Mass Effect 2

A little analysis on Mass Effect 2 usage (only on 360, not PC) for January. We'll see how much it actually sold (erm...in the US anyway) tomorrow when NPD makes January top sellers public. http://www.industrygamers.com/news/mass ... -says-dfc/

I actually have yet to play it due to busy-ness. Trying not to read spoilers since it sounds better than the first game in the series.

Oh and btw, Mass Effect play went up ahead of ME2 launch, but that should not come as a surprise.

Quote from 2d-chris

Yup, and the name of the character from Stargate Atlantis?John Shepard

Actualy the name is meant to honor Alan Shepard (first american in space and 5th man on the moon).

Started playing it last weekend, playing it lots actually and I absolutely love it. The characters are really compelling and really makes you wanna keep them alive for the suicide mission. So, I'm really doing all of the loyalty quests and getting all the upgrades needed, hope I don't lose any of 'em! Overall, it's pretty polished, encountered some pretty crappy glitches though where sometimes you'd be in cover in a corner and you'd magically jump up to some crate or spot in the level you can't get down and sometimes let's you run around in spots you shouldn't. Only solution was to load a previous save. And on the PC side of things, feels too much like a console port, like in some menus, can't use scroll wheel and such and gotta use keyboard or click. ME1 was a better port. The combat is much better though, much more streamlined with an easier upgrade system, easier to pick up. I found managing everyone's upgrades and weapons pretty tedious in the last one.

the longer you delay doing the suicide mission to more of your crew die. You can do one mission and no one will die.

Really? Oh noes. Still wanna get everyone and their loyalty though. Let's hope the characters I like less die then haha.

Quote from Gloglebag

the longer you delay doing the suicide mission to more of your crew die. You can do one mission and no one will die.

Spoiler tag just in case

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Its suposed to be the other way from what I have read on forums, having no upgrades (that are only availeble when they are loyal?) kills part of your crew while the ships are fighting eatchother.

I did everything else before the suicide mission and only mordin died in the tubes. It seems to hapen with everybody that shoose him for that mission, so I have to replay it one day and try another party member.

Quote from Gloglebag

the longer you delay doing the suicide mission to more of your crew die. You can do one mission and no one will die.

No.

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This statement is only true after you get the Reaper IFF and the Collectors ambush your ship and capture everybody except Joker. From that point on, the longer it takes for you to start the suicide mission, the more of the capture crew will die (non-party members, like Yeoman Chambers, Dr. Chakwas, Engineers, etc). The only things that have an effect on which one of your party members die are: the upgrades to the Normandy, whether or not you completed their loyalty quests, and your decisions of who does what during the end mission.

My first play-through, Thane died after going through the tubes, everybody else lived, and I didn't lose any of my crew members. I reloaded from saves after I finished the game and tried a few options just to see what would happen. Still going to use my first ending where Thane dies as my 'offical canon' for Mass Effect 3

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_E ... de_Mission <-- MASSIVE SPOILERS: tells you the outcomes/who dies depending on your decisions

The last boss made me laugh (

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lol @ the T800 Reapernator

), but overall, I really enjoyed this game. Sure, the story and characters seemed to take a step backwards, but the gameplay made a huge leap forward, and that's what counts, right?

Yeah, I think the general consensus is that the entire thing with the

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Collectors building some kind of big human Reaper puppet was pretty dumb

I hope the beginning of 3 will be "

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Oh that whole thing? That was just a big Reaper diversion. Here's the REAL thing they're doing. Boy don't we feel silly now...

"

HOWEVER... The end sequence remains one of my favorite moments of all time...

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I about shit myself in Harbinger's little monologue during the end; the whole time they're like "here's the big bad Collector general, controlling everything, taunting you, etc. - and then "Releasing Control" as it pans up to the Reaper silhouette... and the guy's eyes fading and him looking around confused as a wall of fire hits him... It's not even that "big" a thing but it still blew my mind, and was presented SO WELL.

Still loved the game, can't wait to go back to it for a second round.

Finished and loved it. But why does all my ue3 games have such high contrast?

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I started playing Mass Effect 1 and I don't know why I didn't check it out before. My shepard is an asshole, which I always try and do in WRPG's but either end up being a white knight anyway or find myself too punished for it... But here it's all DON'T LIE TO ME, people being punched/shot in the face, and extra items I don't need and sell for about 2 credits. Awesome.

Dare i say I actually prefered the first game

ME1 had ...

* Better suited voice actors, I love battlestar galatica and using such a unique voice of a TV star for several characters in the game really fucked it up for me

* Better Music

* Felt more like an RPG, exploration is important here fokes...

* Actually liked the old vehicle even if it was shitty the first time you used it

* Had less but more indepth characters, hated "give each character X mins of attention feel" in ME2

* Team mates actually mattered in ME1, In ME2 they never die, it's too easy even on hard and it doesnt matter who you take. They removed characters saying unique things when on missions, now only at a few predefined locations

Don't get me wrong, ME2 is almost game of the year for me (just behind dragon age) but it's been simplified, it's now more about that standard consolish combat you can get in almost any good shooter, boohoo lack of hanar was dissapointing!

That being said environments are better, little fun touches are great and typical play time was increased

I find the Mako exploration to be rather tedious to be honest. Bioware and Bethesda always do this stuff: Run across a (usually) height-mapped generated landscape for 20 minutes, enter a dungeon made of prefab parts you’ve seen a hundred times before, do 10 seconds of fighting or get your lockpick value tested, receive a quest log update and leave. Or, alternatively, you can run around aimlessly hoping something of interest pops up on the map so you can mark off one of the 80 pieces of special rock. I admit, some of these are well written but it’s hard to justify things like the Moon mission (where you clear 3 copies of the same station out in sequence) when the main story is so rich. You just know there was a big white board with a list of how many extra hours, planets and quests they needed, just in case they got called *gasp* linear.