Mass Effect 2

Oh, god. D&E = milking the cash cow.

Fuck. Like, go ahead and add blood and stuff if you want, that stuff's well-warranted. But don't change the tone of the characters or storyline (well, maybe a little more swear-y and angrier if only so they don't look creepy causing gory bloodshed with Star Trek-level determined-yet-not-intense dialogue).

I was an ultra-Paragon. Paragon better not become "mass murder only 2 or 3 alien orphanages". For that matter, there better not be any Always Chaotic Evil aliens in this one, either. Shit. Just realized the Geth almost - did? - count as this, as did the fungus-zombies. Anyone care to let me know if there was any development for the Geth past the fact that at one point you see them worshipping some sort of mechanical artifact?

Aside from that, I welcome the exclusion of Mako planet exploration. It was an excellent demonstration of game scale (and downright pretty), but it's just impossible to implement in a fun way.

edited 25th Jan '10 9:42:37 AM by Barcode711

The mako driving was pretty cool, for the frist dozen times and the side planets are all the same which is a shame as many of the planet descriptions are awesome.

I loved the Mako. Bouncing around in it was fun, watching it climb ridiculous slopes was fun, and nuking enemies from across the map was fun.

I didn't bother with very many sidequests, though. And I had the PC version, which I hear has better Mako controls than the Xbox one.

It's kinda like driving halo's warthog only you can shoot and drive.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Mako, but I AM a huge fan of large-scale maps and exploration in my RP Gs. I don't have much doubt that there will be a lot to do in ME 2, but I do hope that there's at least some interesting non-plot exploration/side quests to do.

OXM issued the review: 9.5 score

They said that the combat was great, the characterizations and subplots were excellent, and the main story suffered from middle-story disease.

edited 20th Jan '10 2:05:14 PM by JAF1970

So did The Empire Strikes Back. I'm just sayin'.

Launch trailer up.

This trailer is screaming to me: "DOWNER ENDING"

oh shit this game is coming out like...nowish isn't it

Next Tuesday.

gah. Curse you steadily-growing video game backlog. Curse yooooouuuuuu...

Just means you can put off buying it till the price goes down a tad.

Well, they DO say in the Sci vs. Fi Syfy special that Sheperd can die as a result of his choices in the game, and not just because he loses a fight.

Translation: Heroic Sacrifice.

Or Redemption Equals Death.

They've said that constantly, everywhere. It's the only thing I ever hear about this game. Frankly it turns me off that they think it's so important, like there isn't anything else to advertise about the game, but the good reviews make me want to give it a chance. I'll still probably feel some sort of Narm when it happens though.

edited 21st Jan '10 11:31:43 AM by Clarste

Back at the end of December I swore I wouldn't buy this game on release. Money is kind of tight, and I still have a bunch of games from the Steam sale that I need to play. Now the game is almost out though, any pretense of holding off is gone. Trying to decide if I'm going to pick it up on Steam or buy a retail copy.

Here's to hoping that you can get into a threesome in this one I have no doubts to whether I will enjoy this game. I WILL.

Okay, this Samara is as scary to me as the OTHER Samara. She's chilling.

I continued my second playthrough of the first mass effect since the second one will soon be here.

And then I realized how far back I was since I get sidetracked by sidequests so easily.

I probably won't finish before ME 2 is released but at least I'll get a ME 2 starting bonus for reaching lvl 50 in ME 1(levels above 50 get better bonuses).

edited 24th Jan '10 6:18:45 PM by Jotun of Boredom

I'm seriously considering NOT starting ME 2 until I've finished a second run on my first character and gotten to 60.

Or I could even start a new ME 1 character to get the bonus skills and run through the game twice with it (the full biotic with the bonus shotgun skill sounds pretty cool...).

Bwagh, I don't know! Damn you, Bioware!

People like me who played the first on the console will be able to manually select the decisions we made in the first game to build our second game character. Excellent.

And while I'm pissed that I won't get any inheritance bonuses for the new game, well...at least it'll be more challenging. As noted, the first game was still fun, but (perhaps because of the time I spent on side-quests) it was pretty easy. Even the final battle with what's-his-name was laughable, WITH boss-scaling. You just had to avoid his attack animation or he'd put the hurt on you; the projectile attack was basic shooter dodging stuff. At least the drama and cinema more than made up for it.

edited 25th Jan '10 9:40:44 AM by Barcode711

One more day...I'm fully convinced that this will be one of the best RP Gs I've played yet. Alas, I still need to order it. Blagh. :/

At least I'll have enough time to complete my second playthrough on the first.

Fuck. Recheck the link I posted; apparently that's not the case. Instead now if you don't import your savegame you lose what happened in ME 1.

Well, time to find a way to replay the game on the PC.

I'm avoiding spoilers as much as I can, so I ask you guys: Will you be able to change classes when you import character data and "remake" Shepard at the beginning? My best Shepard was an Infiltrator, but I think I like Vanguard more, and was wondering if it was possible to switch.