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Well it's nearly here and from the title it's obvious what i'm looking forward to.
I pre ordered it so i'm getting my terminus armour and spanky gun too.
Hopefully i'll find my old memory card before it arrives so I can see humanity at the seat of power . . . .
The collectors seem a bit meek after having to defeat a sentient Sathanas in Mass Effect 1 though. .
Discuss ;)
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Mine is on pre-order as well, getting it someday this week. If it arrives before BP: AoA Director's Cut is released, I'll have a serious dilemma...
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Oh crap is it THAT close? :D
Omg Omg Omg.
/me forgets what this topic was originally about. . . .
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Ok so i gotta admit i'm a little bit excited about this and just wanted to know what others thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, dreams (if any) etc are about this. I for one am looking forward to the next chapter in the trilogy. Also just recently replayed the original so that i could finally get my character to lvl 60 to port over to the new game, which i thought was a nice touch, tho not the first time this has been done with a sequel if i'm not mistaken.
Feel free to discuss ppl :)
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Topics merged
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Topics merged
lol there was some serious wtf moments going on before i realised what the hell was happening there :lol:
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Gonna wait awhile before buying, should be in stock where I live.
I'm very worried about how your previous saved game will effect the game, since I played 1 on PC and I'm planning on buying 2 for 360.
In fact I might even buy both for 360. o_o
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My first post doesn't make sense now because the title changed ;7
All I know regarding the mass 1 savegames is that your decisions at the end reflect who's in power between the ambassador and the captain of the normandy and whether the stinky alien council remain.
Not to say other things don't change as that purple gas breather engineer bird is back.
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I can't believe i've got to wait another 4 days to get it as UK release is 29th Aaaargh, but it does look amazing esp after seeing the launch trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2O-0-fQOOs I mean that trailer is better than some film trailers out there.
It should be interesting to see what Legion is like, going to be weird having a Geth as a member of your party. Which i believe has been comfirmed.
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I get my own Geth too? Oh joy of joys. . . . This is the best xmas ever!
I'm in the uk too btw. ;)
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My first post doesn't make sense now because the title changed :p
All I know regarding the mass 1 savegames is that your decisions at the end reflect who's in power between the ambassador and the captain of the normandy and whether the stinky alien council remain.
Not to say other things don't change as that purple gas breather engineer bird is back.
Saving or killing of the Rachni, and the Citidal fan also had some weight, as well as who you romanced.
Luckily, you are essentially free to completely overhaul your character (how he or she looks, what class she or he has). Good thing, because they kinda changed everything.
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I am gonna finish ME tonight as a super paragon
then after I beat ME2 with that, SUPER RENEGADE
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For someone who didn't finish the first one, what exactly are the choices you can make, and what are the consequences?
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Some of the smaller choices are:
- Whether to appreciate a fan or blow him off. (Doing the latter causes him to get killed in a fight with Turians)
- Killing these insects called the Rachni who were believed to be extinct, or allowing them to go free
- You could begin a romance with a squadmate; Kaiden, (female chars) Ashley, (male chars) and Liara (all chars)
Some of the bigger choices
- You have to sacrifice one of your squadmates on the mission to Vyrmire. Either Kaiden or Ashley.
- You could choose to destroy the Council or not (I think, I haven't finished it in a while)
- You could save Wrex (The big fat guy {Krogan}) or kill him
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I got far enough in the first one to make all those choices except
the choice about the Council. What happens if you kill them? Anyone here who made that choice?
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Of course i did, are you mental......
The Geth fleet decimate the Council command ship and the assisting xeno ships in a hail of fire, it breaks apart as the rtightous human fleet tear past it and rip that Sathanas wannabe a new space-hole.
You can choose who's instilled by the Human government to lead the new council. Ambassador or that captain that helped you nick the Normandy..
As it should be.......
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Is it just me or is that google ad stuck on advertising Mass Effect 2 when i'm on this topic?
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Ah, Dekker, my fellow proponent of mankind's galactic Manifest Destiny. Thank you for that. So what happens if you don't have a completed save of ME1? Does it just choose a random setup for you, or can you choose what happened prior to the events?
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Well my copies not arrived yet. . But i'd imagine it has either a concrete canon plot or it'll ask you a series of stupid questions first.
In either case it looks like i'm using my old chipped XBOX 360 hard drive as it'll hopefully have some mass 1 saves, as I can't find my old saved memory stick and saved games.
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Well from what I've read you can play ME2 as if it were a standalone game with a brand new character. Suppose they'd just fill in the backstory from ME1 in with codex entries
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maybe the game starts with a interrogation about shepard's actions from before..?
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I'm also very curious about how they're going to handle a save-game cross-over from ME1. When I saw the first trailer for Mass Effect 2 with the Shepard: KIA message, I thought maybe they'd decided to throw away their plan to carry through save games. I suppose they might try something like they did in KOTOR 2 where the player will just sorta answer questions from NPCs that fills in the blanks from the past game.
However, I can only imagine how difficult making ME3 will be if they have another cross-over then. The amount of choices by the third game they would have to take into account would be insane.
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When you import the save, you will be taken to a menu which shows all the important info about the save, such as your choices and living squadmates.
If you don't import a save, the game will assume the paragon ending
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I can't believe i've got to wait another 4 days to get it as UK release is 29th Aaaargh, but it does look amazing esp after seeing the launch trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2O-0-fQOOs I mean that trailer is better than some film trailers out there.
Sweet Jesus...I never played the original game, but that's an utterly fantastic trailer. And woo, Martin Sheen. :)
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I am so excited to make sweet sweet love to
Garrus!
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I was hoping for something more...realistic than yet another "save the universe" plot.
Oh well...looks good, so I will probably play it anyway.
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What I've been wondering about quite a while now, is that the poster girl of ME2 isn't Ashley. Above trailer seems to confirm that as the two looks to be different characters.
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I was hoping for something more...realistic than yet another "save the universe" plot.
Oh well...looks good, so I will probably play it anyway.
More like save humanity...
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I just received a text message saying my copy of ME2 is being shipped, probably arrives either tomorrow or Thursday. I doubt I'll get any BP development done until I've finished it. :p
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Number of potantial romances is skyrocketing. Bio games are starting to turn into real roamance simulators.
Hm...I'm keeping my eye on Kelly.
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What I've been wondering about quite a while now, is that the poster girl of ME2 isn't Ashley. Above trailer seems to confirm that as the two looks to be different characters.
Could it be Miranda Lawson?
And don't make jokes about not finishing BP. . . . :p
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Ashley and Kaidan aren't party members in ME2
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Romance.
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When I saw the first trailer for Mass Effect 2 with the Shepard: KIA message,
Shepard is KIA either way. He gets better.
...the first time. You get killed again, that's your problem.
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Turns out default is paragon ending from ME1 if you don't have any saves.
Ah well, guess that's close enough.
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Oh no it's not. . . That's miles off what happened. That alien pal of mind died. All that ancient insect race did too. . . I let the bloke die so I could bone Ashley and the council never stood a chance. Also the main bad guy killed himself. . . The first stage anyway.
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Damn it. I don't want the Paragon ending, I want the Citadel Council killed off by the Geth with humanity riding to the rescue.
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Damn it. I don't want the Paragon ending, I want the Citadel Council killed off by the Geth with humanity riding to the rescue.
why did i read 'humanity riding to the rescue' and on shuffle AMERICA, **** YEAH! came on..
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http://www.annakie.com/me/home.htm
Giant savegame archive of complete ME1 saves, for those of you looking for a specific setup without replaying ME1.
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That's no good for us XBOXers is it :p
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Do you get to set what arms and armor your team members use?
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DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE THE GAME EXTREMELY SPOILED.
You have been warned.
I finished it... I will be short. Advertisements on citadel are hilarious sometimes (Shakespeare's Hamlet, featuring an ALL-ELCOR cast."
Miranda is one of the rare characters i wanted to strangle outright. Apart from "Jack" (aka asshole ***** mcwhinefest), who fortunately died. I did not manage to get Miranda killed.
The 2 engineers are fricking awesome.
Joker is one of the rare characters who get their CMOA's even when Shepard aint near.
I am very pissed off at not seeing how Tali looks under the frickin mask.
The whole game is a lot more statisfying to play than ME1. Soundtrack is also very varied, unlike ME1, which tended to recycle tunes massively...
On the overall, the enviroments are a lot more varied, the mining thing is actually very nicely pulled off, i hate the illusive man and i want to strangle him with his own guts...
And the endgame boss.. the only thing i have to say is that i quite literally had to pause the game once i realised it *WASNT FRICKING DEAD OR THAT ITS A ****ING INFANT REAPER!*
Will post more opinions as more of you fuggers play it through...
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http://www.annakie.com/me/home.htm
Giant savegame archive of complete ME1 saves, for those of you looking for a specific setup without replaying ME1.
Damn I wish I had a better computer...
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Mrh. I'll rather start a new game than use someone elses save.
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Woohoo mine's has finally been posted. Tho knowing play.com i'll get it just in time for ME3 coming out!!! :(
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Lol my card bounced. . . As i'm technically skint til tomorrow. . I'll just re order it. . . . . As long as I don't lose my terminus armour.
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loved it. finished it just now. cant wait for ME3 and beyond.
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Well if it was that short. . . . Maybe I shouldn't bother.
Do you still get to go joyriding to any planet you want in a pimped APC?
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Do you still get to go joyriding to any planet you want in a pimped APC?
No. No you don't.
I'm not impressed, here. The combat owes way too much to Gears of War and far too little to the original Mass Effect (ammo based weapons? Seriously? lolwtf?), and someday I hope to meet the one responsible for the new exploration system.
SO I CAN CRUSH THEIR GONADS WITH PLIERS.
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I thought they were expendable heatsinks, not ammo.
No spoilers in this thread, plz? I have been avoiding it.
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I thought they were expendable heatsinks, not ammo.
They function exactly like ammo. I mean, if they were just a system for instantly flushing coolant if you overheat the weapon (and that's what it sounded like when described in the codex), sure. But that's not how they work, you have a set shot allowance per sink. Doesn't matter if you fire half and wait three hours, you've still only got half left. Why they felt the need to replace the existing heatsink system (which offers comparable performance, and frequently better for chrissakes) completely with this effectively ammunition-based abomination that will prohibit you from firing if you run out because there's no backup system(!) is...
...well it's a really ugly concept, because the only way it can possibly be explained is designer fiat. Every time you swap it's an instant breaking of immersion because it's not a rational or sane progression from the gameworld of the first game.
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I thought they were expendable heatsinks, not ammo.
They function exactly like ammo. I mean, if they were just a system for instantly flushing coolant if you overheat the weapon (and that's what it sounded like when described in the codex), sure. But that's not how they work, you have a set shot allowance per sink. Doesn't matter if you fire half and wait three hours, you've still only got half left. Why they felt the need to replace the existing heatsink system (which offers comparable performance, and frequently better for chrissakes) completely with this effectively ammunition-based abomination that will prohibit you from firing if you run out because there's no backup system(!) is...
...well it's a really ugly concept, because the only way it can possibly be explained is designer fiat. Every time you swap it's an instant breaking of immersion because it's not a rational or sane progression from the gameworld of the first game.
And the original WASN'T immersion breaking? Guns that fire projectiles that never runs out of ammo?
Puhleeeeease. I for one am glad that they make guns behave a bit more sane. Still, would have been better if they put in real ammo clips.
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Rather than fighting over ammo, I'm more interested whether inventory system was finally made intuitive.
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I'm not sure about this game now. . . . No Mako, no freestyle. I want less boob and more freedom.
Is it worth my preorder re application or should I wait til it's cheaper?
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its good. i'm not paying for it in any way shape or form, however, simply because it is EA.
if you really think you can part with that moneys, get it. if not, pirate it. the end effect is the frikkin same :p
now on a more serious note, the heatsink mechanic is retarded. ME1's way of doing things with ammo was well explained. ME2 is like "the geth were doing it, so everyone else must too since its omgwtfpretty!111"
scanning planets gets very very veeeery old very very very fast.
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Limitless ammo is "well explained" to you????
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Limitless ammo is "well explained" to you????
Absolutely. Or did you not read the Codex? This isn't a chemical-propellent firearm. You're firing a bit of metal, magnetically accelerated to hypersonic velocities, about the size of a grain of sand at most. It's not unlimited; it's just that burning through your entire stock of ammunition in a single engagement is impossible under any reasonable circumstances.
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Rather than fighting over ammo, I'm more interested whether inventory system was finally made intuitive.
What inventory system?
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Limitless ammo is "well explained" to you????
Absolutely. Or did you not read the Codex? This isn't a chemical-propellent firearm. You're firing a bit of metal, magnetically accelerated to hypersonic velocities, about the size of a grain of sand at most. It's not unlimited; it's just that burning through your entire stock of ammunition in a single engagement is impossible under any reasonable circumstances.
Precisely.
And that explanation sucks. Even that grain of sand has to come from somewhere, and you can fire off thousands during a mission easily.
Secondly, a grain of "sand" fired at railgun-like speeds would be rather innefective. It would burn up from friction in an instant, or would really cause such pitiful damage it would be unnoticable.
A microscopic wound would heal in a minute - what you describe is LESS than being pricked by a needle (ok, more like, a super-small needle going trough you, but with a opening that small, you wouldn't even need a band-aid)
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Its a better explanation than what i've seen in any game where something similar was availible.
And it was much more fun than forcing us to switch to another weapon if we run outta ammo.
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The reloading mechanic doesn't do the game any favours, but aside from that I'm enjoying the refined combat. The original's was always a bit of a clumsy half-breed. I lament the lack of equipment choices more. That and the absence of substantial sidequests, but then again the first game didn't have many of those either.
At least the roleplaying and story is as good as ever. Better, if anything. The new characters have a lot of personality and the dialogue seems sharper. I like it.
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How long is it?
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Precisely.
And that explanation sucks. Even that grain of sand has to come from somewhere, and you can fire off thousands during a mission easily.
Take a handful of fine sand.
That's a thousand grains easily. Probably more. The gun has plenty of room for many handfuls worth of tungsten sand or something else with a high melting point.
Secondly, a grain of "sand" fired at railgun-like speeds would be rather innefective. It would burn up from friction in an instant, or would really cause such pitiful damage it would be unnoticable. A microscopic wound would heal in a minute - what you describe is LESS than being pricked by a needle (ok, more like, a super-small needle going trough you, but with a opening that small, you wouldn't even need a band-aid)
Over the ranges involved the projectile will still be effective. If we were firing twenty kilometers or something you might have a point, but we're not, are we? Engagement range even for sniper rifles is usually under 500 meters.
See, the problem with this concept is the Tunguska lesson. A low-mass very-high-velocity object hitting a many times more massive object at rest will transfer its velocity explosively. Similarly due to the behavior of living tissue your exit wounds will be considerably larger than your entry wounds, the higher the velocity, the larger the exit wound. The wonder is not that these do damage, but that if you hit them in the torso a single shot doesn't cause their whole back to explode outwards.
At least the roleplaying and story is as good as ever. Better, if anything. The new characters have a lot of personality and the dialogue seems sharper. I like it.
I haven't gotten too much out of the personality of the new folks yet, honestly, but I'll say that I'm pleased by the dialogue. The whole reaction of "Now with more F-bombs!" was bogus. The addition of swearing makes them feel a bit more...human, like they're actually reacting to stress. Shepard's dialogue is a bit tighter over all.
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I'll play this in a month or two, after I have gone through my current backlog of games.
I'm hearing people say that this has more FPS elements than the first game, which is a good thing in my book. The gameplay and combat was where the first game fell short.
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See, the problem with this concept is the Tunguska lesson. A low-mass very-high-velocity object hitting a many times more massive object at rest will transfer its velocity explosively. Similarly due to the behavior of living tissue your exit wounds will be considerably larger than your entry wounds, the higher the velocity, the larger the exit wound. The wonder is not that these do damage, but that if you hit them in the torso a single shot doesn't cause their whole back to explode outwards.
No. Tunguska was a massive piece of rock that was so large it didn't burn up in atmosphere.
Even seen the railgun tests?
The faster you fire, the bigger the shell should be to avoid it burning up.
And no, your back wouldn't explode. I don't know where you got that from.
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NGTM-1R is correct that a small enough object going fast enough will transfer kinetic energy explosively assuming it doesn't completely overpenetrate. That's why the impact of even dust particles at relativistic speeds is really bad for spaceships. Similar principle.
We don't actually quite know what Tunguska was. Probably not an asteroid - more likely a comet, I believe the consensus is.
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Didn't Tunguska blow up in the lower atmosphere?
I did like reading up on FTL in the Codex in Mass 1. Pretty colours explained :)
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NGTM-1R is correct that a small enough object going fast enough will transfer kinetic energy explosively assuming it doesn't completely overpenetrate. That's why the impact of even dust particles at relativistic speeds is really bad for spaceships. Similar principle.
It's bad for spaceships because they are in vacuum, and the crew needs air...and it might damage electronics.
A human body has the advantage of self-repair.
And let's not forget the advantage of a big bullet - bigger hole.
And fireing a bullet at a human at relativisitc speeds? You can be your a** it will overpenetrate. Even regular bullets are known to do that on occasion, let alone a faster and smaller one.
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(http://i49.tinypic.com/11gt6a1.jpg)
Commander William Shepardama, ready to load as a save file in mass effect 2
now i just need dialogue options that will let me growl, have dramatic pauses, and point guns at people
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NGTM-1R is correct that a small enough object going fast enough will transfer kinetic energy explosively assuming it doesn't completely overpenetrate. That's why the impact of even dust particles at relativistic speeds is really bad for spaceships. Similar principle.
It's bad for spaceships because they are in vacuum, and the crew needs air...and it might damage electronics.
No, mate, at those speeds, it's bad for the spaceship because it's going to blow chunks out of it. Remember, we're talking c-fractional speeds here.
And fireing a bullet at a human at relativisitc speeds? You can be your a** it will overpenetrate. Even regular bullets are known to do that on occasion, let alone a faster and smaller one.
Once the bullet is going fast enough - no matter how tiny it is - the simple impact will release so much kinetic energy that the cavitation will tear the body apart. NGTM-1R's 'back explode' idea is headed in the right direction.
The gravguns in John Ringo's Posleen War books operate on a fairly similar principle, although their projectiles are more substantial.
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iirc, the ammunition is a block of metal, stored inside the gun, and the gun computer shaves off the proper amount for the shot, which is accelerated using a railgun combined with using mass effect on the 'bullets,' locally reducing their mass and reducing the amount of energy needed to accelerate them to very high speed.
also, this exchangeable heat sink ammo business seems like something i would invent if i needed to make a gun that would fire, regardless of whether or not it was in atmosphere. They mention having problems on spaceships, where the real enemy is heat buildup, since the only way to get rid of heat in space is by radiation (which doesnt work so great).
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Also, I believe the projectiles from infantry weapons are designed to fragment on impact to prevent over-penetration. ME weapons also don't have magic systems that eliminate recoil, its stated that the biggest impediment to more powerful weapons is recoil. I'm guessing that the ME infantry weapons aren't that much more powerful than the ones we have now, since if they were your ceramic body armor wouldn't be useful.
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Well i finished the game last night. And finally today i get my email with the unlock code for my terminus assult armor :mad:
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I've downloaded my pc version. . . Except I don't own the pc version. And I don't have XBL. Oh sweet potatoes. . . I got my e-mail the day I recieved my game.
So where's my pet Geth?
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Legion shows up pretty late in the game sadly. You get him when you pick up the Reaper IFF signal on the disabled Reaper that's hovering above a gas giant, and that's only after you've gotten the rest of your team. Watch out, Tali'Zorrah vas Neema and he won't get along, especially if you've done Tali's loyalty quest.
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I'm trying to bang yoeman Kelly redhead at the moment. Plus my fish died. . . . . . . . DAMNIT. I like the boo reference though.
SQUEAK.
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The dialogue so far has been hilarious.
The best lines I remember are:
"I am a biotic god!" - by small volus facing Grunt, Shepard and Garrus.
The "I had reach, but she had flexibility" conversation by Garrus
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I'm trying to bang yoeman Kelly redhead at the moment.
She dies. Unless you've got like everything all together immediately before you do the Reaper thingie. Which isn't possible since Legion has a loyalty quest. Or I'm just talking out my ass here, maybe, and you're given a set and not a flexible number of missions after the IFF one? I grabbed Thane and did a couple loyalty missions after the Reaper IFF, then got hit with Thane's loyalty mission and the crew getting 'napped. So I got No One Left Behind achievement, except for half my crew. Also if you continue, then the Normandy actually does appear undercrewed. More testing is required.
Did I mention she dies directly in front of you and there's not a damn thing you can do about it? I liked Kelly as a person. After that point everyone got the Incendaries in the face whether that was most effective or not. Even the Reaper got some because I was angry, dammit.
YOU DON'T SEE TALI'S FACE. I WAS ROBBED.
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Shepard's dialogue is a bit tighter over all.
Does Shepard still sound pissed off all the time?
The gravguns in John Ringo's Posleen War books operate on a fairly similar principle, although their projectiles are more substantial.
OH JOHN RINGO NO!
(It had to be done, sorry)
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Does Shepard still sound pissed off all the time?
No, but then as far as I know, he never actually did to begin with.
...we have concluded his smile is a bit creepy with the default body, however, but analysis of why it's creepy is still pending. I suspect Uncanny Valley'd due to having to work with a range of possible faces resulting in exaggeration.
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No, but then as far as I know, he never actually did to begin with.
Sorry, I meant the Jennifer Hale version. My read on her performance in the first game was...well, angry might be too strong, but she was pretty damned intense all the time, and also seemed to have a hair trigger if I chose any dialogue option other than the 'most paragon points please' one.
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The amount of drinking I can do is BRILLIANT! :D
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Can Shepard get drunk?
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On the Citadel yes. On Omega I had my favourite renegade conversation moment. So far. . .
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I played ME2 for about 12 hours now. Really great game, but RPG? Rather an 3rd person shooter with great dialogs and movies.
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RPG stands for role playing game. ME2 has plenty of that. I'd say it qualifies.
I'm trying to bang yoeman Kelly redhead at the moment.
She dies. Unless you've got like everything all together immediately before you do the Reaper thingie. Which isn't possible since Legion has a loyalty quest.
I managed to save her, but I went through the relay immediately after the staff was kidnapped. I got the impression that if you don't react right away they get harvested.
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Well i have finished the game as a goodie female Shepard and everbody lives! WOW WOW WOW what a game!! the acting is awesome (i didn't know Claudia black was also in this game) and the cutscenes are brillant esp towards the end. I also love the star trek references(theres a lot of them) with the Scottish engineer, mainly cos am Scottish as well and its nice to Scottish characters, you don't seem to get that many in games. Plus all the other film and game references are brillant. I think Legion is a brillant character and if you leave him standing for while he starts doing the robot! my only gripe was the lack of armor options, when customising your armor, i didn't get that many choices of how mine looked, maybe i just didn't find all the options and i wish you could alter the Blood Dragon Armor so you could remove the helmet. Also the game keeps telling me theres new content to download despite the fact i have got all the downloads. Does it just always display that there is new content?
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"Miranda Lawson: The quest for bigger boobies AKA- Mass Effect 2"
Engineer 1: Forward tanks are full and ready
Engineer 2: Are you talking about Miranda or the ship?
Serious convo in ME2 (abridged)
I LOST GRUNT!
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RPG stands for role playing game. ME2 has plenty of that. I'd say it qualifies.
I'm trying to bang yoeman Kelly redhead at the moment.
She dies. Unless you've got like everything all together immediately before you do the Reaper thingie. Which isn't possible since Legion has a loyalty quest.
I managed to save her, but I went through the relay immediately after the staff was kidnapped. I got the impression that if you don't react right away they get harvested.
You get precisely 2 missions after you get legion before the collectors harvest the ship. Provided you talk to him immediately, and have all other recruiting and loyalty missions done already, that's 1 mission, then he'll talk to you about the virus, you do his mission, and they attack. That way you can go directly to the relay. If you do anything other then head directly for the relay after their abductions, half your crew gets the blender - in vivid detail for Chambers
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oh alright fine....
(http://gallery.strahotski.com/galleries/video-games/mass-effect-2/strahovski-mass-effect-2-026.jpg)
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Onoz. Genetic enhancement is too far away. . .
Do want now. You most make estimate science people . . .
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miranda is one of the most annoying characters in the game, apart from whiney mc*****ity***** ("jack") and... that yeoman something.
that is all.
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I fine her particular accent grating. But that's what gags are for.
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How on Earth can you find Kelly annoying? She is adorable.
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Agreed, Kelly is so cute.
It was an interesting twist about the geth, about how they aren't all Reaper-worshiping monsters hell-bent on wiping out all organic sentient races. I hope the quarians and them can come to some sort of a reconciliation in the third installment. Its going to be easier now that I've re-written those heretics so the geth can be one big happy family.
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How on Earth can you find Kelly annoying? She is adorable.
i find her very irritating and completely useless. what can i say, tali ftw.
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miranda is one of the most annoying characters in the game, apart from whiney mc*****ity***** ("jack") and... that yeoman something.
The romance scene for paragon courting Jack is one of the most uplifting scenes in a game that really needs more of them.
i find her very irritating and completely useless. what can i say, tali ftw.
Your loss; you save her and reject the other options, you get a striptease from her in one of the Asari stripper outfits.
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lol singing salarian
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Just finished. Loved the characters to death. Loved the story: actually liked the loyalty quests even more than the main story, especially Tali and Samara. Really moving stuff.
Managed to bork up every romance for Ellen Shepherd. Was hoping to get laid with Garrus. I think I was a bit too eager to get renegade points. :(
My first time attacking the Collectors, poor Thane bought it, but everybody else made it. When I retried the assault using ol' worthless Jacob instead of Jack for seeker swarm repulsion, Jack was torn apart by the swarms, and Legion was gunned down in front of me. His last words were pretty heartbreaking. 'No carrier...no carrier...no carrier.'
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Renegade points make the world turn. Without them we're as bad as the Ewoks.
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I used Jack for repulsion and she lived!!!
Maybe it was all those biotic upgrades that made her more powerful.
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I used Jack for repulsion too my first time through, and she kicked ass. Didn't even lose a squadmate at the 'doors of death' immediately after the seeker swarms, either. Jack is great at that, much better than Jacob.
Legion didn't die in my first, official playthrough, but it did when I ran through the final battle again with different people. Its death is heartbreaking.
Also, on another variant playthrough, Tali died. I admit I teared up a bit. Poor Tali.
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IT?
YOU RACIST!!!....or is it machinist?
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Oh, come on, it's clearly an it. What else could it be?
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"It" is a gender-neutral pronoun that can refer either to objects or to persons. Legion is a geth, and has no gender. Therefore, using a pronoun like "he" or "she" is inappropriate.
Yay for grammar. :p
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Actually, maybe we should call Legion 'they'.
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They are Legion, for they are many
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I also love the fact that unlike the Cylons, the Geth have a Plan.
Constructing a Dyson sphere to house their group intelligence. Who bets that making stars artificially supernova early is part of a plan to create a super huge element zero core for it?
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Wait, that's their plan? I didn't know that! Where do you learn that?
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My strategy was Legion for infiltration job first time, Samara for swarm repulsion (hey, I didn't trust Jack not to succumb to the urge to defend herself, she's not exactly the poster girl for self-control), Garrus leads second team whenever it's required, Jacob back to the ship with the crew. Since it worked, I'm busily not screwing with it, though I'm tempted to use Jack reading this.
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Sounds like a perfect squad setup.
I've been talking with a friend. What I'd like to see in ME3 Wet Dream edition is a squad management system. You would train and develop squads of three just the way you develop characters within them. Squad leaders could pick up new powers to boost their entire squad.
You could then have other teams working alongside your usual three-person unit.
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Wait, that's their plan? I didn't know that! Where do you learn that?
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Wait, that's their plan? I didn't know that! Where do you learn that?
Dialog with Legion
.
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You know the biggest surprise for me this game was actually pretty pleasant.
The music is awesome. The original had a few very good tracks (Spectre Induction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L_X1srpocM), Vimire Ride (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JJHkRMm2N0), Noveria's ambients, Soverign's theme) and a lot of merely adequate ones.
ME2 has only one track that's just adequate, and the way it's placed (the lower level of Afterlife; weirdly enough it's apparently a remixed version of the upper level's music, but I don't hear the resemblence) something that grates a bit is entirely possible in the gameworld context.
The actual soundtrack you can buy is a two-disc barrage of good music, and most of the club music that's not on there is still good listening. Normally sequels decline in music quality. It's what Homeworld did, it's what Halo did. I guess Mass Effect is just that good.
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I've been discussing ME2 with friends.
The biggest problem with the narrative is that there is no Virmire-style choice to make, nor any sense of urgency driving you to make the Omega 4 assault as soon as possible (at least until your crew is abducted.) This makes grinding for crew-saving options the best possible strategy. It would have been better if they'd instituted a tradeoff.
Its biggest flaw compared to ME1 is a lack of narrative drive or tension. But the characters are infinitely superior.
The villain was underwhelming, and the Skeletor reaper embryo potentially incredibly stupid and goofy. I was more scared of Samara's daughter than of Harbinger. The Ardat Yaksshi really freaked me out.
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I agree with you about the final boss.
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I've been discussing ME2 with friends.
Well, the game doesn't really have a proper villain. I think that's the problem. The antagonist is an entire species. Worse, it's one the player knows is a subsidiary threat. The Collectors are interesting, but they're small-time, and lack a spokesperson with the charisma of Saren to present their case.
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I concur.
As a species they could have been made more terrifying if we had seen entire worlds depopulated rather than little villages...and if the process had seemed to be accelerating, rather than kind of petering out halfway through the game. I was hoping they'd hit something major.
My biggest concern is that they not turn the incredibly menacing Reapers into jokes - which that Terminatorbryo kind of was. I'm so nervous about it that I'm actually trying to figure out a way to get in touch with their writing staff via fan mail.
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I agree that Harbinger should have been more of a constant presence to taunt/goad the player like Saren. Having a few good dialog set pieces that change meaning when you realize it's a Reaper talking to you would have been good as opposed to random taunts. Similarly having Legion in the shadows throughout the game, seemingly hunting you as hinted at in previews, would have been great. The small scale of the depopulations though I think worked well, it make it a threat not taken seriously by anyone but Cerberus. However, the Reaper embryo should have taken a form more like the ones in the concept art. The more fetus-looking form hybridized with a squid would have been very disturbing instead of a terminator.
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That would've been awesome. Is this concept art available online anywhere?
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The whole thing seemed contrived honestly. When I first saw it, I wasn't sure whether to be scared or laugh my ass off.
Hopefully the DLC will add some more interesting missions.
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Hey guys, I don't know if you all 1: already knew this, but you can get some free DLC from Dr. Peppers promo -- WITHOUT A PURCHASE
The DLC consists of three downloads, each containing one helmet
Sentry Interface - Increases shield strength by 5%
Umbra Visor - Increases power damage by 5%
REcon hood - Increases weapon damage by 5%
First, go to the Dr. Pepper promo website : http://www.drpepper.com/promotions/ea/signin/
Sign up for the webste. (you don't need to enter any real info since it doesn't actually verify. You can put your email in as [email protected], and you will still be able to log in)
Second, enter one of these four reusable promo codes
* CBEEAAA41NWH
* CBEEAAAE4L9N
* CBEEAAAFQG9J
* CBEEAAAE98ZV
Third, select your helmet.
NOTE: you will have to sign up three different times to get all three helmets since you can't pick another one on one account after you've already pciked one.
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Or you could host the .exes here? :nervous:
Again not much good for us console heads but free is free ;)
I'm loving my death mask at the moment. :yes:
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I have ME2 on XBOX360...
What this does is credits your Cerberus Network account with the DL, so that when you connect to the CN, the stuff will download.
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What's the worst that can happen? :nervous:
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What's the worst that can happen? :nervous:
You undergo spontaneous combustion and are then transported to the deepest, most painful level of Hell whilst your still-burning corpse is eaten by voodoo priests.
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can anyone email their Coalesced.ini file to turambar1337 at gmail.com please?
i was fudging with mine and i broke it :-(
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Unfortunately mine is currently edited, to allow all weapons for all classes and to add the neccessary inverse slomo keybinds.
Were you running the fixer for it after modifications?
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How do you edit to allow for all weapons? Could you point me in the direction of a download / script that allows for that? I'm tired of being stuck with pistols for most characters.
EDIT: Wait, sorry, I read that as "characters" not classes. I'm already playing as a soldier. I don't suppose there IS any way to allow my sidekicks to have access to all other weapons - not just the two they usually do - is there?
Turambar, I'm too lazy to load up an email client so here's a direct link to my .INI in a .zip file. I haven't edited it myself - I assume no settings in the game change it either and therefore it should be "original".
http://www.averyfinedesign.co.uk/misc/coal.zip
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thanks kal.
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EDIT: Wait, sorry, I read that as "characters" not classes. I'm already playing as a soldier. I don't suppose there IS any way to allow my sidekicks to have access to all other weapons - not just the two they usually do - is there?
You don't get the SMG as a soldier, which honestly having screwed around with it on other classes, is something of a loss when your AR runs out.
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EDIT: Wait, sorry, I read that as "characters" not classes. I'm already playing as a soldier. I don't suppose there IS any way to allow my sidekicks to have access to all other weapons - not just the two they usually do - is there?
You don't get the SMG as a soldier, which honestly having screwed around with it on other classes, is something of a loss when your AR runs out.
fun with vanguards
when the hand cannon and shotgun run out of ammo, I take to charging enemies and beating them, spaced out with short bursts of fire ammo smg fire.
i like to pretend i am a krogan.
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Do you shout I AM KROGAN while performing every conceivable combat action?
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How do you edit to allow for all weapons? Could you point me in the direction of a download / script that allows for that? I'm tired of being stuck with pistols for most characters.
EDIT: Wait, sorry, I read that as "characters" not classes. I'm already playing as a soldier. I don't suppose there IS any way to allow my sidekicks to have access to all other weapons - not just the two they usually do - is there?
Turambar, I'm too lazy to load up an email client so here's a direct link to my .INI in a .zip file. I haven't edited it myself - I assume no settings in the game change it either and therefore it should be "original".
http://www.averyfinedesign.co.uk/misc/coal.zip
Actually, I'm pretty sure the companions have a loadout section right next to the player loadout section.
HenchLoadoutInfo=(ClassName=SFXPawn_Grunt,WeaponClasses=(LoadoutWeapons_AssaultRifles,LoadoutWeapons_Shotguns))
There's a line like that for every henchman.
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Do you shout I AM KROGAN while performing every conceivable combat action?
no, i'm not the uberkrogan, just better than most of the other ones. i absolutely had to take the opportunity to headbutt that one near the beginning of grunt's special quest. Infiltrator for second playthrough, being all renegade-y and sniping folks all day
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Another free DLC pack is available, with cerberus armor and a shotgun.
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Well I just finished... and I must say I'm impressed for the most part, although;
Again, the giant Terminator thing was a bit of a weird choice for a final boss. I'd have been content to fight a Reaper embryo but the human hybrid thing seemed a bit straight. The final shot of the Reapers looking onwards at the galaxy was a nice touch though, although I'm not sure how Shepard and his crew of tiny people can go about repulsing a race of giant machines...
Oh, and in my playthrough, everyone lived :p
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All the Sheperd butt kiss is kind of annoying...
Anyway, for me it seems like a real mixed bag.
I kinda wish there was more of an actual story to this game. The most intense parts of the story, from my perspective, included boarding the collector ship and then having the Normandy boarded. The latter of the two was actually really cool to play through, thought it could've been done better script-wise, and if you didn't have to go through loading screens every two seconds.
Level design is also another weakness, in my opinion. For the most part, they're all really well detailed and reasonable, but occasionally things just stick out as completely stupid. For example, on the mission where you try and recruit Okeer and end up with Grunt, it just seems so much like an artificial, undetailed linear mess. It sticks out from everything else, it's so bad. It'd be less noticeable it you could actually fall off of the ledges, but it just becomes so apparent how linear it is, which I don't like in levels. Also, the Freedom's Progress and Horizon colony maps: What kind of moron designs a town WITH NO ROADS? Sure, you have hover cars, but to have a place where the only way to get from point A to point B on foot involves romping through people's houses is just stupid. Heck, even if they did have roads and more reasonable paths, they weren't noticeable after three playthroughs. (I will admit that Horizon was better with this, at least having some kind of walkway and courtyard) Still, I liked Omega, barring the quarantine zone, and the Citadel levels plenty.
There were plenty of things I loved about the game, but I forgot what they were while writing that. :nervous: I'll just edit them in as I remember them...
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Just finished
The party members and their quests are very nice. Especially liked the Thane and Garrus ones.
Still, characters need more room and development. They are great, but ...limited. They should be a bit more active. DAO did a better job here.
Gameplay is fun, definite improvements in combat, but I wish I could have customized party member armor.
Plot is the weakest part here.
The whole bit with the human-reaper and shoving the existance of reapers under the rug was...meh.
Why use all that human goo if the whole thing was completely metal? Anyone seen anything organic on that thing? I know I didn't. It was also very underwhelming as a boss.
Wanted to see more starships, and the Normandy upgrade thing was over-the-top (taking out the collector ship with 2 shots??? WTF???)
Have beaten the game without loosing anyone.
I did cheat when it comes to prospecting (just edited my save and gave myself the resources....scanning is boooooring).
I was sooo looking for an option to trasmitt ALL the data on the reapers and collector to everyone. I mean..c'mon..how the hell can you NOT have evidence?
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You gave the Normandy+ two miniature versions of Soverign's main guns. It's explicitly stated to offer cruiser-level fire output in a package small enough for fighters; you have two of them. If sustained fire from cruiser weapons could kill Soverign... Plus the Collector ship is clearly not a pure warship based on your forays into it.
If you were to construct a good twin to The Imperial March, it'd probably sound a lot like the Suicide Mission track from the OST. It's remarkably upbeat in tone without losing any of the badass.
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Did you look at the size of that collector ship? It was as big as Sovereign, if not bigger, and the Collectors supposedly have advanced technology!
The same collector ship that took out several Turian CRUISERS. The Normandy was just severely OP'ed for it's size.
Also, I hate the forced plot stupidity.
Oh, a conveniently disabled Collector ships. Hmm..something is very strange here. Yes, we all agree it's very strange and suspicious, but lets go explore without taking precautions... - like planting explosives on the warships main gun, or positioning the Normandy so it can open a can of whopass (on the main gun and engines) if the ship starts powering up (it takes a few minutes and it doesn't have kinetic barriers).
the game hit the player with the severe case of stupidity.
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The whole bit with the human-reaper and shoving the existance of reapers under the rug was...meh.
Why use all that human goo if the whole thing was completely metal? Anyone seen anything organic on that thing? I know I didn't. It was also very underwhelming as a boss.
I figure it would be pretty senseless to put the parts more vulnerable to weapon fire OUTSIDE of the armor. But yeah, I agree about the last statement.
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Did you look at the size of that collector ship? It was as big as Sovereign, if not bigger, and the Collectors supposedly have advanced technology!
The same collector ship that took out several Turian CRUISERS. The Normandy was just severely OP'ed for it's size.
Watch the end cutscene of ME1 again, then, you fail at size comparisons. It's also still not a Reaper.
Assertion not supported by evidence. It took a Turian patrol. Such things would be composed of...frigates.
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Watch the cutscene where the Normandy approached the "disabled" collector ship again. You can clearly see 2 turian cruisers.
Also, the Collector ship was huge, and supposedly they had very advanced tech, some of their own, some given to them by the reapers.
Did you really get the high-tech impression from them in the game? I didn't. The Normandy gun packs more punch than theirs.
Also, the whole seeker swarms were a big WTF moment.
Do they inject someone with some paralizing agents? We see them actually stinging the colonists. But can they sting trough heavy armor? Kinetic shields? How do they deal with mechs?
If it's some sort of stasis field, why the heck do the seeker sting?
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Do they inject someone with some paralizing agents? We see them actually stinging the colonists. But can they sting trough heavy armor? Kinetic shields? How do they deal with mechs?
If it's some sort of stasis field, why the heck do the seeker sting?
1) Yes.
2) Apparently.
3) Yes. "Shields" don't stop non-missile objects, if you recall from the codex. I distinctly remember it describing how shields don't activate unless the object is moving fast enough so people don't launch their chairs across the room when they try to sit down.
4) Stop the gears with their broken corpses! :P
5) Paralyzing agent. Induces stasis.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQlC50GdXA&feature=channel
EDI is a CYLON :P!
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So I finished the game this past weekend. Initial thoughts: pretty much all of the side quests--no, scratch that, pretty much all of the party loyalty sidequests were pretty good. The main plot...well, while I was playing I didn't really have any complaints until the final boss. However, in hindsight:
A: I"m working for Cerberus? **** you
B: The Alliance doesn't care that I've turned traitor? **** you
C: Humanity can't be bothered/does not have the power to investigate entire colonies disappearing now that we have the council? **** you
D: People aren't fleeing the terminus systems in droves after the above? **** you
E: No trace? Then what were those video feeds and the giant ****ing rocket engines? **** you
F: They're kidnapping people to make into slurpees to feed to a human reaper? **** you
G: Not only is there a final boss, but the final boss is a giant Terminator? **** you
In conclusion, whoever was responsible for the main story: do better next time. Like, a lot better.
Note that my views were heavily influenced by this (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=7004) piece, and that I've yet to read the thread. Which I shall now do.
EDIT: Oh, the minigames? Did no one at Bioware play this game before release? After two planets I'd had enough scanning. So I downloaded a trainer and gave myself all the resources I could ever need. My only regret is that I didn't do the same for credits--hacking and bypassing were pretty dull, too.
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Consider the first game proved the futility of trying to stop Shepard from doing anything, of course the Alliance doesn't react. What are they going to do, try to arrest the galaxy's ultimate badass?
Similarly the fact you don't really grasp the full horror of what the Reapers were doing is just silly. This is straight up Lovecraftian horror and all you can do is complain? Either you're not thinking it through or you have no taste. :P
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I actually think he's write about the ending. The side quests were fantasmic, but the ending cheapened the Reavers from Lovecraftian horrors to merely Borg-level SF villains. And that final boss was stupid.
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ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.
Those guys were dicks.
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I actually think he's write about the ending. The side quests were fantasmic, but the ending cheapened the Reavers from Lovecraftian horrors to merely Borg-level SF villains. And that final boss was stupid.
The slurpees comment suggests otherwise. And while that is part of the ending, it's a suitably horrifying part if you consider we've discovered why the Reapers keep coming back, and it puts some of Soverign's comments from the first game in a rather new and creepy perspective.
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I actually think he's right about the ending. The side quests were fantasmic, but the ending cheapened the Reavers from Lovecraftian horrors to merely Borg-level SF villains. And that final boss was stupid.
The slurpees comment suggests otherwise. And while that is part of the ending, it's a suitably horrifying part if you consider we've discovered why the Reapers keep coming back, and it puts some of Soverign's comments from the first game in a rather new and creepy perspective.
The presentation of the twist was really bad, particularly the suggestion that the mimicry of the source species on the part of the new Reaper was involuntary. It was comical rather than horrifying - a Reaper embryo would have been scary, but a giant Terminator was not - and it actually undermined the menace established by Sovereign in the first game because it gave the Reapers motivations rather like the Borg.
I spoke to one of the Mass Effect 2 writers who actually wrote EDI's dialogue. He'd originally written that scene with a much more 'hard', much more frightening notion, i.e. that the human colonists were being pureed and uploaded to a Reaper serving as a giant 'mainframe' for a simulation of the whole human species. He left BioWare amicably about halfway through development, and at some later point, this was converted to the 'soft SF' notion that the humans were simply the physical building blocks and for some reason the Reaper mimicked their forms.
I loved most of the game, right up until the slow camera pan up the tentacular bottom of the Reaper embryo...and then it cut to the full form and I started laughing.
Fortunately I think Bioware pays enough attention to fan reaction that they'll be fixing this up in Mass Effect 3.
Also, I seem to be getting steadily more dyslexic (write/right?)
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The uploading into the Reaper Wikipedia idea actually would have been pretty awesome. I found the giant T-800 to be a little silly. Personally I liked the multi system side quests and the Blade Runner esq Samara side quest. I really wouldn't mind having some sorta spin off doing multi system investigatory stuff like that. "Adventures of Gianna Parasini "
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I agree. The game was nearly 100% unadulterated awesome up to that reveal, and so I'm willing to forgive it the Reapernator...just as long as they recognize the mistake and fix 'er up for Mass Effect 3.
I'm a bit worried by the loss of this one writer, as he did Legion (who was awesome), EDI, and Thane (who was not as awesome but still had a great side mission.) But I trust Bioware.
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I haven't finished this game yet, but so far I agree with the things mxlm said. This is an outstanding game but it does have some flaws.
There are a number of holes in the main plot and the game almost seems to retcon Cerberus and ignores what happened with them in ME1. It's also a little strange how easily you pick up squad mates, with some of them having no apparent reason for joining you. The plot seems too focused on recruiting the teammates and doing their missions, and I still haven't done much actual work with them. So far, the main quest has lacked the "epic" feel that ME1 had and is also quite short from what I'm reading. However, the squad-related missions and minor quests are excellent and could have made a game in themselves.
The gameplay and combat are much better than in ME1, although far from perfect. You have to approach fights somewhat more carefully and can no longer just run through enemies anymore. The squad mates are still useless at shooting things, but you rely on their special abilities a lot more than in ME1. It's good that they got rid of the Mako parts, although the scanning minigame is equally bad and is made especially tedious by the low mouse sensitivity (even with the scanner upgrade).
Like ME1, adding time speedup keys is essential and makes the non-combat parts of the game much more fun. I added in ghost and walk keys as well, as you frequently get stuck in level geometry and there is no other way to get out when that happens. I also removed all the irritating loading movies and replaced them with empty ones. The game continues to play them even after it's done loading, and they are unskippable. This reduces the map loading times from around 15 seconds to 2-3 seconds.
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Similarly the fact you don't really grasp the full horror of what the Reapers were doing is just silly. This is straight up Lovecraftian horror and all you can do is complain? Either you're not thinking it through or you have no taste. :P
The full horror? Look, when Chambers got melted in front of me, I was pissed. Wow, they're melting people, that's ****ed up--but note, my initial thought was they were using people to make into Collectors (I thought the stuff happening to her skin indicated Collectorification, not melting, and I was confused as to why she fell out of frame). And while that would have been rather derivative of the Borg, it'd be infinitely preferable to "We melt people to build Cthulhu." That's not Lovecraftian horror. Like, at all.
You could argue that "Uses people as basic construction materials," is kind of a parallel to "uses people to wake up old sleeping dudes," but it's...not really the same.
I also note with interest that you're not offering a defense of anything relating to Cerberus, including the blowing up your ship to give it to you again thing (well, I guess the badass comment could be intended in a vaguely serious matter, but I have my doubts).
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:wtf:
Cerberus never blew up your ship. That was a Collector cruiser.
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Right, the writers blew up your ship so they could give you an identical one. Which ties in to Cerberus.
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Similarly the fact you don't really grasp the full horror of what the Reapers were doing is just silly. This is straight up Lovecraftian horror and all you can do is complain? Either you're not thinking it through or you have no taste. :P
The full horror? Look, when Chambers got melted in front of me, I was pissed. Wow, they're melting people, that's ****ed up--but note, my initial thought was they were using people to make into Collectors (I thought the stuff happening to her skin indicated Collectorification, not melting, and I was confused as to why she fell out of frame). And while that would have been rather derivative of the Borg, it'd be infinitely preferable to "We melt people to build Cthulhu." That's not Lovecraftian horror. Like, at all.
You could argue that "Uses people as basic construction materials," is kind of a parallel to "uses people to wake up old sleeping dudes," but it's...not really the same.
I also note with interest that you're not offering a defense of anything relating to Cerberus, including the blowing up your ship to give it to you again thing (well, I guess the badass comment could be intended in a vaguely serious matter, but I have my doubts).
You didn't save Chambers? You suck!
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The full horror? Look, when Chambers got melted in front of me, I was pissed. Wow, they're melting people, that's ****ed up--but note, my initial thought was they were using people to make into Collectors (I thought the stuff happening to her skin indicated Collectorification, not melting, and I was confused as to why she fell out of frame).
So basically you're saying you completely misinterpreted both the sidequest that shows what the Collectors are and the revelation on their ship. That's rather...dense, of you.
And while that would have been rather derivative of the Borg, it'd be infinitely preferable to "We melt people to build Cthulhu." That's not Lovecraftian horror. Like, at all.
You could argue that "Uses people as basic construction materials," is kind of a parallel to "uses people to wake up old sleeping dudes," but it's...not really the same.
Ah, I see you're not thinking it through then.
We are each of us a nation.
And so they are. Each of the Reapers is the entirety of a sentient galaxy-fairing species condensed into one entity. Considering what even the homeless Quarians can accomplish, that makes them pretty Lovecraftian right there. Before, we only had Soverign's word on them being truly Lovecraftian entities, and Soverign does not exactly constitute a reliable narrator. Now we have absolute proof that a single Reaper is essentially a godlike force beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend, because we know how Reapers are born. And there are hundreds of them.
That little revelation highlights in incredible, glorious detail how completely and utterly screwed you are.
I also note with interest that you're not offering a defense of anything relating to Cerberus, including the blowing up your ship to give it to you again thing (well, I guess the badass comment could be intended in a vaguely serious matter, but I have my doubts).
Cerberus did not blow up your ship. Did you even actually play this game? You're not getting the plot points straight at all.
Besides, what is there to defend? Cerberus brought you back from the ****ing dead, gave you a ship, a crew, and a mission that's for the good of humanity. Yes, you've shot at them before, and they shot back, but one of the conditions of military life is that sometimes you must work with people who you would cheerfully kill otherwise, for the good of the greater whole. This is one of those times.
Besides, I was addressing the Alliance's lack of reaction to your return. The ultimate badass is not a jest; several people in the game will point out that this is in fact the case. ("Things explode around you, Shepard.") And by the time the Alliance actually knows for a fact that you're still alive, you probably have the protection of the Alliance counselor. AND you're still the freaking hero of the Citadel and pursuing you would piss off a lot of people.
I also think the fact you were complaining the Alliance was reacting to the disappearing colonies is both naive about how politics actually works, and naive about how the game world actually works as well, as you apparently read none of the background materials on what was actually going on and where the colonies were located.
And that the Alliance reacting would be ****ting all over how ME1's endgame played out, or are you going to complain about that too?
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Let me start by stating that rereading my previous interaction with you, NGTM, I was a little douchey, so I'd like to apologize for that. I hope I can avoid being more douchey.
Ah, I see you're not thinking it through then.
We are each of us a nation.
And so they are. Each of the Reapers is the entirety of a sentient galaxy-fairing species condensed into one entity. Considering what even the homeless Quarians can accomplish, that makes them pretty Lovecraftian right there. Before, we only had Soverign's word on them being truly Lovecraftian entities, and Soverign does not exactly constitute a reliable narrator. Now we have absolute proof that a single Reaper is essentially a godlike force beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend, because we know how Reapers are born. And there are hundreds of the
Ah. You're right (I'd mostly forgotten everything from ME1, even though I played it only a few months ago. That's how my brain works when it comes to retaining info from entertainment. Usually. Ask me about Battlemech designs from 3025, though...). Okay, that's better. However, Space Terminator is still a poor choice, as is having you shoot space terminator in the eye.
Cerberus did not blow up your ship. Did you even actually play this game? You're not getting the plot points straight at all.
Besides, what is there to defend? Cerberus brought you back from the ****ing dead, gave you a ship, a crew, and a mission that's for the good of humanity. Yes, you've shot at them before, and they shot back, but one of the conditions of military life is that sometimes you must work with people who you would cheerfully kill otherwise, for the good of the greater whole. This is one of those times.
Besides, I was addressing the Alliance's lack of reaction to your return. The ultimate badass is not a jest; several people in the game will point out that this is in fact the case. ("Things explode around you, Shepard.") And by the time the Alliance actually knows for a fact that you're still alive, you probably have the protection of the Alliance counselor. AND you're still the freaking hero of the Citadel and pursuing you would piss off a lot of people.
I also think the fact you were complaining the Alliance was reacting to the disappearing colonies is both naive about how politics actually works, and naive about how the game world actually works as well, as you apparently read none of the background materials on what was actually going on and where the colonies were located.
And that the Alliance reacting would be ****ting all over how ME1's endgame played out, or are you going to complain about that too?
The ship blowing up thing was a reference of the writing and how it related to Cerberus, actually. They (that is, the writers/devs/whoever) blow up your ship, and then give you an identical one with mostly the same crew. They kill you, and then bring you back mostly the same (y'know when you see Shep getting rezzed? I was so sure one of those electronic looking things that got implanted in you would explain why the hell I was okay with working with Cerberus). And that needs to be explained because as I recall (admittedly, not well) ME1, Cerberus was Pure Eeeevil. Teaming up with them is rather like teaming up with the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge of choice. I find the argument that if Cerberus is too evil to give the station too then they're too evil to work with rather persuasive. I presume you disagree; would you mind explaining why you do?
As well, the way they handle the station; you can blow it up, or you can give it Cerberus. You can't give it to the Alliance, or the Council, or your friend Dan, or Dan's pet dog. And if the situation is bad enough that you have to team up with Cerberus, why isn't it bad enough to give the station to Cerberus (the article asserts that everyone's okay with you blowing up the station, including Miranda. I can't say this is correct; no one objected when I did so, but no one approved, either, and I didn't do the 'play after victory' thing, so I didn't get any post-mission interaction, but I assume it is)? Great, you stopped one Reaper. There're plenty more, and maybe studying the station would help. Like, a lot.
Which is to say, the setup, all of the setup, is rather...forced. And unnecessary. And it doesn't seem likely this was the original plan; as the article says, if it was, why didn't we get allusions to TIM in ME1 (Battuta? Insight from your acquaintance?). The resolution? That's pretty forced too. I mean, I get that they like binary choices given their 'will affect next game' thing (imagine if Bloodlines had a sequel, and the events and choices in Bloodlines affected the sequel), but...those weren't very good choices.
You're right that I didn't read very many (any?) codices; I didn't like ME1 enough to do that. Read a bunch in DA:O, but even then, nowhere near the majority of them. So, alright, I'll grant there may be a valid reason for a lack of response. Would you mind explaining it to me?
I'm confused about your final statement. In my recollection, I managed to save the Council, get a human on the council, and generally make humans, like, awesome. Given that, how would the Alliance reacting have **** all over the endgame?
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Ah, I see you're not thinking it through then.
We are each of us a nation.
And so they are. Each of the Reapers is the entirety of a sentient galaxy-fairing species condensed into one entity. Considering what even the homeless Quarians can accomplish, that makes them pretty Lovecraftian right there. Before, we only had Soverign's word on them being truly Lovecraftian entities, and Soverign does not exactly constitute a reliable narrator. Now we have absolute proof that a single Reaper is essentially a godlike force beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend, because we know how Reapers are born. And there are hundreds of them.
That little revelation highlights in incredible, glorious detail how completely and utterly screwed you are.
That was the original intent, but they failed to accomplish it.
What they did was this: take aim at that Platonic ideal you described, misfire, and fall into the muck of old SF tropes.
The story as originally written (uploading) was going to accomplish that. Instead, they produced an angle which made the Reapers seem limited and dependent on organics, unable to control their own reproduction.
The version that made it into the final never actually said any of what you concluded. It simply described Reaper reproduction as dependent on liquefying a target species and building a Reaper out of it, with the possibility that the Reapers couldn't control the resulting design.
Now, I think this was meant as setup for an eventual revelation that the Reapers are literally each the gestalt of an entire species, but the original memory uploading concept accomplished that much better. (I imagine that internally, they still think of it as 'memory uploading', but cut that or changed it to simple goo-factory because they thought it'd either give away too much of that eventual reveal, or it was too hard to explain.) There's even concept art for a normal, cuttlefish-esque 'Human Reaper' with a freaky human skull motif, instead of the Terminator we got.
I'm guessing that they couldn't figure out a good 'fight' to go with that style of embryo, and so made it humanoid instead. In the process they threw up a giggle-worthy final boss with a Massive Weak Point and the uncomfortably funny suggestion that this giant robot thing was going to Superman around through space with the rest of the Reapers.
They've got a chance to retcon it for ME3 - and heck I've exchanged enough words with the Mass Effect writers to think that was they intended all along, they just gloriously ****ed up at conveying it here - but after the uninspiringly easy Suicide Mission, that poorly-executed final sequence made ME2 a game with an ending nowhere near as good as its middle.
Now, the intent is there. If what you described in your quoted post had happened, it would've been great. But they just ****ed it up enough to make it funny instead of scary. What they needed to do was having all the colonists uploaded into a Reaper embryo that was being constructed by normal means.
In short I think that what you're describing is what they intended or intend to do in the future. But they didn't present it here, or if they tried to, they did a really bad job of it.
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Giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt... i found the ending not too bad at all.
If the Reapers actually are just "slurping" genetic material to build themselves that would indeed be cheap.
But are they? Talking on a merely physical level, how stupid is that notion really that you take a lot of organic paste to make some kind of superhard metal/shell that the Reapers are made up of in game?
But is that really what is happening there? Is it all physical? Why would they take the shape of the "host" species then? I mean they certainly aren't "growing" based on our DNA now lol.
My gut reaction was, they are taking the "essence" of a whole civilization, bodies AND SOULS and that is what Reapers are made of... the accumulation of a dead civilizations souls.
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Giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt... i found the ending not too bad at all.
If the Reapers actually are just "slurping" genetic material to build themselves that would indeed be cheap.
But are they? Talking on a merely physical level, how stupid is that notion really that you take a lot of organic paste to make some kind of superhard metal/shell that the Reapers are made up of in game?
But is that really what is happening there? Is it all physical? Why would they take the shape of the "host" species then? I mean they certainly aren't "growing" based on our DNA now lol.
My gut reaction was, they are taking the "essence" of a whole civilization, bodies AND SOULS and that is what Reapers are made of.
I agree. I think that's what they intended as well.
The problem is that they didn't execute it well. They threw in this unnecessary 'origin determines form' twist, apparently just to justify a fight with a comically silly giant Terminator.
And that problem was compounded by the fact that the Suicide Mission kind of sucked in terms of actually feeling suicidal.
The original concept art for the HumanReaper was quite a bit more interesting. I wish they'd used it.
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Dunno, but it was kinda obvious to me that there must be some kind of metaphysical component involved ... i mean yeah, the story WOULD be outright stupid if it was merely a physical process of turning organics into some kind of metal to build a ship with that happens to look like them. The actual writing/canon up to today however does not give any indication either way, so i don't see a need to ruin my own enjoyment by jumping to that specific conclusion. I certainly won't fault a storyline for being too "openended" before its actual conclusion ... and from my experience, explaining too much and especially too early is almost always worse than explaining less than the audience would want, but leaving some room for imagination as a consequence.
And yeah, while the design of the final boss could certainly have been better (I've seen the awesome concept art as well), it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the story.
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It did mine
Also, unlike the first game, most of the missions DID NOT advance the main plot. In ME1, every mission you did advanced the okit in some way, and gave you an insight into Saren's plan. (excluding, of course, DLC)
In ME2, most of the missions are recruitment or loyalty missions, and only a handful actually advance the story.
Additionally, all the main missions can be completed in 20 minutes. Find me one person who completed Feros or Noveria in that time.
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And that problem was compounded by the fact that the Suicide Mission kind of sucked in terms of actually feeling suicidal.
I should add that the first time through I only lost Jack. Uh, and the folks in the chamber. And I was fairly shocked and dismayed. If I'd been losing people left and right? That would have been awesome.
I mean, apparently it can happen, but only if you don't bother with any loyalty sidequests and make terrible choices (such as my choice to have Thane maintain a barrier. Oops).
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The character death rate I was pretty okay with, but the gameplay wasn't very hard even on the maximum unlockable difficulty. I wanted a Praetorian or two, at least.
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The character death rate I was pretty okay with, but the gameplay wasn't very hard even on the maximum unlockable difficulty. I wanted a Praetorian or two, at least.
Ah, yeah, I was wondering where the Praetorians were as I was running and gunning my way through. Incidentally, that segment made me realize that while the postmaster general sounds scary, his possessed postmen are total pushovers.
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One thing I wish they had explored was some emotional trauma on the part of Commander Shepard. Between being mind zapped multiple times in ME1, knowing the mechanical doom is drawing upon us and being killed then brought back to life, I tend to think I'd be waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I also would have liked some clarification on the implications of being brought back from the dead. I'm mean is this like some John Sheridan/Z'ha'dum you get a few years deal? Am I the Bionic Man?
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In the character creation screen where you pick your class it mentions various cybernetic implants for all the classes, so yes, Bionic Man thing if only slightly.
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If you go to Cerberus
you will...live?
Wait until the RepoMen show up for Shepard's liver.
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Well I should be ok in mass effect 3. I kept the station and am completely anti-zod as always.
My liver remains my own :D
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THE NEXT DLC!?!?!
Check this out. These audio files were found in the Mass Effect 2 PC version.
Keep in mind that the video is other footage that the audio files have been edited onto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNdH6PBTB8
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It did mine
Also, unlike the first game, most of the missions DID NOT advance the main plot. In ME1, every mission you did advanced the okit in some way, and gave you an insight into Saren's plan. (excluding, of course, DLC)
In ME2, most of the missions are recruitment or loyalty missions, and only a handful actually advance the story.
I agree, I found ME1's story to be more engaging.
Now that I think of it, when you sum up the differences between ME1 and ME2, and then sum up the differences between Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, you tend to run into similarities.
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Boy oh boy did I rape the spelling of plot
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Gotta love the one-key off hand position. :p
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It did mine
Also, unlike the first game, most of the missions DID NOT advance the main plot. In ME1, every mission you did advanced the okit in some way, and gave you an insight into Saren's plan. (excluding, of course, DLC)
In ME2, most of the missions are recruitment or loyalty missions, and only a handful actually advance the story.
Additionally, all the main missions can be completed in 20 minutes. Find me one person who completed Feros or Noveria in that time.
I perceivced that quite differently frankly.
Mass Effect 1's main story was incredibly short and the side missions were just abysmal. It felt like two different games to me... a real short one that rocked and a longer drawn out one where you went to pointless "socalled" missions where you mostly got frustrated at the idiotic Mako driving physics and then visited the same 3 locations over and over and over to clear them out enemies to get a minimal and mostly meaningless text message at the end. I found it to be almost grotesque... and actually disliked the first game severely for that reason. It felt like only half a game with these horrible side missions tacked on for no other reason than to artifically draw it out.
On Mass Effect 2 on the other hand i was completely sold... sure the main plot, again, was very very short.... but here, we have a large amount of side missions with quality and superb writing that you rarely see in the PC gaming world. Rarely seen such memmorable characters.... really drew me in.
Here is to hoping that they will finally pull it all together and deliver a longer kickass story line in ME3. On the other hand... it's of course entirely possible that it will be another "rally the troups" game (like Dragon Age too, incidentially - Bioware seems to have a thing for that lately) and that your previous exploits in ME1+ME2 will simply grant you extra allies for the big fight at the end.... like previous Love interest and squadmembers suddenly reappearing in time for the showdown and possibly even the Rachni queen remembering she owes you et cetera. And if you're pessimistic you'd propably say it will end up in getting an e-mail that all these previous characters really love you and are fighting the good fight at a different planet/front to keep the bad guys off your back while you save the universe in the finale.
Still... if ME3 brings us a set of characters as memmorable as the ones in ME2, i wouldn't begrudge them even for that heh.
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Human colonists are disappearing left and right and you're helping Kasumi do...WHAT!?
It just seems so disconnected
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That's always been true of Bioware's stuff, though.
Gee, my sister is in the hands of...I don't know, some disfigured ridiculously powerful mage so I think I'll go spelunking in the ****ing sewers. I'm chasing that prick through the underdark, so I'll go out of my way to mess with this strange magical machine. OTOH, BG2 wasn't trying to be an interactive movie.
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Giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt... i found the ending not too bad at all.
If the Reapers actually are just "slurping" genetic material to build themselves that would indeed be cheap.
But are they? Talking on a merely physical level, how stupid is that notion really that you take a lot of organic paste to make some kind of superhard metal/shell that the Reapers are made up of in game?
But is that really what is happening there? Is it all physical? Why would they take the shape of the "host" species then? I mean they certainly aren't "growing" based on our DNA now lol.
My gut reaction was, they are taking the "essence" of a whole civilization, bodies AND SOULS and that is what Reapers are made of.
I agree. I think that's what they intended as well.
The problem is that they didn't execute it well. They threw in this unnecessary 'origin determines form' twist, apparently just to justify a fight with a comically silly giant Terminator.
And that problem was compounded by the fact that the Suicide Mission kind of sucked in terms of actually feeling suicidal.
The original concept art for the HumanReaper was quite a bit more interesting. I wish they'd used it.
The giant fetus looking one would have been interesting, hell a fetal terminator would have even worked.
...and it'd be entertaining for FOX News to go ballistic about the sequel being an abortion simulator :p
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Can anyone post some of said concept art?
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That's always been true of Bioware's stuff, though.
Gee, my sister is in the hands of...I don't know, some disfigured ridiculously powerful mage so I think I'll go spelunking in the ****ing sewers. I am trying to find someone's HAMSTER.
(although that content was cut from the game, it's still worth mentioning in this context :P)