So how is it? For obvious reasons, Im unable to enjoy it atm.
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by John Cole| 90 Comments
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So how is it? For obvious reasons, Im unable to enjoy it atm.
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drew42
Haven’t bought it yet. I’m still too busy enjoying Uncharted 2.
twiffer
still playing dragon age. also didn’t play the first one. but you might find this interesting.
Bill E Pilgrim
They have atm versions of video games now?
Makes sense.
Would you like to:
Make a deposit
Withdraw cash
Fire
Select all units
Why should depositing your paycheck and slaying all invaders have to be two separate trips, after all?
Osprey
Just got it running after updating SSD firmware. The story is quite compelling so far, and I think Martin Sheen is perfect for doing voices for things like this. The interface is somewhat different (I liked ME1’s better imo), the weapons are more along the lines of CoD (there’s a heat-related reload mechanism), but it’s a worthy sequel.
Osprey
@twiffer: You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t.
Crashman06
Only about four hours into it so far, so I haven’t seen much yet. It’s very good so far though, almost unbelievably cinematic. It really feels movie-like. There’s a scene near the beginning that actually made me stop and exclaim, “My God,” because it was so impressive. The gameplay is extremely different. Combat is much, much faster and more shooter-like. There are fewer special powers and the number of statistics has been cut down a lot; it’s much more on the action side of the “action-RPG” description than the first one was. There are also a lot more opportunities to connect with the other characters than before.
I’d say you’ll have something to look forward to after you’ve healed.
Cpuppy
I pre-ordered, but should arrive today. I have very high hopes, seeing as the storylines of the original game were seriously some of the best Sci-fi writing I have come across (even the side stories) in film, TV, or many of the better books.
I think the sex side of the game got too much attention, but I was all for the fact that it pissed alll over the conservatives saying the game needed to be banned for showing what in all instances was less skin slapping than what you see in the average MTV’s Tila Tequila.
Tom
How do I deal with grumpy wife when am thoroughly addicted to dragon age and mass effect? She is not a gamer at all, dammit.
machine
Mass. Effect 2? I hope it at least has both the Brown & Coakley shooters.
jnfr
My husband got it the day it came out and has been fairly obsessed with it since. He’d already played through Dragon Age several times so was ready for something new I guess. Not my cup of tea, but if you liked the first one, you’ll like this, that’s my guess.
robertdsc
Modern Warfare 2 has captured my soul, lol.
twiffer
@Osprey: i’m sure i am. plan on picking it up, but between work, 2 yr old, a wife who enjoys games just as much (if not more) than i and the nagging biological need for sleep, i get maybe an hour to play a day. sounds like a good, enjoyable game for us though. what i really want though is for games in this genre to support co-op multiplayer, not just online (if they support multiplayer at all), so i can play with my wife without buying another damn console.
PAR
@robertdsc
I hear you, just over that stage myself. Getting my first nuke helped me tone it down a lot.
Catsy
@Crashman06: That “my god” scene–was it the one in the very beginning where you’re walking “outside” to get to the front? (hopefully that was sufficiently non-spoilerific) Because if so, that made my jaw drop and I actually stopped playing for a minute to look around.
And John, ME2 is fantastic so far. I’m about an hour or two in, and I’m actually going to stop playing to go back and play through the first one again so that I can import good save data for my first playthrough of ME2. I have several maxed out characters from the first one, but they’re on my XBL account and after I got the PC version of ME1 and saw what a great job they did with it, I knew there was no way I’d ever play it on XB again.
Combat feels very, very different from the first one. Taking cover becomes a lot more important, although TBH the mechanics for it are a little clunky, nowhere near as smoothly integrated as in, say, Gears of War. Sprinting with your gun out is also different now; you have to stop sprinting in order to change direction and it’s actually a little annoying, makes it harder to sprint to cover.
The story is interesting so far. The way they did chargen is really nice. And I like the way they’re doing Paragon and Renegade actions now–sometimes there’ll be quicktime prompts on the screen during dialogue, and you use a mouse button perform an action corresponding to one or the other.
The hacking minigames are /awesome/, and anyone can hack now–you don’t need to worry about being unable to open something because you don’t have a tech character with you, it’s all player skill.
The only thing I really dislike so far is the level-up and skill improvement system. Maybe I’ll warm to it as I play more of the game, but right now I think it’s kind of shallow and rigid, and feels tacked-on, like they wanted to scrap the system from the first one but didn’t have any good ideas about what to replace it with. I’m also not sure I like the new ammo-as-a-skill system.
But overall, it’s a very solid game. I’m not sorry I bought it, and once I get my ME1 save back to where my others were, I’ll definitely finish going through it.
Catsy
And yeah, I’m just now getting over a MW2 addiction myself. Magnificent game. Got about halfway through first prestige and then got buried in work, and when I surfaced for air, ME2 was out. :)
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I missed an opportunity to pick up Mass Effect 1 from Steam for $4.99 over the holidays.
Right now I’m in the process of replacing some dying hard drives in my gaming pc so I only have Batman: Arkham Asylum and Ghostbusters installed. Arkham Asylum is great – and I’m so glad I bought an Xbox 360 Controller for Windows.
Btw, I’ve been pricing used ps2’s on eBay for the last month and I think I’m just going to go with a refurbished machine from Gamestop for $60. Has anyone had any experience with refurbished consoles from Gamestop? I want the ps2 to play a couple of games not released for the pc – mainly, Ultimate Alliance 2, X-Men Legends and Justice League Heroes.
Crashman06
@Catsy:
Bingo. That was exactly it. I think I stopped to look around for a bit too. Impressive, wasn’t it? I love Bioware.
J.W. Hamner
I’m maybe 10 hours in and really enjoying it. I beat the first one with a ruthless space lesbian and thus imported her into ME2. I can barely remember 10 minutes ago, so I only have vague impressions of decisions I made in the original, now two years gone… but they seem to flavor things pretty pervasively. I don’t have a Paragon character to compare, so it’s hard to know for sure how extensive it truly is, but people are always bringing up the old days, that’s for sure.
Combat is way better, assuming you are cool with a Gears of War style cover system. I’m an RPG nerd, so I’m not a huge fan of the vastly simplified inventory, but it definitely makes things smoother. Love the conversation “interrupts” where you can do badass things if you have enough Paragon/Renegade points. Getting minerals to do research is not as tedious as it was, but it’s still somewhat tedious.
Story is engaging so far… I don’t skip conversations unless I’ve heard them before, which is pretty impressive for me.
Crashman06
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I’ve have a refurbished PS2 for a while and it still works fine. That console is built like a brick anyway; it’ll be around with the cockroaches and Twinkies when the nuclear winter hits.
AB
For some reason, I didn’t like dragon age too much, but I’m really excited for ME2, despite the inclusion of ammo/reload.
Kennedy
@Cpuppy: I never understood the point of pre-ordering. To me, it’s just a way to fork your money over in advance only to get the game a few days to a week after it hits the stores. And I can’t even recall the last time I ran into a shortage of a game at Best Buy.
Usually Game Stop / EB Games are the biggest offenders in terms of pushing pre-orders, but I hate those stores and never shop there anymore.
robertdsc
I got my Nintendo GameCube from my local GameStop. Worked like a charm even if I bought it for just one game: MGS: Twin Snakes. My fat PS2 still works just fine, even though I don’t use it anymore. I did connect it to my TV with component cables and it looks good.
Here are videos of some of my gameplay for MW2 and MGS4 for PS3 and MGS3 for PS2.
theturtlemoves
I’m spending a lot of late nights on it and paying for it in the morning. Frankly, I like it a lot more than Dragon Age. I know lots of folks really dig Dragon Age, but I really wasn’t that impressed after even two playthroughs. I saw one comment in PC Gamer along the lines of you just feel like you are forced to play somebody else’s movie. I don’t get that feeling with ME2. The story is compelling, the voice acting is good all around, the characters are unique and all seem to have their own motivations. The scene near the beginning that really hit me was the reveal of the Normandy 2. Pitch-perfect soundtrack in the background, great cinematography, etc. This one makes me feel like I’m playing my own movie instead of having to watch someone else’s endless annoying cutscenes.
Jim Crozier
It’s the best game I’ve played since Mass Effect 1 and The Witcher.
Truly a spectacular experience. Better in just about every single way than Dragon Age.
There are a couple of minor warts. Scanning planets is mind-numbingly boring. They dumbed down things like weapon, armor and ammo selection a little too much in order to please the “trigger jock/action junkie” crowd. There are some pacing issues with how fast the main plot advances.
But overall, a magnificent experience.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Crashman06: @robertdsc:
Thanks for the info. Do the refurbished machines come with everything you need to connect and play or will I have to buy a bunch of accessories before I can get going? I have an HD tv I will be connecting it to – anything special I should get?
As long as I have been playing games I’ve spent very little time with the consoles. But I really enjoyed playing the pc versions of X-Men Legends 2 and Ultimate Alliance and want to get some more of the same. I figure I’ll get the console for $60 and 3 or 4 games at $10 and have myself some cheap gaming goodness for the next couple of months.
El Cruzado
I’m going through the bundle of Awesome that is No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
The first one had its boring bits but was still a succession of weirdly awesome moments, the second one has just taken out all the boring bits and piled up on the rest.
daveNYC
The removal of inventory (who doesn’t like looking at gobs of guns?) and the inclusion of the whole ammo/HS thing both are negatives. The actual role-playing elements of the game are the best I’ve ever seen.
I’d give it a 10 for letting me be the baddest ass Han Solo with an assault rifle in the galaxy.
ADM
As said above, the game’s simplified and cinimatized, but good things both, imo.
I like that the rpg side’s been cut down – too many duplicated items coupled with an item threshold made for an annoying reminder that “I’m about to reach the item limit.” I’d always think, “then for chrissakes, stop giving me photon rounds everytime I kill a soldier.”
So far I’ve played the archangel storyline and thought it really cool. It’s one of the first quests and throws a pleasant twist.
Only complaint is the same complaint I have for all squad-based, cover-under-fire games: The game player’s squadmates are clunky to coordinate while passive/aggressive in combat, and when you want cover your character won’t attach to the freaking wall, but when you don’t want cover there’s not an object in the game your character won’t get tangled up with.
Crashman06
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I believe it should come with all the cables to plug into the wall and TV, and one controller, but you’ll need another one if you want to play two player, plus a memory card to save. Both of those should be pretty cheap by now. I doubt it comes with any games.
Blue Neponset
I am about eight hours in and am very impressed.
Pros:
As others have noted, the opening scene is beautiful. I too stopped to look around before I completed the mission. The graphics are way way better. They scenery/backdrops are also unique. In ME1 you ran through the same exact scenery about 30 times. ME2 does not have that problem.
Martin Sheen is great. Just like with Claudia Black in Dragon Age, good actors make the story so much better. I am sure it is expensive to pay talented actors but it is worth it.
No more inventory full messages.
You can redo your talent points as you find out more about them.
More civilization. In ME1 it felt like every world was a frontier world with pre-fab buildings. Also more people in in the cities/settlements.
Cons:
They went out of their way to make sure just about every character from ME1, no matter how trivial, makes an appearance in ME2. It takes away from the story and makes the world of ME2 seem smaller.
I hate running out of ammo. Hopefully the Citadel Council repealed the Brady Bill so I can buy a ginormous ammo clip somewhere.
Bottom line: if you enjoyed ME1 you will be thrilled with ME2
Bret
IT IS AWESOME, John. They stripped everything shitty from the first game, made the good stuff better, and made the story richer. I’m about 7 hours in, and typically hate RPGs, but I’m going down the rabbit hole of pretty much every dialogue tree for everybody I meet. I highly recommend it.
CJ
@Kennedy:
One of the perks of shelling out for Amazon Prime is free release date delivery when pre-ordering. So for me I pre-ordered it Sunday and it arrived on Tuesday.
I’m not very far into it. The ammo system is getting slightly annoying, I feel like it’s pushing too far into shooter territory now. Storyline is awesome as ever. KOTOR 1, ME 1/2; gotta love Bioware.
Tim
I was playing yesterday and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast… and it was 8 pm, so I’d say it has my undivided attention at the moment.
I have similar issues as the other folks… a little too dumbed down from the original, but not having to be constantly managing your inventory is an improvement. In the original game once you got over level 50 or so there wasn’t any point in looting anything because you were maxed in omni-gel and credits and the Spectre weapons were better than anything you could loot.
Anyway, they’ve definitely raised the stakes in this one. I’ve had several situations where you reach a decision point and either choice is gonna piss someone off.
And wait till you meet Jack… wow. Hard to believe this is a video game.
robertdsc
They come with basic red/white/yellow composite connectors. If you want to upgrade the visuals a bit, you can buy a red/green/blue component cable that directly connects to the PS2’s video output point. This component cable will also have red/white stereo plugs for the audio signal. I got mine from GameStop for between $10 & $15.
The PS2 has a setting in the console controls that turns the video output from standard def composite to standard def component. I’ve noticed quite a difference with this setting switched and the TV size set to 16:9 from the default 4:3.
The PS2 does not have a HDMI port, nor will the component signal be higher than 480p.
The PS3, on the other hand, has a HDMI port and can use the same component cable as the PS2. HDMI output is 1080i, I believe, though my TV is only capable of 720p. Component output is also 1080i.
As for sound, you can use the default red/white plugs for stereo or try an optical cable connection from the PS2 to your TV. I haven’t tried the optical cable setting so I can’t speak to how well it works.
theturtlemoves
@Blue Neponset:
You have to admit running into that brother and sister-in-law still arguing about what to do with her son’s medical situation is pretty hilarious, though. Particularly when he says something like, “I don’t know, why don’t we just ask some random stranger what we should do with him?”
Osprey
@daveNYC: They did a complete 180 with the inventory. It was a mess in the first game, but they should’ve left some element of it in place, especially being able to outfit your squadmates with different armors.
The heat-sink reload mechanism seems like it was to please the CoD-type crowd. I also liked being able to spec into weapon proficiencies; leveling seems like it was waaaay too dumbed down from the first game. Best part of leveling is having a laundry list of shit to choose from, not 5 things.
As Jim said, the scanning game is…repetitively annoying, but it beats driving around, defying gravity in the Mako for hours on end, especially with the space-aged super-bounce rubber in the tires. Was like driving on a trampoline.
One thing that’s kinda creepy; those lines in Shep’s face where he hasn’t healed yet; they’re glowing. What’s up with that?
Walker
I am playing as an Adept on hardcore, and it is quite hard. They have nerfed biotics significantly and they are much harder to use. There is a lot of debate on the forums on how playing Soldier is now the “easy” mode, because global recharge time and shield/armor defenses severely limit biotics. Classes like the Sentinel and Soldier that can drop defenses are much easier to play than crowd control characters.
Plus the AIs die a lot if you are not careful, and medigel does not grow on trees.
Tim
@Osprey: I take it as result of the things that happened to you while under Miranda’s care.
Trying to be spoiler free.
soonergrunt
It’s nine kinds of AWESOME!!
twiffer
@theturtlemoves: what can i say? when it comes to gaming, my tastes tend towards whacking on demons and other beasties with a sword. dragon age has its flaws, and for pure visceral thrills of said whacking on demons with a big honking sword, i tend to go back to something like morrowind or oblivion. but there is a lot of depth in dragon age, particularly playing different character types and mixing teams. i feel it is very close in spirit to playing d&d, where you are developing your character (within the class restrictions) but otherwise, the DM is in charge.
AxelFoley
Man, Mass Effect 2 has been ruling my life since I got it early Tuesday morning (Midnight Launch at Gamestop).
Only break I’ve had from it, gaming wise, has been the Assassin’s Creed DLC that just came out today.
But Mass Effect 2…word fail me in describing how awesome it is.
Third Eye Open
The reason that both ME are such great games, IMHO, is that the character depth is so expansive. I spent a lot of time second guessing character’s motives, and trying to release only so much information. For instance, I spent the first half of ME1 trying to figure out if Tali was who she said she was, or just a spy sent to steal the Normandy’s secrets. If your game is built so that you have to interpret what a character says, and doesn’t say, then that is a game I want to play.
OC
Hey all I’m looking for your input here. I did not play ME1 but ME2 looks pretty sweet and I’d like to get into it. Do I need to play ME1 before I start ME2? Or does ME2 stand alone well on it’s own? Thanks!
norbizness
The ammo thing is a huge, huge negative for me in the game. I’ve already died more in the first several levels than I did in the whole of the first game. I may have to start over as a biotic or something, unless that shit runs out as well.
On the other hand, I immensely enjoy Champions Online, having never gotten in on the ground floor with an MMO game before.
Jimbo
Loving it and trying to figure out how I can work having my birthday into a free pass to play ME2 on our HDTV for the entire weekend…
theturtlemoves
@twiffer: I played D&D well into high school, so I’m full-on with you on that, but I just couldn’t get into Dragon Age. The gameplay was good, but the dialogue was just stilted and annoying to me. Claudia Black was good and her character was at least interesting, but I could have given a crap about the character I was playing. I loved the Witcher and cut my teeth on Wizardy: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord on Apple II, so sword and sorcery is definitely something I like, but Dragon Age just didn’t live up to the hype for me. I’m really enjoying ME2, though, despite the contrived “heat sink” ammo system. I kind of enjoy the scanning for resources mini-game and the hacking and security bypass are well designed. Makes me feel like I really am hacking without having to learn the syntax of Java 27 or .Net 28.5 or whatever they are using in the far future.
Libby
Completely OT: Just dropping by to say welcome home. Glad you survived and happy to hear the pain is already subsiding. Sending thoughts for the speediest of recovery possible.
Crashman06
@OC: From what I read in the reviews, ME2 stands well enough on its own, but it’s a much richer experience if you import your character from ME1, since some of the choices you make in the first game influence how the second one is presented. I bet you could get the first one fairly cheap, and power through it quickly.
OC
@Crashman06: Sweet. Thanks for the info!
OC
@Crashman06: It’s now considered a platinum hit for the 360. It’s selling for $20 at Best Buy in case anyone is wondering.
Sentient Puddle
It’s not quite the same Mass Effect that I remember. Not different a la Resident Evil 1-3 compared to 4, but they rejiggered a pretty good bit about the game, mostly moving it more towards a shooter than an RPG. I think for the most part, this worked well (not having to manage a gigantic inventory is a nice change of pace), but it does feel at times like I miss the old approach. So far, my missions have pretty much resembled your standard FPS level, and when enemies drop nothing beyond thermal clips and give no XP, it does feel like it’s lost a bit of the charm of the original.
That said, in the grand scheme of it all, what I’m saying is nitpicky. I’m having a blast with it, and really enjoying how well it ties in to my original save (though I’m guessing it’ll be a lot more eye-opening when I play through with my other character who made very different decisions).
akaoni
@ OC,
I’m in the same boat as you so I just downloaded ME I and will play through before starting ME II.
ME I is now $20 from Steam for PC users. (Disappointed to have missed out on the $5 download, however.)
Anyone have suggestions on which class to play for I (continuing on into II)?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@robertdsc:
Thanks for the info. My tv goes to 1080i so I’ll probably pick up the RGB component cable to improve the quality.
Tim
@akaoni: The class you play in ME1 has no impact on your class in ME2. To explain why would be a spoiler.
The only thing that really carries over are the choices you’ve made in the 1st game, and as far as I can tell even some of those are flexible.
ME1 tells a great story so it is definitely worth playing, but not required to play ME2.
PROTip for Scanning in ME2: Make sure you talk to Miranda after you’ve collected a few team members. She’ll offer you a scanner upgrade that speeds up the rate that you can move the scanner target around. And don’t waste time depleting a planet. Your probe capacity is too low to waste on anything but big spikes and there are plenty of planets to visit.
Osprey
@OC: As I said before, you’re doing yourself a disservice not having played ME1. You’ll also find yourself lost on a LOT of content if you jump to ME2 first. There’s a lot of continuity.
Loyd Case
Simpler, more streamlined interface. Darker, more ambiguous storyline. The action shooter part works more effectively than ME1.
Mass Effect 2 is to Mass Effect 1 as Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars…. at least, so far.
Osprey
@akaoni: Doesn’t matter what class you play in terms of moving to ME2, however, at the higher difficulty settings, I think soldiers are by far the easiest to play and letting your squadmates handle biotics. If you rely on biotics/tech, your squadmates are usually woefully inefficient and clumsy trying to shoot things and tend to get themselves perforated. I prefer the assault rifle/sniper rifle specializations in ME1.
OC
@Osprey: That clinches it. Thanks!
freelancer
I’ll just say this, last night, when I dreamt, the dialogue wheel was an integral component of my dreams.
I’m a happy, sad, sad, man.
Spiffy McBang
Actually, John, one of the major components (that is to say, time sinks) in the game is planet-hopping and collecting minerals. I grant that I don’t know how you’d get to that point, but if you could, it’s not very far in and you can very easily do that one-handed. And you’ll have a boatload of credits to work with early for fuel and probes.
Jules
The almost 18 year old who lives in my house that I have not seen except for food refills since Tuesday seems to find it awesome.
Clutch414
Pre-ordered ME2 and it arrived Tuesday but haven’t played it yet. My first Xbox 360 (with my completed save game Paragon Spacer War Hero Male Shepard Soldier with the default male face who saved the council, appointed Udina, romanced Liara, saved Wrex and had Ashley stay with the nuke) bonked back in August and I’ve been replaying ME1 in order to have a completed Shepard to carry import. I’m about 2/5 of the way through the story missions (rescued Liara first, just made it to Peak 15 on Noveria) and I have finished quite a few side missions.
I’m awfully tempted to just say “fuck it” and pop in ME2 just to see what the “default” (for lack of a better term) starting conditions are. But I will be strong. I shall not let temptation get the better of me.
KoTOR used to be my favorite RPG and favorite overall game. Not once I played Mass Effect. The guys at Bioware are geniuses.
Cpuppy
@Kennedy: I had a couple of gift cards I had to use up (usually forget to after a while) and I here in SF it had been raining non-stop for two weeks, so i figured that pre-order was a good idea. Unfortunately or fortunately in San Francisco, there are a metric crap ton of geeks per avenue like me who love video games, so I had to wait 4 weeks for the Best Buy in the Richmond District to get Fallout 3 Game of the Year with all the Down-loadable(Completely worth it, especially running around radioactive rural Red-neck Virgina) content, so at least with the bigger releases that I really don’t want my friends to slip and spoil some plot points.
I DO NOT Pre-order at Gamestop, I have hated Gamestop after trying to pre-order the first Gears of War when I was living in Queens, NY… I sooo hate them, spamming my email and phone ever since no matter what I do to get them to take me off that list.
Seanly
@Tom:
When you get that figured out, please write a book or at least a pamphlet on it for the rest of us.
I hope to have my grubby hands on ME2 whenever the postal service decides they are going to deliver my pre-order. I loved ME, enjoyed Dragon Age, but Fallout 3 is the only one I’ve played through more than twice.
Actually, for Dragon Age, I am waiting for the expansion in March (?) as my first play-through is close to the level limit.
salvage
It is the greatest game until Mass Effect 3, everything that was weak with the last one (a great game) has been so well fixed that it’s rendered it unplayable.
NobodySpecial
I am thanking the gods for not having a life at the moment.
I won’t even bother with ME2 for a while, as I’m still hacking through several backlogged games. Chief offenders right now are Sims 3 (the expansion pack I just got), Modern Warfare 2, and trying to keep up with my people on BOTH Champions Online (which is fantastic) and WoW (where I’m so far behind, I haven’t even thought about making a toon for the BJ guild. I’d like to, but that would make the THIRD server I have to have toons on to keep up with friends and family).
Oh, and I just found my old copy of Final Fantasy Tactics. /sob.
Does anyone have some free hours in their day I can borrow for a few months until I get caught up?
daveNYC
*Minor Spoiler*
The Q&A in the shuttle where they ask about who you nominated for the council seat at the end of ME1 was annoying. I didn’t recognize either name, so now I have that ex-ambassador asshole from the first one being large and in charge.
As far as NPC motive guessing goes, I’m just waiting for my current bossman to say ‘no’ to anything I do. I’ll have to get killy on him if he does.
I miss the inventory, but I can understand why they dialed it back. What I am more upset about losing is the ability to add modules to each gun. I’d be happy if in ME3 they leave the inventory about as streamlined as it is, but add back the modules on the guns that you can swap around. And kill the heat sink/ammo thing. It’s a minor annoyance on assault rifles, but everything else has very little ammo, and the ROF on the sniper is totally crap.
ruemara
@Tom:
Introduce her to WoW! Or scrapbooking.
Will
I grade Dragon Age on a curve, because it’s development started back in the XBox days, even before they started making the first Mass Effect. It’s been marketed as being intentionally old school, but some of this is the result of a lot of design decisions being locked in years ago. Even with that said, it’s still really good.
But Mass Effect 2 is just awesome. There are some niggling things about it that annoy me, but mostly they’re artifacts of having replayed the first game recently and being subconsciously resistant to the changes. I do miss finding all those little hidden Codex entries, as I spent way too much time reading that thing in the first game.
theturtlemoves
@Seanly: I’ve explored damn near every inch of the Capital Wasteland, I know every option for every quest, and I still play the hell out of that game. Fallout 3 is definitely my favorite game of all time at this point. ME2 is kicking some ass now, though. Just fought my first battle with the Collectors. As an old-school RPG junkie, I wish the EXP was a little more forthcoming, but there are some tense, epic battles in this thing.
Magic Love Hose
My favorite moment – and it has plenty of competition – was buying the magazine at the stand in Omega. (Everyone who’s been there knows which one.)
I missed humor like that and it had me laughing for about five minutes straight. The advertisements on the Citadel were great. The mess sergeant is awesome. I was pleasantly surprised to see not one, but two, BSG alumni in it.
The game is a step above the original in just about every single way. No I can’t carry around fifty different guns and pick up every “punch 20% harder” mod, but that doesn’t make an RPG. Calling a cop out on profiling and getting shitfaced with an old friend contributes more to an RPG than my Kryptonite sword in Dragon Age ever did. Same with finding out that some of my decisions from ME1 didn’t pan out the way I hoped they would.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s fantastic, really. It even looks better AND runs better on my PC than ME1 ever did.
twiffer
@Tom: i don’t know. my problem is waiting for my turn to play. offline co-op rpgs tend to just be hack & slash. and rare.
you tried foot rubs?
J.W. Hamner
@ruemara:
My GF plays WoW with me (indeed, her main is higher level than mine), but she’s still jealous of Mass Effect 2.
Dustin
I only have three complaints about the game that, when compared to the otherwise sheer awesomeness, are barely worth mentioning:
– Helmets. They provide armor boosts, but you can’t take the bloody things off anywhere except in the captains quarters or ( think) armory. So basically if you’re wearing a helmet because you’re expecting combat, and you end up in long bioware-typical conversations, expect not to see your character’s face until you can get one that doesn’t cover it up.
– The ammo. I’ve found myself using my machine gun more times than I can count because my pistol’s out ammo and my sniper rifle barely comes with any capacity (that I don’t want to waste). I’m a bloody infiltrator; why the hell does my sniper rifle only have 9 rounds? Fucking CoD players, you had to whine about an otherwise perfectly fine system in the original, didn’t you? *I kid… a little*
– The font size. I don’t have a hi-def TV, nor do I have the ability to hook my 360 up to a monitor to play. What was wrong with the text size from the original that they had to shrink it down to a nearly unreadable size in the sequel that standard def tv’s can’t even resolve completely? Unless I’m missing something the Codex this time around is nearly worthless to me, I can’t read it without getting a headache.
But, like I said, in spite of those two things I’d consider this the best game I’ve ever purchased. Like I tell anyone that asks: I’m not playing a game, I’m playing a movie, and a damn good one too.
koolfiltered
Everything Bioware touches is gold IMHO
ME2 came out on Tuesday, I’ve gotten a combined six hours of sleep over the last two days because of it.
Tim
@Magic Love Hose: I just had a moment on Illium where something I did in the first game came back to me in ME2 and I found it very touching.
Bioware is the only company that makes games I get emotionally invested in.
And I have to admit to practically giggling like a school-girl when I heard Michael Hogan’s voice.
Sly
ME2 is pretty fantastic. Some of the best characters BioWare has ever developed.
I love me some Mordin Solus.
Eric
ME1 was my favorite game until Fallout 3 came along. I’ve only been able to play ME2 in one-hour snippets over the last three days, but already it’s shaping up to be my new favorite game. Some of the changes do change the tenor of the game, like no more loot and the stripped-down leveling up system, but I’m digging it. As Gabe from Penny Arcade said about the first one, in this game the combat is something you do to be rewarded by the next interactive cut scene.
@daveNYC: Did the Q&A in the shuttle really change things up for you? It seems like that stuff is locked into your save, and wouldn’t change as easily as that. But then I wasn’t sure of the purpose of the Q&A, except maybe to jog your memory as to certain plot developments.
As for customizing your weapon, it seems you get a chance to do that with the research lab on the ship. I’ve already found something that will be able to boost my heavy weapons ammo capacity, once I recruit a scientist. Though I hope it’s as fun as in ME1 when I installed explosive rounds on my sniper rifle, effectively making it a precision rocket launcher.
daveNYC
I should point out that my two posts complaining about the lack of phat l3wt in the game should best be compared to complaining about the color of the dash light in a new Lamborghini. The game really is that great.
Catsy
Uh, no. That is not even remotely a valid comparison.
ME2 is great so far. I’ve already had one jaw-dropping moment and look forward to others.
But the fact is that loot acquisition–what I’ve best heard described as the “glorified stamp collection” aspect of RPGs–is a major (if not the primary) motivation for a lot of RPG gamers. Lacking this kind of gameplay does not make something fail at being an RPG, and including it doesn’t make something an RPG that isn’t, but it’s important to a lot of gamers.
ME1 had a lot of loot drops. Most of it was worthless–but you got /stuff/, and you could sell it or turn it into something useful. I have never been able to understand how people managed to end up with a full inventory when you could convert it to omni-gel with one button press as it dropped, or vendor it anytime you went back to town or your ship.
A lot of people found it tedious. I thought it should’ve been improved, not removed. The only thing I’ve seen drop so far is ammo pickups, and honestly? I can get that in MW2.
Pixie
Mass Effect 2 is AWESOME~~ It takes a while to get into the fighting as there is a marked difference in the combat engine from the first Mass Effect. It’s amazing though, I uploaded my first Shepard and can’t wait to upload another saved file since one saved the counsel and the other one let them burn! Both were paragons though, I just can’t seem to make myself hurt people even if they are pixelated.
Comrade Luke
Haven’t played it yet, but Batman: Arkham Asylum is the best game I’ve played since Bioshock. Very similar look & feel to Bioshock, and it’s definitely the best game around a comic book/superhero character I’ve ever played. Nothing else comes close.
Pixie
Also, I think I’m seeing a pattern here:
Bioware = Canadian = pretty fucking amazing
My Boyfriend = Canadian = pretty fucking amazing
Just had to share =>
Sly
@Pixie:
What’s this “Paragon” thing you refer to? Are you saying that its possible to play ME1 and 2 without being an arrogant and merciless asshole?
Yeah right. Next you’ll be telling me there’s a way you can play KOTOR without becoming a Sith Lord and conquering the galaxy.
daveNYC
Well then we’re getting into opinions of the quality of the game vs. the importance of the inventory/weapon mod/ammo situations. For me, the rest of the game really is good enough so that most of the time I don’t care about the changes. I’d prefer that they make some changes to things to get them closer to how things worked in ME1, but the world, and the actual role-playing elements of the game really do make up for those shortfalls. The emails and other contacts from ME1 characters, the seeming ability to make an impact in the game world, the fact that I feel like I am in control of the plot (even though when I turn the disbelief back on I can see the nature of the railroad tracks I’m on); these elements are seriously the best I’ve experienced in any computer RPG so far.
I’m turning into some freekish Bioware fanboi.
Chuck Butcher
ME 2 is both simpler and more complex than ME 1. I like it a lot and do like it better than ME1. It does take awhile to shift mental gears from 1-2 but getting killed isn’t that big a deal.
akaoni
@ Tim and Osprey
Thanks for the responses, I’m looking forward to both games.
tripletee
Pretty much what everyone else said: it’s face-meltingly awesome. They removed all of the stuff that annoyed me in the first one (ie, no massive inventory to manage, no frame rate hiccups every ten steps) and in general streamlined and polished virtually every aspect of the game. And the aesthetic is still “awesome 70s sci-fi cheese,” which is a big plus in my book.
I was going to wait to dig into it until I finished MW2, but I decided to load it up just to activate the Cerberus Network and download some preorder extras. Four hours later I realized MW2 was staying on the shelf for the next few weeks.
bago
Yeah. Mass Effect 2 is pretty great. I have played through the first six times. And have just completed the loyalty missions for everyone but legion. Still need to recruit him.
Pococurante
Anyone playing the PC download versions? Curious if there are irritating differences like there was for Fallout3 via Steam vs Direct Download. DD Fallout3 hated player content.
I tend to prefer Steam but my ISP has an annoying tendency to hiccup just when I want to sit down for a long session in escapism.