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[Pennilenko]

I'm using a pea-shooter  . On the flip side I throw people up in the air.

Enjoying the game, but the side quests blow chunks.

I am assuming that I am pretty daft and missed something fundemental, but when does Shepard get Biotic powers?

You choose a class for Shepard when you create a custom character.

Hot damn, replay is gonna be fucking awesome.

[Merusk]

Goddamn does the AI pathing in this game suck.   Enemys that get stuck under the world or who always come at you 4-5 at a time are no picnic, either.  I've just been leaving the squishys in the ship and taking the Combat++ folks since at least they live long enough to do damage.

[caladein]

Even if people are squishy and have access to Electronics, put some points into it for the +Shields.

[Trippy]

I micro-manage the position my followers in combat. Indoors I have them guard a chokepoint and then I go in and lure a bunch of baddies out. Outdoors I let them "spot" for me (they'll shoot at stuff I don't notice) but then I park them somewhere relatively safe.

[Merusk]

Yeah I started micromanaging the squad mates after the first mission, but they're still dumb as rocks.  "Go stand behind that cover"  and... they stand behind the cover, making no use of it.      Perhaps I'm not targeting well enough, but I decided "fuck it, I'm a sniper they can just draw fire and I'll be the one to actually kill shit."   Doesn't make the game suck, but it is somewhat frustrating such a cool game has such lousy AI.

[NowhereMan]

I don't know if I was just playing really badly but I never found biotics useful at all. I think it was the way the controls were set up it just took too long to select different biotic powers and I couldn't pause it then select my own. Once I found out that electronic skill checks depended on the highest score in your party I just made sure I had Talia and picked a soldier class. I get the feeling though that I might have enjoyed a bit more variety in playthroughs if the biotic system had been a bit better (like being able to assign hotkeys to powers at least or ideally being able to pause and select your biotic power).

[Trippy]

You can pause and select your Biotic power.

[NowhereMan]

If that's the case I'm an idiot and mustn't have given playing a biotic character enough time. If feel particularly stupid because I often paused to select biotic powers for my other characters. Or did I get annoyed because I couldn't pause and target powers ala BG style RPGs? It's really been too long since I played this I just remember not liking biotics at all.

[Pennilenko]

I don't know if I was just playing really badly but I never found biotics useful at all. I think it was the way the controls were set up it just took too long to select different biotic powers and I couldn't pause it then select my own. Once I found out that electronic skill checks depended on the highest score in your party I just made sure I had Talia and picked a soldier class. I get the feeling though that I might have enjoyed a bit more variety in playthroughs if the biotic system had been a bit better (like being able to assign hotkeys to powers at least or ideally being able to pause and select your biotic power).

Everything you want is there.

[NowhereMan]

I'm an idiort then. I might reinstall ME and have a play around with biotics soon then. Only annoying thing is it was unavailable to get on Steam for me and had to get it through that stupid EA thing. I don't like it mostly because it's EA and I'm convinced it's going to do nasty things to me one day just because it can.

[Morat20]

Probably won't help but the steam version works perfect on my W7 machine, I did have to Run as Admin though the first time i fired it up, no idea why i haven't had to on subsequent game start ups though.

Love is.....A Vanguard with the bonus skill "Singularity".

Because nothing says "Fuck you, you're too close" than a goddamn shotgun to the face. And Singularity is basically Robot Jesus.


For those in the know: WHAT game clearing save? I've got my normal-mode Vanguard, my hard mode Adept, my (whatever the next up is) Solider, and I plan to have a "whatever the hardest level is" vanguard, I just haven't finished that one.

Which set of flags does it pick? Or do you just snag one of your existing characters, and it uses that? That actually makes more sense.

[Trippy]

I'm an idiort then. I might reinstall ME and have a play around with biotics soon then. Only annoying thing is it was unavailable to get on Steam for me and had to get it through that stupid EA thing. I don't like it mostly because it's EA and I'm convinced it's going to do nasty things to me one day just because it can.

If you patch it it might take some/most/all of that DRM crap out of the game. The current version you can buy in the stores has no DRM at all as far as I can tell; not even a disc check.

You'll need to learn how to use the HUD if you want control over your powers. The UI is half-assed but you can, for example, use it to drag powers to your quick slot slots.

[Ingmar]

Which set of flags does it pick? Or do you just snag one of your existing characters, and it uses that? That actually makes more sense.

It would be pretty dumb of them to make it anything but this, and Bioware (EDMONTON) isn't dumb.

[Mosesandstick]

From now on are we going to say which office when we talk about Bioware? 

At least the PC interface is better than the 360s. My store-bought copy works perfectly once I had the prescence of mind to patch and run it in compatibility mode.

[Morat20]

Which set of flags does it pick? Or do you just snag one of your existing characters, and it uses that? That actually makes more sense.

It would be pretty dumb of them to make it anything but this, and Bioware (EDMONTON) isn't dumb.

Thinking back on it, it was something of a dumb question.

Of course, I while I like my renegade soldier, my Vanguard remains my pride and joy. It was actually my second Vanguard -- did Vanguard first, then adept (Where I learned to love singularity) and then Vanguard again for the hardest level -- which I still need to finish.

[Tannhauser]

Vanguard is a great class and is my main as well.  Also have Soldier and Adept.  I'll go Vanguard on ME2.

[Lantyssa]

I like the Infiltrator the most.  Biotics aren't my thing I'm finding.  Does anyone know if you do a replay with a character do you get the option of picking an unlocked skill, or must you start a fresh character?

[Ingmar]

I like the Infiltrator the most.  Biotics aren't my thing I'm finding.  Does anyone know if you do a replay with a character do you get the option of picking an unlocked skill, or must you start a fresh character?

No unlocked skill on a replay with the same character, and you start at whatever level you ended the last playthrough with all points already spent as you had done in the prior game.

As far as class choice goes, if you're an achievement whore like me and you want to minimize the number of playthroughs to get everything done picking the base classes (soldier, engineer, wtfever the biotic one is called) can get you almost everything in 3 playthroughs, but you'll need a 4th playthrough as a replay on one of those characters to get the level 60 achievement (or maybe a little more, I only hit 59 on my insanity replay ><).

[Lantyssa]

That makes me want to remake my Infiltrator after my insanity playthrough.  To romance Liara or become a 'widow'?  I wonder what sort of effects either choice has in ME2.

[Paelos]

I love the game but apparently I get a gamebreaking bug that crashes my game, and I can't work around it yet. Which sucks. It's something about "first 4 bytes read is zero"

All in all, I'd like to finish it but it seems unlikely given the bug.

[Azazel]

Steam version or PC-disc?

From all the bugs and DRM and shit this thing seems to have, I might have to play it on the 360 instead. 

[Koyasha]

Probably won't help but the steam version works perfect on my W7 machine, I did have to Run as Admin though the first time i fired it up, no idea why i haven't had to on subsequent game start ups though.

Love is.....A Vanguard with the bonus skill "Singularity".

Because nothing says "Fuck you, you're too close" than a goddamn shotgun to the face. And Singularity is basically Robot Jesus.


For those in the know: WHAT game clearing save? I've got my normal-mode Vanguard, my hard mode Adept, my (whatever the next up is) Solider, and I plan to have a "whatever the hardest level is" vanguard, I just haven't finished that one.

Which set of flags does it pick? Or do you just snag one of your existing characters, and it uses that? That actually makes more sense.

At least on the 360 version, the way I understand it there's a hidden save each time you finish the game.  When you load up ME2, the way it's supposed to work from what I've heard, is that you pick which character and it picks up from that end-game save.  The save overwrites each time you finish the game with that character, so all the choices you made in your most recent playthrough with that character will be the ones to carry over. 

I assume it works the same for the PC version.  In this case, you can probably look for the "hidden" save in the save folder.

[Paelos]

Steam version or PC-disc?

From all the bugs and DRM and shit this thing seems to have, I might have to play it on the 360 instead. 

Steam version. It apparently only happens on that and it's rare.

[Riggswolfe]

The save overwrites each time you finish the game with that character, so all the choices you made in your most recent playthrough with that character will be the ones to carry over. 

I think this is wrong based on two things. One, I'm pretty sure I read on the Bioware forums that it doesn't work like this, and two, if you go back to do a New Game+ with a character you've beaten the game more than once with you get to choose from multiple versions of that character. For instance, my first soldier gave me the option of the level 49 version of him and the level 59 version when I went back for a 3rd play.

Just to be safe my level 60 clear on my main was the one where I did every single possible little thing I could find in the game. I think I even did those stupid survey quests where you have to get X metal or whatever.