Mass Effect 2 Thread

[Himu]

The problem is that instead of making it into a better rpg, they ditched the rpg stuff in general. That's weak thinking. When I play a sequel, I want the sequel bigger and better in every way. Not with less features, especially if those features could have been improved upon.

But hey, ME2 looks like a great game despite all of this.

I'll think of it as Space Marines: The Wannabe RPG.

So you'll think of it as Mass Effect 1

Not really. To me, ME1 was an rpg with a shooter combat system. Not a shooter with rpg elements.

[cool breeze]

It took all of one conversation to hate Joker.  If ME2 was like Dragon Age, I'd eject him into space with his stupid sarcasm and "pity me but don't show pity" attitude.  I'd get Wrex to fart in his face before I did that.

All humans in Mass Effect sucked.  When you go the space and you have all these space monsters, who wants to be stuck with boring ass humans? and all the humans are a bunch of whiny bitches.  Garrus whines, sure, but about wanting to go and kill a doctor that got away.  Space Cop .  Kaiden whines more about his biotic nonsense than Wrex does about his entire race going extinct--and this is between the stories Wrex tells you about killing things or wanting to kill things.

[Himu]

Wrex
Garrus

[Raban]

It took all of one conversation to hate Joker.  If ME2 was like Dragon Age, I'd eject him into space with his stupid sarcasm and "pity me but don't show pity" attitude.  I'd get Wrex to fart in his face before I did that.

All humans in Mass Effect sucked.  When you go the space and you have all these space monsters, who wants to be stuck with boring ass humans? and all the humans are a bunch of whiny bitches.  Garrus whines, sure, but about wanting to go and kill a doctor that got away.  Space Cop .  Kaiden whines more about his biotic nonsense than Wrex does about his entire race going extinct--and this is between the stories Wrex tells you about killing things or wanting to kill things.

Aliens
Humans

[Himu]

Humans rock. Humans for lyfe. Aliens are ugly.

[Raban]

Humans rock. Humans for lyfe. Aliens are ugly.

YOU'RE UGLY.

[Great Rumbler]

The problem is that instead of making it into a better rpg, they ditched the rpg stuff in general. That's weak thinking. When I play a sequel, I want the sequel bigger and better in every way. Not with less features, especially if those features could have been improved upon.

But hey, ME2 looks like a great game despite all of this.

I'll think of it as Space Marines: The Wannabe RPG.

So you'll think of it as Mass Effect 1

Not really. To me, ME1 was an rpg with a shooter combat system. Not a shooter with rpg elements.

The RPG aspects of ME1 never came down to tweaking stats or going out and looking for new weapons and armor. It was mainly about exploring alien words and questing, both of which don't see to be going anywhere anytime soon.

[Himu]

You're right on that. I guess that, after Dragon Age, I was hoping for a more hardcore experience from ME2.

[maxy]

More media hype:
Games TM

Mass Effect 2  10/10.......a masterclass in game design

The rest
Army of Two - The 40th Day - 6
Dark Void - 6
Alien Breed Evolution(EP1) - 7
Darksiders - 6............Zelda without the brain or wit and a God of War without the bite.

Silent Hill : Shattered Memories(Wii) - 8
Rogue Warrior - 2
Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God - 8

[Himu]

Don't really care about scores. Care what they say in the review.

[cool breeze]

allegedly there is a free DLC character that come with the game if you buy it new similar to how Shale was handled in Dragon Age

[maxy]

Don't really care about scores. Care what they say in the review.

+ One of the most memorable opening sequences ever.

+ Improved combat. It not only rivals dedicated 'cover-shooters', it actually betters them (aside from Gears 2 and Uncharted).

+ Brilliant dialogue interrupt system.

+ More refined inventory/equipment management. Improvements to weapons, armour etc (which carry across all party members) are carried out on the Normandy via 'research documents' that you buy or find. Quality of the research is dependant on the 'elements' that you find when scanning planets.

+ Less planets to explore, but much more varied and diverse. Some kick off quests that send you off to other planets/locations.

+ Near 'miraculous' art direction. All the worlds create a cohesive looking universe, but are never derivative or repetitive.

+ Sharper cinematics. Snappier editing, restless camera movement.

+ Memorable, well written and deep characters (a career best for Bioware).

- Repercussions of choices made in the first game aren't as keenly felt as they'd have liked

10/10

[cool breeze]

what's a games tm?

 

[Great Rumbler]

Bioware

[maxy]

what's a games tm?

 

UK magazine,something like Edge.

[cool breeze]

ok, sounds good then

I always get confused when these early glowing reviews are from sources I've never heard of

[maxy]

ok, sounds good then

I always get confused when these early glowing reviews are from sources I've never heard of

To be fair first one got 9/10 from them and apparently UK ME2 advert has "10/10  a masterclass in game design Games TM" stamped on it.

[Himu]

I'm about to head to Virmire.

Was curious why Garrus always dies so I checked his locker. He has armor with 5 defense stat and it's basically end game.

No the fuck wonder.

Oops.

[cool breeze]

good thing you can't change your squad's equipment in ME2 so you won't make the same mistake

[Himu]

Well, it was mostly because ME is so easy I forgot.

[MCD]

try to give him armor upgrades like health regeneration and more shields.

armor loot is for some reason very rare.

[Himu]

I gave him some random I didn't give a crap about that gave him like a 20 or so point boost.

[cool breeze]

yeah, in ME1 your teammates are basically tools to open crates or study things.

[Draft]

Seems people are more offended by the concept of a sequel having things "taken away" than they are by the actual design decisions.

Just about every thing dumbed down for ME2 sucked balls in ME1.

There's no more inventory. Fine, the inventory sucked balls.

There's no more Mako. Fine, the Mako sucked balls.

You can't choose how to level companions. Fine, the companions sucked balls. Spend 1 second auto leveling them up or 10 minutes carefully choosing each skill point, they're still going to just stand there shooting at low priority targets, wasting magic spells and getting friendly fired.

Bring on the dumbed down ME. I don't give a shit about RPG mechanics. I just want to walk around crazy space planets with awesome music. 

[Himu]

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

[maxy]

I don't give a shit about RPG mechanics.

You suck also.

[Draft]

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

It's been a while, but I do believe yes. I seem to remember thinking that I wanted Garrus to be my sniper so I maxed sniper rifle, etc.

[Great Rumbler]

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

Yeah, you can level them up however you want to.

And the big reason that the Mako sucked was because of the side planets that were comprised of steep mountains and steep canyons, terrains not suitable for driving over in the first place.

[cool breeze]

Seems people are more offended by the concept of a sequel having things "taken away" than they are by the actual design decisions.

Just about every thing dumbed down for ME2 sucked balls in ME1.

There's no more inventory. Fine, the inventory sucked balls.

There's no more Mako. Fine, the Mako sucked balls.

You can't choose how to level companions. Fine, the companions sucked balls. Spend 1 second auto leveling them up or 10 minutes carefully choosing each skill point, they're still going to just stand there shooting at low priority targets, wasting magic spells and getting friendly fired.

Bring on the dumbed down ME. I don't give a shit about RPG mechanics. I just want to walk around crazy space planets with awesome music. 

But I do want to promise a jelly fish monster to smuggle weapons, then turn him in for trying to do something illegal.  Or help a mind hooker get a troubling client to stop spreading lies.  Or crush some random guy's dreams of being the second human spectre.

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

are you playing the PC verison? Mako does controller much better than on the 360.  It's still a surprisingly awful mechanic to put in the game.

and you can choose how to level them up.  I pretty much leveled up Garrus' electronic skills or whatever was necessary to open creates and other things.

[Himu]

I can level them up however I want to? HOW? I turned auto level off, the character gets enough XP to level up, and I STILL get no points.

[demi]

Himuro didnt know you can turn off auto-level? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Himu]

Demi can't read a sentence? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Himu]

Seems people are more offended by the concept of a sequel having things "taken away" than they are by the actual design decisions.

Just about every thing dumbed down for ME2 sucked balls in ME1.

There's no more inventory. Fine, the inventory sucked balls.

There's no more Mako. Fine, the Mako sucked balls.

You can't choose how to level companions. Fine, the companions sucked balls. Spend 1 second auto leveling them up or 10 minutes carefully choosing each skill point, they're still going to just stand there shooting at low priority targets, wasting magic spells and getting friendly fired.

Bring on the dumbed down ME. I don't give a shit about RPG mechanics. I just want to walk around crazy space planets with awesome music. 

But I do want to promise a jelly fish monster to smuggle weapons, then turn him in for trying to do something illegal.  Or help a mind hooker get a troubling client to stop spreading lies.  Or crush some random guy's dreams of being the second human spectre.

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

are you playing the PC verison? Mako does controller much better than on the 360.  It's still a surprisingly awful mechanic to put in the game.

and you can choose how to level them up.  I pretty much leveled up Garrus' electronic skills or whatever was necessary to open creates and other things.

Yeah, mako is much better in the pc version. But it's still ass because of what rumbler said.

I turned off auto level and I still can't customize the characters when they level up.

[demi]

No I read just fine, you clearly dont know about assigning points. Go back and do it again, it is ok...

[Himu]

I also said I clearly turned auto level off. It's okay, back and read again.

[Draft]

[indent]Equipping Your Squad by Christina Norman

With up to 10 squad members, equipping your team in Mass Effect 2 could have been a daunting task. To make this task manageable we’ve made two inventory advancements: squad inventory, and auto-upgrades.

Squad Inventory
Whenever Shepard finds an upgraded weapon he scans it with his omni-tool, uploading detailed data to his ship. Using that data, this ship’s armory can replicate the weapon, making it available to any squad member trained to use that weapon type. For example, if you find a superior shotgun, your armory will fabricate copies, making that shotgun model available to any squad member with shotgun training. This gets rid of tedious inventory management tasks, like unequipping and transferring items between squad members.

Auto-Upgrades
Squad members will automatically start using upgraded weapons when they become available. Combined with squad based inventory, this makes managing your squad’s loadout very easy.

(Image removed from quote.)

Let’s say you find an upgraded sniper rifle. You scan it and upload the data to your ship’s armory. The armory immediately starts fabricating copies. Thane, back on your ship, grabs one from the armory and starts using it. All this is accomplished without any manual inventory management.

Customizing Your Team’s Loadout
You can customize your team’s loadout. At the start of every mission you’ll be given a chance to set weapons for your squad. At this point you can override any choices the auto-upgrade system has made. This is also your chance to customize Shepard’s weapons, including his heavy weapon.

Unique Weapons
While most weapons are shared, some are so advanced or so personalized to an individual that they can’t be easily replicated or transferred. These unique weapons will automatically be received by a specific squad member. This approach helps differentiate your squad members, and creates opportunities for individual progression. Since these weapons are tied to a specific squad member, they work with our auto- upgrade system. Your squad member will start using their new weapon immediately once you obtain it.[/indent]

Wow, ME1 annihilated. This sounds 100% better.

[fistfulofmetal]

i wonder how much it matters if i don't ever play the first one. probs download this for pc and play it. tried to play the first but it bored me and i deleted it.

[Draft]

So now if you find an awesome weapon, you dont have to make a hard choice who gets to use it, because you can dupe it?

 

Except for unique weapons assigned to a certain character, like Garrus' father's sniper rifle.

And honestly, isn't that what everyone wants in their RPG anyway? You give NPCs slightly better garbage the entire game in hopes that before the end you'll find Wrex's ceremonial armor or Tali's ceremonial face mask and it's just the BEST item they can have, it's ONLY meant for them, and now you're done, the character is minmaxed and you never have to agonize over their ultimately meaningless gear again.

[demi]

I also said I clearly turned auto level off. It's okay, back and read again.

WOW THIS GUY MUSTA HACKED CAUSE HES UPGRADING JUST FINE I MEAN WHY WOULD IT NOT WORK FOR YOU THATS SO WEIRD HIMURO

[Himu]

I'll check the options then. It's been ages since I played it on 360 but I don't even remember auto leveling being turned on by default in that version.

Maybe I left auto level on during this playthrough when I turned it off on a subsequent character. I made like 999 characters before I finally settled for my current one on the pc version, because they never looked right.

@ Himumus ownage

Man, read the fucking manual before you start a game!

Why read a manual for a game I've already played before?

[Himu]

And honestly, isn't that what everyone wants in their RPG anyway? You give NPCs slightly better garbage the entire game in hopes that before the end you'll find Wrex's ceremonial armor or Tali's ceremonial face mask and it's just the BEST item they can have, it's ONLY meant for them, and now you're done, the character is minmaxed and you never have to agonize over their ultimately meaningless gear again.

You totally bring up a point.

[demi]

http://i46.tinypic.com/6xrmtl.jpg

ZAEED: Shephard's shadowy Backers buy the loyalty of Zaeed Messani, the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter and mercenary soldier. New henchman, weapon research, and achievements. (Size 421.70 MB)

DLC character at launch apparently... I hope this is with all copies like DAO

[Raban]

http://i46.tinypic.com/6xrmtl.jpg

ZAEED: Shephard's shadowy Backers buy the loyalty of Zaeed Messani, the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter and mercenary soldier. New henchman, weapon research, and achievements. (Size 421.70 MB)

DLC character at launch apparently... I hope this is with all copies like DAO

Canderous?

[brawndolicious]

The mako sucked.

You can't choose how to level up companions in ME1 either, can you? I turned off auto level and it STILL seemed like they learned stuff on their own.

haha I thought the RPG parts were important to you?  You can level up the squadmates manually and t's actually a lot more useful that way since things like lockpicking, hacking, medicine, etc have team benefits and mean that you don't have to waste xp on them.

I also liked the Mako's controls personally.  The boosters and the anti-gravity were fun and the firepower/range it had was also great.  I just didn't like some of the planets you drove it on where it was basically impossible to drive a straight line from point A to B because of the insane cliffs.

[Stoney Mason]

I don't know who this person is.

My shepard is a black women who looks like Jada Pinkett in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Draft]

http://i46.tinypic.com/6xrmtl.jpg

ZAEED: Shephard's shadowy Backers buy the loyalty of Zaeed Messani, the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter and mercenary soldier. New henchman, weapon research, and achievements. (Size 421.70 MB)

DLC character at launch apparently... I hope this is with all copies like DAO

Canderous?

:eep My favorite Bioware voice over ever.

[Himu]

Pics of my dude. This way, I can compare pics of ME2 on Tuesday so I can see just how much of an upgrade the graphics get, particularly on the characters.



That's right. Fuck Kaiden. Boringsville.



And just because I liked how much this looks.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Just beat ME1 on PC. PM me if you want a Female Paragon import. Specifics:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

- Vanguard with Shock Trooper specialization
- 75% Paragon
- Saved Rachni Queen
- Saved Wrex
- Killed Ashley
- Romanced Liara
- Saved Council
- Put Anderson on the Council

[close]

Now my Shepard will be ... my Shepard.

[Raban]

Just beat ME1 on PC. PM me if you want a Female Paragon import. Specifics:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

- 75% Paragon
- Saved Rachni Queen
- Saved Wrex
- Killed Ashley
- Romanced Liara
- Saved Council
- Put Anderson on the Council

[close]

Now my Shepard will be ... my Shepard.

Pretty much my character, except Infiltrator. I'd post my character's mug, but I can't print screen in Windows 7 with an Apple keyboard.

[Stoney Mason]

Booted this up to finish my playthrough before the second one comes out. I've forgotten everything. I was like where the hell is my ship on this space station. 

There seems to be a tutortial reset option in the menus which is nice because I definitely need that.


And I also forgot how technically dodgy this game was as a fairly early gen effort. I'll be glad to see they have cleaned up a lot of that stuff like they have said. The interface also in general is just plain 

[cool breeze]

To get to your ship, you need to take an elevator down to the c-sec (or those fast transport things), then an elevator up to the docking bay.  I remember this because that shit drove me crazy that they have one of the fast transport panels after the long elevator down from the docking bay instead of up there.

[Stoney Mason]

To get to your ship, you need to take an elevator down to the c-sec (or those fast transport things), then an elevator up to the docking bay.  I remember this because that shit drove me crazy that they have one of the fast transport panels after the long elevator down from the docking bay instead of up there.

Thx.

I did a google search and found the docking bay because I really literally couldn't find it. Also this tutorial reset option doesn't seem to be working so well...

Playing the game though again makes me even more confident of my earlier opinion that the major issues with this game that needed to be improved in the sequel are technical and design wise in some areas rather than "be more like PC RPG's!".




 

[Himu]

I forgot how BAD the design in the final boss is.

[Himu]

So I beat my ME replay:

- Full bar Paragon, 25% Renegade. So chaotic good, really.
- Killed the Rachni Queen.
- Romanced Ashley.
- Kaiden snuffed it.
- Council snuffed it. Destroying Sovereign > Saving the Council
- Anderson is human councilman.

[Raban]

So I beat my ME replay:

- Full bar Paragon, 25% Renegade. So chaotic good, really.
- Killed the Rachni Queen.
- Romanced Ashley.
- Kaiden snuffed it.
- Council snuffed it. Destroying Sovereign > Saving the Council
- Anderson is human councilman.

Man what a shit campaign

[Himu]

Why save the rachni queen? She'd just breed more rachni, which would result in more death probably. Better to kill it; won't make a difference anyways considering people consider the rachni already extinct. Furthermore, didn't Sovereign do something to the rachni to make them hostile the past? What's to say that won't happen again? Best to kill the ugly bug.

If they showed Rachni that DOESN'T want to kill you in the game aside from the rachni queen, maybe I'd settle for saving it.

And Ashley is still better than Liara.

Liara is seriously boring as hell.  Boomstick > Asari princess chick who's so so so alone and hates people

[youtube=560,345]86nNWnFLCEU[/youtube]

[demi]

Why save the rachni queen? Guess we'll find out in ME2 won't we!

[Himu]

Yep. I'm sure the game won't be that different when you killed the "last" (Cerberus had rachni too, plot hole!) of a species.

Maybe the people who didn't kill the Rachni Queen will be overran with giant roaches up their butt holes in ME2.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

or maybe the ELITE RACHNI ARACHNOTROOPER will join our parties

[Raban]

or maybe the ELITE RACHNI ARACHNOTROOPER will join our parties

 

Why save the rachni queen? She'd just breed more rachni, which would result in more death probably. Better to kill it; won't make a difference anyways considering people consider the rachni already extinct. Furthermore, didn't Sovereign do something to the rachni to make them hostile the past? What's to say that won't happen again? Best to kill the ugly bug.

If they showed Rachni that DOESN'T want to kill you in the game aside from the rachni queen, maybe I'd settle for saving it.

And Ashley is still better than Liara.

Liara is seriously boring as hell.  Boomstick > Asari princess chick who's so so so alone and hates people

[youtube=560,345]86nNWnFLCEU[/youtube]

(Image removed from quote.)

I really don't understand your hate for Liara. Or why you like Ashley. Do you have a thing for closet-dyke bible-thumpers?