Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Sky]

I use the shield/synthetic piercing one with my assault rifle (I'm a soldier). Building up cryo ammo right now for an alternate. I let squad members use whatever they have, I didn't take the squad versions of mine, though I plan on taking squad cryo for times when I'm grouped with people who don't have ammo mods. With the advanced assault rifle and maxed ammo mod I slice through any synthetic section quick enough.

And the maxed out fire grenades + Morden's incendiary is   for meatbags. I find I swap out members more in ME2 than ME1, where I mostly stuck with my Shepard's Angels. Trying to leave Jack and Zaeed (here's a little ditty) for my badass playthrough later.

[rk47]

Late game enemies usually have armor points, so I go with Armor Piercing Squad unlock and let everyone else just Warp everything.
The two late addition recruits are quite effective at destroying anything with their biotics and Assault Rifle + Sniper Rifle equips. My last play as Sentinel focused on survival with Tech Armor active.

[Shrike]

The Locust is essentially a one handed version of the GPR. It doesn't have the onhand ammo capacity of the GPR (20 vs. 40), but in every other aspect it apes it pretty closely. The Tempest is superior in close quarters, but in every other area, it pretty much rocks.

So, what do you think of the various ammo mods? I'm pretty much used to incendiary and warp (my Vanguard has squad versions of both). Didn't bother with cryo, haven't really tried armor piercing or any of the others...

Incendiary is pretty much the shiznit, regardless of who you are. My Sentinal(s) used both AP and warp; either work fine. I kinda prefer warp, but it's basically half a dozen of one or six of another. The only noticeable difference is warp will prevent regen, which helps in a few situations.

[eldaec]

This game has the worst fucking UI I have ever seen in my life.

I can't even tell what DLC is installed.

[sickrubik]

Speaking of DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker announced.

The latest Mass Effect 2 DLC has been revealed, Lair of the Shadow Broker!
Two years ago, Commander Shepard died and Liara T'Soni fought in a desperate struggle against the Shadow Broker to recover her former Commander. Now that Shepard is back, it's time to even the score.
Team up with Liara and confront the mysterious and sinister Shadow Broker in the latest expansion to Mass Effect 2, coming soon! In the mean time check out three new screenshots and stay tuned for more info on Lair of the Shadow Broker.

[LK]

This should have been saved for Mass Effect 3. God damn it.

[tmp]

Hmm i was hoping my failure to track down the spy of Shadow Broker would result in Liara being dead by the time ME3 shows up, which would save me trying to explain the awkward Garrus situation. Looks like not much chance for that, now. 

[Shrike]

Speaking of DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker announced.

The latest Mass Effect 2 DLC has been revealed, Lair of the Shadow Broker!
Two years ago, Commander Shepard died and Liara T'Soni fought in a desperate struggle against the Shadow Broker to recover her former Commander. Now that Shepard is back, it's time to even the score.
Team up with Liara and confront the mysterious and sinister Shadow Broker in the latest expansion to Mass Effect 2, coming soon! In the mean time check out three new screenshots and stay tuned for more info on Lair of the Shadow Broker.

Hah! Bingo. I knew it.

Moreover, bring on that story-driven DLC. About damned time. Guess we won't have the Shadow Broker to kick around in ME3. Also, it'll (hopefully) be about time to tell Liara where to get off. She still creeps me out.

[TripleDES]

Probably gonna be a lackluster reveal, if this storyline is worth to be released as DLC only. They probably threw that Shadowbroker stuff without much thought into ME1, as backdrop for Tali's stuff, and failed to think up a decent story for it to put in ME3, or ME2 for that matter. Now they are trying to get rid of that plot.

Also, there's partial voiced dialog of this stuff already in ME2. Someone put it on Youtube and it wasn't stellar. Maybe they've reworked it.

Spoilers here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNdH6PBTB8

[LK]

The burning question is Can I fuck Liara T'soni?

After stopping the Collectors, my Shepard has had a raging case of blue balls. Er, blue ovaries?

Seriously, you put in a fanservice race, something Lucas would never let you do (P.S. Thank you), and then don't even offer up any blue nookie in your sequel, but plenty of tease!

I want at least five Asari options in ME3. 

Funny thing about Samara: one of the core traits of her initial concept was that she would never  be a romance option. Teased from the start!

[Shrike]

Don't forget Shiala. She--assuming you didn't go all renegade on her in ME1--makes a pretty determined pass at Shepard on Illium.

[Stormwaltz]

Also, there's partial voiced dialog of this stuff already in ME2. Someone put it on Youtube and it wasn't stellar. Maybe they've reworked it.

I hope so. That appears to contradict what the writers wanted to do with the Shadow Broker.

[LK]

Far as I can tell with you and Kindregan gone, there's been a change in the guard?

[Stormwaltz]

Brian and I left, and Drew Karpyshyn transferred to Austin.

When I left, the writing team was slated to be ME1 vets Mac Walters (taking over for Drew as lead), Patrick Weekes, and Luke Kristiansen, with ME2 additions Malcolm Azania and Chris Hepler. Chris took my place as tech guy - he came up with the idea that Sovereign was hooting streams of molten metal and that Normandy's upgraded kinetic barriers rotate.

Hm... a quick intertube search reveals Malcolm has left BioWare too -- he's lead writer on Maxis' Darkspore.

[LK]

Don't know if I could ever work there given the caliber, but being a production assistant for the writing team sounds like fun.

[LK]

http://www.indiegogo.com/Samara-from-Mass-Effect-2-cosplay-with-the-real-model-?a=40094&i=fbst

Just throwing this out there. It's a project I want to see happen and support and I don't think I've seen anything like it before.

If anyone is familiar with Holly Conrad, she's involved, or at least part of the promotion, of this. They did the awesome Mass Effect 2 cosplay at Comic-Con and PAX. This would be something like that but using industry professionals to recreate Samara with the original model (!!!) for her.

I've never head of indiegogo and was a little skeptical at first; after they touched up the website and the buzz started to be generated on it, I threw some money in.

[Tebonas]

5000 dollars seems a wee bit expensive to me for the material only, or am I missing something here?

[LK]

Most high-scale costumes can run 10k to 15k, from what I saw. Make-up, professional's times to design and manufacture the costume, etc.

[Lantyssa]

5000 dollars seems a wee bit expensive to me for the material only, or am I missing something here?

Boob jobs are pretty costly.

[LK]

  I was trying to ignore that part.

[Stormwaltz]

/wordsfail

[Lantyssa]

I was trying to ignore that part.

That's pretty hard to do considering Samara's outfit.

[LK]

/wordsfail

That sounds like something bad. o_o; Should I worry about my donation?

[PalmTrees]

Played through Lair of the Shadowbroker last night. Except for the driving part it was a good side mission. The Shep I used had hooked up with Garrus and it looked like there was a way to try and get back with Liara but I didn't try it. I think one of my other Sheps stayed true to Liara, or would be willing to dump their 2 romance so I'll see how that goes.

[Shrike]

Finished it same night it came out. Both 360 and PC (don't ask). Not hugely long, but it's a helluva ride. Probably the best DLC to date, and not leastwise because it actually moves the story forward. I haven't done my renegade Shepards yet (they have yet to get past Overlord), so it's one sentinel femshep (renegade) and two paragon Shepards (one war hero, one ruthless; both soldiers). I've never been too fond of Liara, but she earned a degree of respect in this op. She's become quite the hardass. Any good Shepard would approve.

[Stormwaltz]

When I left

[PalmTrees]

Yeah, that would make more sense and be more interesting than what we got.

[Tebonas]

So I won't buy that DLC and will go with your original version. Do I remember that wrong or is the Shadow Broker even introduced around the time we


That would have been a lovely symmetry of events.

[Lantyssa]

So I won't buy that DLC and will go with your original version. Do I remember that wrong or is the Shadow Broker even introduced around the time we

They were less then ten meters apart, so yes.  I always wanted more from that quest, too.  "Look, I let you go and you cut me a share of your profits... we both win, nobody gets blown up, maybe I'll see you in space one day and we can laugh about our time back on the Citadel."

[Shrike]

Mixed feelings about this. The AI thing sounds very cool and I do like that sort of story (grew up with BOLOs and such). On the other hand, it is what it is. The DLC is quite good and if you're planning on playing ME3, I wouldn't pass it by.

[Stormwaltz]

So I won't buy that DLC and will go with your original version.

There are other reasons to buy the DLC. Did you like the Tali and/or Garrus romances? Shadowbroker is written by the same guy, Patrick Weekes. Liara and Shepard can reconnect nicely.

[Tebonas]

Thats a good point, personally I distaste Romances in games and try to ignore them, but good content is good content.

[PalmTrees]

[Njal]

[Maledict]

Mm, that's not the Shadowbroker race AI. It's an Ogre from Dragon Age: Origins isn't it?

Re. spider - I really didn't get spider from the end race. It was a Batarian / Solarian / Krogon cross over from what I could tell.