Mass Effect 2 release date: Jan 26 2010

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

For anyone else playing on PC, try here;
http://www.annakie.com/me/home.htm

Lists of ME 1 saves that you can use. I grabbed a Paragon one similar to my first playthrough on 360, so that I could play it on a superior platform.

That's a really good idea, although I'll probably just use one of my saves anyways. There's also a faces database. No more tinkering with bars trying to get a hot FemShep!

[3 Justin 3]

I already have 11 hours logged and I still don't have all the crew members. haha

This game is so awesome.

[Hemi-Cuda]

well the renegade option for Zaheed's mission is so brutally awesome, the ending is disturbing yet brilliant. and Jack has quickly become my favorite character, she easily has the most interesting dialog options of the crew that i've obtained so far. i've probably put about 15 hours into the game so far and yet i don't feel like i've even scratched the surface of the game, the depth is incredible

[jeremywilhelm]

I just hit the second disk at 21 hours. But I barely even touched the full info from the first disk (Just finished Illium, where i had to use the 2nd disk). Im gonna probably go back and explore the first disk areas. I have all but one crew member. They are all pretty cool.

Last crew member is another blast from the past.

Does anyone else wish there were secret characters you could find?

[3 Justin 3]

Oh my god. Thane's loyalty mission (finding his son on the Citadel) is so awesome *spoilers*, you get to interrogate someone and if you tell Thane to be the "Good Cop" you get to be the "bad cop", if you use the Renegade interuption things you beat him up. After you punch him twice, Thane comes over and says "he isn't any good to use dead". Then the guy starts talking, and you interupt him and say "I'll cut you balls off and sell them to a Krogan, NOW TALK!!" and he squeels like a piggy. EPIC GAME!!!

Now after I finish his and Garrus' I will go do Zaeed's since Hemi-Cude says it has epicness through Renegade option.

I also got drunk off some "pure Krogan liquer" and woke up in the bathroom on my knees. haha

[Hemi-Cuda]

oh my god... i just found the Widow sniper rifle and i'm in love. it looks, sounds, and performs like a .50 caliber rifle and it obliterates most anything i fire it at. with anti-armor ammo, assassin cloak, and that bad boy i can take out a sub boss with shields and armor (like the Collector Harbringers) with one head shot. with that thing and the mini-nuke launcher strapped to my back i'm death incarnate

sniping is SO much more satisfying in ME2 than the first game

[Nehkara]

I am in love with this game!

It is a big improvement on Mass Effect 1 without giving up anything that made the first one great.

This may be Game of the Year IMO. This or Starcraft 2.

[SebC]

Hmm... I think I should stop playing Insanity starting with a level 4 character. Seems to be a lot of spamming powers to conserve ammo (plus if you pop up too long you die really fast) and making sure your allies are in got positions so they don't die.

IMO the 1st was better in that bullets are your main offense and you save powers for when you really need them, now your abilities are your main attacks and you save bullets for when you really need them. Oh well.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by SebC

Hmm... I think I should stop playing Insanity starting with a level 4 character. Seems to be a lot of spamming powers to conserve ammo (plus if you pop up too long you die really fast) and making sure your allies are in got positions so they don't die.

IMO the 1st was better in that bullets are your main offense and you save powers for when you really need them, now your abilities are your main attacks and you save bullets for when you really need them. Oh well.

i started on Veteran with my first character, challenging enough while letting me get used to the new mechanics. i'm saving insanity for a second playthrough when i have all of the abilities

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i started on Veteran with my first character, challenging enough while letting me get used to the new mechanics. i'm saving insanity for a second playthrough when i have all of the abilities

I'm about 10 hours in with an Infiltrator, gonna try out Sentinal and see if that makes a difference.

[3 Justin 3]

Aww... *spoilers* I beat the game but Kelly got melted on the Collector ship and now I can't get private lap-dances.

Oh well, at least me and Miranda got down to business...in the engine bay.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

Aww... *spoilers* I beat the game but Kelly got melted on the Collector ship and now I can't get private lap-dances.

Oh well, at least me and Miranda got down to business...in the engine bay.

Kelly survives if you do the suicide mission as soon as you can, rather than doing side quests first

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Kelly survives if you do the suicide mission as soon as you can, rather than doing side quests first

Yeah, I went and got Legion AND did his loyal mission before I went. She melted right in front of me, haha. Sucks, now she can't do her strip tease for me.

[RyZ]

I'm about 8hrs into my second run through. First run was with an infiltrator. I loved it. Sniper rifles are the best gun class in the game, the widow sniper rifle is like a 2nd heavy weapon in your kit.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Kelly survives if you do the suicide mission as soon as you can, rather than doing side quests first

I don't know about that. I completed the game and saved my entire crew (including Kelly), and I completed every side quest I found, including the personal quests of all my party members.

I've read that the "timer" starts once you acquire the Reaper IFF code. From that moment on, the only side quest I had left was Legion's (he doesn't join your party before then anyway), so I did that then immediately went through the relay to start the final section.

[Regulator75]

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

I don't know about that. I completed the game and saved my entire crew (including Kelly), and I completed every side quest I found, including the personal quests of all my party members.

I've read that the "timer" starts once you acquire the Reaper IFF code. From that moment on, the only side quest I had left was Legion's (he doesn't join your party before then anyway), so I did that then immediately went through the relay to start the final section.

ya, the timer starts when the crew is kidnapped. if you do side quests after that then Kelly will be a melted pile of goo

[SebC]

I've decided that the combat in ME2 sucks (at least on insanity).

- squad mates pop-up even when they shouldn't, thus killing themselves
- the way to keep your squad alive is to keep them way out of the action (AI selects target based on proximity, so you make sure they're behind you)
- you pop out of cover your shields drain really fast (so you don't), and your powers do lots of damage and there's ammo limits, so you don't shoot much
- you can curve powers around objects but your squad power hit or don't depending on if you have line of sight or not, so it doesn't matter where you put your squad. I actually lost them behind a door once and I still had access to their skills
- geometry is goofy when you zoom in: you line up zoomed out, zoom in for accuracy and then you can't see the guy anymore
- the only guys who present any kind of challenge are the guys who charge you, the rest are just tedious, because you can sit behind cover forever looking at your target and they pretty much never hit you
- even guys who charge like the heavy mechs are pretty tedious, it's not a matter of managing your cooldowns so that you can hit 'em with everything before it gets to you, you beat him by finding a place/object to hide behind and making sure he never gets to you.
- powers do lots of burst damage
- are there infinite enemy spawns?
- make acquisition range larger for you and your enemies: really sucks being able to see a guy and not be able to target him with your talents
- spoiler: for the Garrus mission, he kept dieing until I figured out where to put my squad so they wouldn't shoot at him

IMO for ME3 they need to fix a lot of things

- go back to unlimited ammo, maybe make heat sinks special like heavy weapon ammo and medi-gel, you can use them if your weapon overheats put normally you wouldn't
- require squadmates to have line of sight to have talents hit so you have to keep your squad close
- turn talents back into disables/crowd control/debuffs (like stop regen, disable weapons, knock down, lift etc) and have weapons do most of the damage
- more enemies that charge/flank
- make it so if you're looking out of cover you will get hit, just less than if you're totally exposed, make it kill or be killed in order to make players shoot
- much longer acquisition range
- better AI targetting so that they'll go after your squad instead of letting you absorb all their firepower
- better squadmate AI i.e. survival first (only come out to do damage if shields health are above X%)
- lengthen cooldowns on individual talents so you have to think about what when you use talents, make global cooldown shorter than talent cooldown or eliminate global cooldown entirely: it's way more fun having multiple talents when you can use them simultaneously.
- reduce enemy health and damage to balance out other changes

Having played over 20 hours of insanity now, I have to say that ME1 insanity combat was a lot more fun (until you get totally overpowered at high levels and nobody can ever get a shot at you - I played as an Adept for my Insanity run and once you get high enough between singularity, lift and stasis it's easy to juggle almost any number of enemies once the cooldowns get short enough).

So far the best combat in ME2 is right at the start where it's just you and your pistol and the mechs are charging you!

[SebC]

Haha, just met Okeer... somehow he reminds me of comic book guy!

[Hemi-Cuda]

the combat in ME2 is miles ahead of the first one. i like actually having each weapon be useful, instead of a pistol being the most powerful gun in the game. and the cover system works so much better (and you have to use it, unlike ME1 where even on insanity i could just run in guns blazing and hardly take a hit). it also doesn't make sense to put an emphasis on gun damage, a full biotic shoudn't need to rely on weapons to kill enemies

the zooming issues you're encountering i think are due to the cover system, i notice it when i'm covered behind a small box it will flip between corner cover and over the top, which screws up my zoom. behind a door way or long cover spot i don't notice any zoom issues at all. i will agree with you on the squad powers though, don't know why they are scanhit when yours aren't. the AI pathing is also better in ME1, don't know why your squad can be such idiots in this game

overall though any issues i've encountered have felt very minor. ME2 improves upon the original in almost every way, strips a lot of the boring fluff from the first game and tightens the story up. it is honestly one of the best single player games i've ever played, they really should turn Mass Effect into an MMO because that universe is much too large and interesting to be limited to a simple trilogy