Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Trippy]

Also : Couldn't get the Trainer +11 to work . I hit Numpad 4 for 99999 Resource and nothing happened. Anyone can point me to the correct trainer file from GCW?

Get yourself gibbed's save editor instead, can give yourself all resources and much more with it.

I used the +8 trainer: me2plus8.7z

[Reg]

Yeah, I just started my second playthrough and I couldn't bear the thought of mining. That save game editor is a life saver.

[rk47]

Yeah I got mine to work finally. Game's finished but the ending was very disappointing. I understand it sets up for the sequel but the lack of crew debriefing afterwards is odd. You'd think they have a lot more to say about what happened. Especially since some of them died.

I can't bear to replay it when I see the forced intro again. Maybe when I'm damn free

[Reg]

What on earth were they thinking with that mining crap anyway? Is there anyone in the entire world that finds it fun?

[rk47]

What on earth were they thinking with that mining crap anyway? Is there anyone in the entire world that finds it fun?

  It's so nice they decide to remove the mako shit....let's check out this planet..

  So...I just...scroll mouse while holding left click and watching the pulse on the right....ok...

  Hum De Dum.....

30 probes later......   

[Tannhauser]

Just finished the game on normal in 23h 45min.  Overall a tremendous experience.  It's so polished and well though out.  You aren't fiddling with menus, instead your immersed in the moment, reacting, moving, taking cover, ordering your teammates.  I got used to research and the new skill system, having no loot was a bold move but overall it works.


Eh I have more but you get the picture.  How convenient they have a DLC ready already...

[Rasix]

[Shrike]

Do your loyalty missions...all of them. Your crew will tell you time and again that you need to do this to ensure morale is high and they aren't suffering from distractions. That's a big reason you lost so many. There are a lot of hints how to go about the forlorn hope. You just have to read that dialog.

[Koyasha]

[rk47]

Game needs a Quick Resolution reward. I mean, the story is about an ever-growing threat, but the hero isn't really pushed for time until late,late game when it really mattered. It was too easy to gain the loyalties and prepare for the inevitable conflict with ever-lasting scanning of minerals and upgrades. Money wasn't really an issue if you are smart on upgrades, it does help if your secondary weapons are upgraded to the max (Maxed out AP Pistol is a pleasant surprise!), but in general you should rely on just one regular weapon and save the heavy weapon for boss fight. Without any pressure, I finished all loyalty missions on my first playthrough and wasn't at all surprised by the ending.

I'm slightly worried though, with the amount of fatalities the final squad can sustain, the writers are going to have a hell of time deciding who to write more on. (Exhibit A&B: Liara & Ashley. What the fuck?) I'd be lying if I didn't care much for the newcomers. Only a few caught my interest, maybe it's because I cared about the old cast more than the new ones I'm really hoping they bring those two over back in the trilogy's end. I'm not too worried about Tali's chances though. I heard the Bioware Social forum got a record breaking thread calling for her return in ME3 lmao.

[Koyasha]

They have admitted that Liara and Kaidan/Ashley were sidelined during ME2 partly because they intend for them to have a large role in ME3.  Of course, I think they went a little overboard with the sidelining.  Making them major NPC's would have been a good way to set them aside.  Have Ash/Kaidan keep turning up throughout various missions, possibly investigating both the collectors AND cerberus/you.  Have Liara give you more missions - and more in depth missions - related to finding the Shadow Broker - or at least give you more information of some kind, so you have a second source of intel that you actually trust, unlike the Illusive Man.  Like if you could call Liara after each time you speak with the Illusive Man, and have her tell you some things that he withheld, would have been interesting.

I hope that in ME3 they introduce no new characters, and focus on the existing characters.  Especially considering that it's impossible to go into ME3 with less than four potential characters, and you're likely to have more than that (Liara and Ash/Kaidan, plus I believe the minimum number of characters that can survive the suicide mission while Shepard also survives is 2) since it actually takes a lot of effort to kill off all but two your ME2 characters - most people even if they do a lot of things wrong, unless they're intentionally screwing up will probably have 4-6 survivors.

[schild]

Hm. Might be worth trying to kill everyone except Miranda, Tali and Garrus, when I get around to the game again that is, which will probably be about when ME3 comes out.

[Tannhauser]

I lost a total of four, a 40% casualty rate!  So I'm in the camp hoping for new agents in ME3.  I didn't do all of the loyalty missions, I wanted to save some for my second play-through.  So I did the minimum and I guess paid the price.  But I did upgrade the Normandy, I mean lets get serious here.

As for Tali, yeah she grows on you.  I used her heavily in ME1 and she has a cool story here.  Plus she's kind of like the hot alien girl-nerd in an environment suit.  Catnip for neckbeards!

Garrus is like my Spock; a loyal friend who trades effete neck pinches for an assault rifle. 

Miranda started out as eye candy but then I found her constantly punching forward and raising hell with her biotics.  She seems pretty tough for a biotic and her loyalty power is fun.

Not sure yet who I'll take for my Renegade play though.

[Merusk]

I wouldn't count on Tali returning.  She's really easy to kill off and I've done it twice just screwing around with the final mission trying to find combos that do and don't work.  For example, she's a really bad choice to lead the distraction team.    They'll have to retcon some folks games, or do something lame like saying "Well, those folks you thought were dead were really just too wounded to continue.  They lived, despite your rousing speech about how you'd lost people!"

[tmp]

Just because people are in the cast at the end of game 1 (or 2) doesn't mean BioWare will have any trouble not including them in game 3. I mean look at Dragon Age, how many of your companions get to re-appear

[Venkman]

ME2 and DA:O really show how diverse RPGs can be though. Including the divisions/teams behind them I really doubt anyone can draw a safe assumption about how the DA:O team handles expacs/DLC/story and apply it to ME2. Which of course is a good thing.

It's funny playing ME1 after ME2. So many events in the latter I'm only now learning the impact of. Cerebrus, for example. What a different organization in ME2 from ME1, at least how it's positioned. Ash and Kaiden, yea, big  sidelines in 2. But given how Cerebrus is presented in 1, it makes sense they'd want nothing to do with you in 2. I thought Liara had a pretty good role in 2, but yea, for such a big character in 1 (and for how she basically saves your life in the EU material), total sideline.

As a DLC, I'd like to see there be a huge story of about the Quarrians.

[Shrike]

I think Tali will be a shoe-in for a return. Yeah, on the Bioware social forums, she has something well over 2k pages and about 30k individual fan posts. It goes up by about a 100 a day. She's easily the most popular character in ME. She's a first run action figure and rumor has it hers have already sold out months before release.

I initially detested Miranda, but after three runs, I've become rather fond of her. By the end, she's a good troop.

Other than that, of the new crew only Samara and Mordin really caught my fancy. The rest are OK, and I wouldn't mind seeing them again. However, if they all jumped ship, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

[Tannhauser]

[Venkman]

Bah. Once again, I handed Legion over to Cerberus. I might need to do another playthrough just so I have him in a savefile somewhere.

[Stormwaltz]

Bah. Once again, I handed Legion over to Cerberus.

I'm glad they left that in. I had the idea to have an AI character you could sell out for a certain short-term gain or help for uncertain long-term gain back in 2004.

I don't are for good/evil -- I prefer to work altruism vs. egoism. It also plays into meta issues of player motivation. Are you hunting for fat lewtz, or interesting experiences?

[Tannhauser]

Honestly, I meta-gamed it.  I figure Legion has payoff down the road and not sure how much payout I'd get from IM.

[Shrike]

I have saves for both. My renegade Shepard sold Legion out. Partially, it was from I-wanna-get-this-done-quickly, and partially from some caution when dealing with Tali on this issue. My paragon ones had more long term curiosity and retained him for the team.

Should be interesting later on.

[tmp]

I'm glad they left that in. I had the idea to have an AI character you could sell out for a certain short-term gain or help for uncertain long-term gain back in 2004.

Curious btw. Is this complete turn in how the AIs are portrayed in ME2 compared to ME1 something planned from the start or just another of these things someone with higher paycheck thought would be cool?

[NowhereMan]

On the final mission I didn't have Miranda loyal since she'd had that fight with Jack and I didn't get full paragon (I'm guessing because of the Death's Head since that was my default helm, only discovered that problem afterwards) and so never got her back on side. She was leading the other team so Legion got killed doing infiltrating stuff and then Miranda died in the final defence. Which she really deserved for costing me Legion.

[rk47]

I predict ME 3 will be Dragon Age in Space! With Shepard playing the role of the Grey Spectre, protectors of the Galaxy, reuniting the various races whose Council bickering has collapsed any form of unity.

6 Planets.

Humanity: Convince your own side to see it your way!
Quarians: Solve their political dilemma with the Geth!
Geth: Can you trust Sovereign's former servants? Or is there another story behind it? Also: See Quarians.
Krogan: Overcoming the Genophage, they have two options, vengeance or redemption!
Turians: Post-Saren, Turians have fallen on the eyes of the galaxy, is their race entering a dark age?
Asarian: Biotics. Blue Tits and Head tentacles. For the Alliance!

Edits : My 100% Survival

[ajax34i]

ME3 is probably planned to be like the battle of Thermopylae: Reapers invade, we hold them off and stop them permanently from repeating the 50k-year cycle, but we all die, leaving the fate of the galaxy to the imagination.

But, the suits will get involved, and in the interest of continuing the series, humanity will actually find a deus ex machina device (a computer virus for example) that will wipe Reapers out easily while Shepard survives.  Actually he becomes immortal, just dies and gets resurrected at the beginning of each episode.

[Comstar]

Shepard will live on in books and fan fiction long after ME3. I could see a (bad because no video game movie is good) hollywood movie out of it too.


Garras needs to get his own series: Law and Order: C-Sec Investigations, Citadel edition.  Tali will play the Bones character. Legion and Tali have the Unresolved Tension. Garras gets to the punch out the Turian "air quotes" ambassador.

[Triax]

Shepard will live on in books and fan fiction long after ME3. I could see a (bad because no video game movie is good) hollywood movie out of it too.


Garras needs to get his own series: Law and Order: C-Sec Investigations, Citadel edition.  Tali will play the Bones character. Legion and Tali have the Unresolved Tension. Garras gets to the punch out the Turian "air quotes" ambassador.

I'll take your Law & Order: C-Sec and raise you to CSI: Mass Effect 2

 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWs5xdAIRQ

[Stormwaltz]

Curious btw. Is this complete turn in how the AIs are portrayed in ME2 compared to ME1 something planned from the start or just another of these things someone with higher paycheck thought would be cool?

Interesting question. I'm not sure it was "planned" so much as evolved.

[Koyasha]

It's interesting to hear that the entire story was not written out beforehand.  I would have expected that to be the case, for the entire trilogy to have been written out in its entirety before being started.

It does explain a lot of the change of feel between ME1 and ME2 knowing this is not the case.

[Lantyssa]

They likely have a general outline, but specifics are much harder to do.  Maybe the tech can't keep up, or the writers feel something doesn't fit, or the suits demand changes which has a cascade effect...

[tmp]

[Koyasha]

[tmp]

Then again, Sovereign always seemed like a bag of hot air, with its statement about being infinite or eternal or whatever.  This, obviously being an impossibility, made it clear that it had an absurdly over-inflated opinion of itself.

This is quite fair, but he's had such a perfect voice to go with these claims i was more than willing to give him benefit of the doubt

[Lantyssa]