Normandy he then and only then stops to repair the gaping hole in his body using Shepherd's personal armour, when asked why he says "because there was a hole" when pressed on why he hadn't replied sooner he kinda shrugs and says "no data available" it kinda made me lol a little a Geth with hero worship awww!

I also found gaining a characters trust to be perhaps too easy. I gained several characters very late in to the game and haven't had to work hard at all to get them to either fall in love with me, give me their quest or any other useful things. In a way I feel the game would be better paced if it allowed you to recruit all characters early on and then to work on their personal relationships to Shepherd over more time. Talking to a character in my party twice with a single planets worth of mining in between should not give me their loyalty quests that quickly imho. Maybe I miss the fact that the original was pretty much as huge a game as Fallout or Oblivion this just feels smaller though a lot of it does feel tighter running.

Also I like how the guys from Dragon Age did some voice acting for the Quarian species, the voices behind Loghain, Alistair and Morrigan (claudia black, she only ever truly pulls off the most bad ass woman in a room roles but thats cool with me!) crop up in Tali's quest playing the roles of Quarian Admiralty.

[Jessweeee♪]

Mogi tried getting me to play the first Mass Effect twice, but we never had the time :(

When he comes down next August (FOREVER <3) I'm playing both games!

[Skyblade]

Firewalker pack is availible for download, featuring the new Hammerhead hovertank.

[Skyblade]

Sorry about the double post, I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried out the new DLC yet.

For anyone still interested in this game, the first real paid DLC is availible. Kasumi's Stolen Memory, featuring a new character and new missions for that character.



The new Hovertank handles very differently from the way the Mako handled. The Hammerhead is insanely fast, actually has a useful jump, and a self repair function that mimics the self-heal of Shepard's Armor.

The missions are fun, but suffer from a large degree of under-utilization. Five missions is too little to get a lot out of the vehicle.

[demondude]

After FFXIII disrupted my playing I finished today. Nobody died apart from Jack and Legion, but I was worried all the way through because I chose Thane to do the biotic shielding job and he started struggling and I figured I should have chosen an actual biotic. xD Turns out they all struggle but Samara does this cool thing where she kills everything in a glorious bang, whereas Thane just limped through and Legion got taken by the Swarm. How sad, I liked Legion. :(

[Iceglow]

The ending choices are really simple to make, simply pick the person who suggests the course of action. The only exception is, you can select pretty much anyone for the escort of the crew survivors. So long as you pick Legion or Tali for the hacking the gates job you're fine and make sure your rear guard is the toughest it can be.

The hammerhead rocks. I'm interested in the new character though it has to be said I feel that the lack of diversity in the character builds is a tad disappointing on the second I'd love to see all character types covered by the games characters.

[Skyblade]

The new character is a thief. The first character with an ability that Shepard can not obtain, that ability being Shadow Strike. It activates a cloak similar to the Infiltrator's Tactical Cloak, and while it is active she runs behind someone and smacks them in the back of the head, doing damage and knocking them over. Once the target is hit, she recloaks and returns to her start position. Its advanced mode lets it either do more damage, or recharge almost instantly if it kills the target. While she is moving close to the target, she is usually ok, as bullets seem to ignore her, but occasionally she will step into the path of a missile being aimed at you.

Her loyalty ability is the Flashbang Gernade, which damages and incapacitates targets. At the evolution, it can either do more damage, or have a wider AOE and incapacitate longer. It is easily my favorite anti-husk weapon in the game, stopping their charging groups in their tracks, killing some, and letting me mow down the others. It also incapacitates despite Shields, Barriers, or Armor being up.

The DLC with the character also comes with a new SMG, but as I am currently playing my Soldier, I haven't messed around with it alot.


As for the ending, the one decision which really didn't make sense to me was the leader for the other teams. Only Miranda and Jacob (and maybe Zaeed, I don't remember) can successfully be the leader of the second team, which didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Jacob definitely isn't a leader.

The new thief, Kasumi, is an infiltration specialist, and I believe she can go through the pipe just as Tali and Legion can.

[Iceglow]

As for the ending, the one decision which really didn't make sense to me was the leader for the other teams. Only Miranda and Jacob (and maybe Zaeed, I don't remember) can successfully be the leader of the second team, which didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Jacob definitely isn't a leader.


You can actually use Garrus as a leader unit in these battles if you choose. He'll keep them alive, I found Zaeed's ruthless style could lead to deaths.

[Skyblade]

Ah, yeah, Garrus. He was the other one. Because we all know how well his previous team-leading excercise went over...

[Ouch!]

Ah, yeah, Garrus. He was the other one. Because we all know how well his previous team-leading excercise went over...
Garrus was my first choice as leader both times on my first play through. As far as I saw, he was the only individual with leadership experience who I thought might work. I was hesitant to use Zaeed because I figured he'd get someone killed and I didn't want to use Miranda because not all the other characters especially like Miranda and I wasn't sure if the game took that kind of thing into consideration.

[Madame Adequate]

I used Garrus on the basis that Garrus is a beautiful man whose babies I want to have.

[Skyblade]

I realize this thread is a little bit old, so maybe I shouldn't be bringing it back, but there is some new info.

The Overlord DLC just dropped today. It features the Hammerhead tank from Firewalker, and a good deal of geth to kill, but the writing seems sparse. A lot of action, but not as much dialogue as the main story missions. My companions haven't spoken the whole mission.

There is a good Portal reference though, so it gets props for that.

[Shiny]

That's good they released some new stuff cuz I only one more level til I reach 30 and I need some XP. I think this is one of the few games where I pretty much completed all the achievements.