Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Velorath]

Glad they aren't trying to shoehorn multiplayer into ME3 somehow.  And yeah, assuming Tali comes back also I'm pretty happy with the returning characters as well.  Thane is the only other character from ME2 I'd really like to see return but his absence would be understandable.

[Sjofn]

Tali might be busy being an admiral. 

[Strazos]

Finally got the free PC version to work, starting as a FemShep soldier on Hardcore.

Hell, this shutdown might give me the time to blow through this thing, which would really put me in a spot when considering which version of ME3 to buy. My 360 Shep is my more serious playthrough...

Really wish I could just buy the game, and get both versions.

[Jeff Kelly]

Femshep get's kinda screwed (Hah!) with the romance options in both 1 and 2.

Manshep has Ashley, Miranda, Tali, Jack and Liara. (and possibly Samara and Kelly)
Femshep has Kayden (who's kinda wussy), Jacob (who's kinda obsessed with his abs), a terminally ill ex-assasin or Garrus who is more awkward around femshep  than most nerds would be around actual women. Oh and Liara.

Also Manshep can at least dress like a boss while the female squad mates usually dress very inappropriately or look very grandmotherly

[Strazos]

Oh, I thought Samara refuses to be with you no matter what, which is what happened in my last playthrough.

My ME2 FemShep is going to be sort of a badass jerk. She's already not huge on Cerebrus, so I guess she's just go sans romance.

[Koyasha]

Samara does refuse no matter what, and Kelly is available for female Shepard as well, at least to the degree that she is at all.

Also, if you want to edit ME1 selections and don't have a save to import, the save editor allows you to do it, but you have to edit a save then re-import from that save.

[Sjofn]

The only romance option for ladies that isn't particularly appealing, imo, is Jacob, because the man is unbuttered toast. Which is sort of a shame, because I liked his voice actor when the guy had something to work with. However, it seemed like ... I don't know. They wanted Jacob to be so normal they made him 98% personality-free.

Kaidan's only problem, as I see it, is he's voiced by the dude who did Carth, and sounds exactly like him. So even though he does not, in fact, whine about things, people just put him in the Whine Zone because zomgcartharghghghgh. Every time Kaidan talks about bad shit, you can be all "oh you poor baby" and he's like "it's really not a big deal, I'm just making conversation here. I worked that shit out already." He is cursed with not having any Major Issues and being human in a Space Game, of course, but that isn't really his fault.

As far as I've seen, the ladies have NO PROBLEM with Thane or Garrus. Garrus in particular I find baffling (dude has no lips), but he generates a LOT of squee among the straight lady ME fans. He's stuck in my friendzone, personally. He's probably the best friend of all my Shepards, but none of them want to tap that. Because again: NO LIPS.

Of course, the only one remotely appealing to lesbians is Liara, who I found fantastically boring until LotSB, so they're even more screwed. And gay men are even worse off. :(

My poor MANSHEP. Only gay man in space, apparently.


Ashley is a racist (sorry! She is! She's also dead in all my games!), Tali is jailbait as far as I'm concerned (and also way too little sister), Miranda is a gigantic bitch, Jack is FUCKING BROKEN, and Liara is a walking yawn. So ... I can't say MANSHEP actually has great choices either. ;)

[tmp]

However, it seemed like ... I don't know. They wanted Jacob to be so normal they made him 98% personality-free.

Jacob is basically another Shepard originally made for the spin-off game -- tough marine guy, no issues. So yeah, he's got Shepard-level of personality and that makes character total bore when the player isn't personally invested in choosing his/her dialogue lines 

[Sjofn]

Yeah, good point, I would probably hate Shepard as a love interest too.

[Shrike]

Yah, I'm kind of a Merrill fan.  Not as much Tali, as I'm a bit afraid of what's under the suit.  Might be sexing some sort of frog person.

Don't make me change my avatar again.

Personally, I'm willing to bet on space elves. Seems a Bioware staple. Elves, that is. Big eyes, nocturnal tendencies, live in trees...elves.

[cironian]

Big eyes, nocturnal tendencies, live in trees...

The secret weapon against the Reapers.

[Azuredream]

I thought ME2 improved my femshep's relationship with Kaidan, since it actually made it interesting. That playthrough also remained faithful, I better be rewarded in ME3.

I really liked Miranda and I am assuming my Manshep will get a cameo from her or I will be angry.

[Minvaren]

Still reading this entire thread (1/3rd done), but wanted to toss out some thoughts as I just finished:

- Hacking was better than it used to be, but still not great.
- Stormwaltz, awesome job on Thane.
- The mission with Joker, EDI, and "oh shit..." was 
- Figured that choices near the end affected people dying - didn't realize you could do it flawlessly.
- Maybe I'm not the goody-goody I used to be, but I found myself getting Renegade points when not attempting to...?
- Particle Beam seemed a bit broken, did the RPG play the same way?
- Played Vanguard with Area Charge and Fire Ammo.  Most fun team : Jack and Samara.  Enemies flying everywhere...   
- Are the recruitment phases random, or based on if you or Illusive Man picks first?
- Definitely better in most ways than ME1, but feels console-ized as some have mentioned.


I presumed I wouldn't replay (based on #1), so I tried to do as much as possible - about 28 hours played.  All upgrades/loyalty missions/DLC/etc..  at the endgame I lost Legion after the hack at the doors (wrong other team leader), lost Zaeed at the next doors (too slow?), and Mordin on the way out (too slow?).


Ok, back to reading...

[Sjofn]

The recruitment missions are set in stone. You'll always recruit the people you do in the pre/post Horizon section they appeared in your first time through.

[Paelos]

Miranda was the only obvious choice for me. I don't dig the blue women and Jack is likely to cut you.

Plus the Aussie accent is hawt on chicks.

[Strazos]

And her default uni was hawt. 

[Ratman_tf]

And her default uni was hawt. 

[Strazos]

And I'm sure it will look even better on my PC playthrough. 

[Ratman_tf]

Ok. I'm caught up with all the DLC. (except the barbie dressup shit)

Arrival was ok. I've just submitted to the fact that ME games are never going to have quite the responses I'd like to choose, so I pick the one that stinks the least, and watch the story they've lined up.

Really, I think I'd rather see the DLC put into ME3, instead of the (seemingly) half-assed treatment.

[TripleDES]

I bring the goods.

http://gamingeverything.com/?p=3178

[Sjofn]

New Ashley has sort of creepy vacant eyes in that picture of her. Also I think that might be New Kaidan on the first page? He has the same weird plastic hair. 

Oh, Mass Effect. Your universe is just so fugly. 

[Jeff Kelly]

They shouldn't try to make the people look realistic but rather look great.

I liked Uncharted 2 a lot in that respect. They didn't try as hard to make the models as realistic as possible and instead made them look and act convincing. I don't think that that's just an uncanny valley effect.

[Surlyboi]

Big eyes, nocturnal tendencies, live in trees...

The secret weapon against the Reapers.

Oh, you son of a bitch.

Now I've got to get spilled sake out of my couch and my nose still stings.

[tmp]

I bring the goods.

http://gamingeverything.com/?p=3178

They totally missed the opportunity with female Batarian on page 4. Four eyes, but only two breasts?

[Polysorbate80]

I bring the goods.

http://gamingeverything.com/?p=3178

They totally missed the opportunity with female Batarian on page 4. Four eyes, but only two breasts?

Then we'd need to buy every Batarian woman in the universe one of these:

[Lantyssa]

That shirt needs four arrows.

[Khaldun]

I'm almost tempted to make a renegade Manshep and find out what romancing Jack is like, but...no. Besides my manSheps are always Dudley Do-Rights. Femsheps are renegades.

[Jeff Kelly]

Jack is strange because you basically "lock her in" for a romance just by being nice to her. It's the only one where it's never telegraphed to you in an obvious manner. I only realized it on my first playthrough because Liara made a scene about it in LotSB (she was my love interest in 1 with that char).

Apart from that it's eerily spot on in describing a paranoid and bipolar person. It's always "I like that you are being nice to me FUCK YOU FOR BEING NICE TO ME" and "I want to be with you STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME FUCKER!" usually in the same sentence.

It's also creepy in a way because while Tali may give the impression of being a "little sister" type because of her age, Jack is genuinely only ten years old when she is emotionally vulnerable, like in her loyalty mission.

Also she's the only one that refuses to talk to you at all after you break up with her (the others are just stuck at their final dialogue), except to say Fuck you and when you take her up to her offer of sex half way through your romance you destroy any possibility for her being loyal to you ever.

It's honestly the most realistic character in ME2 which breaks immersion at times because she's to real for the setting. In no small part because of the amazing VO actress.

[Bunk]

Jack was really the only part of ME2 that I felt I didn't "get right" in what will be my "main" playthrough. I somewhat arbitrarily sided with Miranda in their argument, and she's been pissed off at me since. I know its possible to bring her around, but I played a very middle of the road character and ended up at about 80% each Paragon/Renegade.

Unfortunately, the various DLC gave you little to no paragon/renegade points at all, so she appears to be stuck as the only person not loyal to me (though they all survived the final mission).

[MournelitheCalix]

- Stormwaltz, awesome job on Thane.

Wow, yeah  I want to echo the comments here.  Thane is one of the more memorable characters to me to.  His conversations/recall especially in both the ship and the interaction with "mouse" was handled really well.

[Ratman_tf]

Jack was really the only part of ME2 that I felt I didn't "get right" in what will be my "main" playthrough. I somewhat arbitrarily sided with Miranda in their argument, and she's been pissed off at me since. I know its possible to bring her around, but I played a very middle of the road character and ended up at about 80% each Paragon/Renegade.

Unfortunately, the various DLC gave you little to no paragon/renegade points at all, so she appears to be stuck as the only person not loyal to me (though they all survived the final mission).

I sided with Miranda (big Miranda fan) and lost Jack in the suicide mission. She was my only casualty, so it kinda got to me that Jack died pissed off at me.

Good lord, a romance with Jack? I agree that it's creepy as fuck due to her being fucking insane, and also (to be blunt) she looks about as appealing as a street bum.

[Ingmar]

If you can get past the outfit and the haircut and the tattoos, her face is actually quite pretty! 

[Koyasha]

I have really wanted to do a Jack romance, but haven't gotten around to it cause I just don't like male Shepard, so I've never really gotten through to play with him.  I only saw Tali's romance because someone put up some save files that had the romance activated for female shepard (and she has some of the lines too, so it was originally voiced, just like femshep/ashley was voiced but not included in ME1).

Maybe sometime I'll manage to get over my manshep hate and play one with him so I can see Jack's.  Or maybe I'll find a mod that lets me romance Jack as femshep.  Heh.

[Fordel]

Jack needs like 3 years of therapy before any Shepard of mine would think of romancing her.

[Mosesandstick]

I thought Jack was an awesome character. The start of the relationship is a bit off, such as being locked in by being friendly to her, otherwise I think it's a rewarding relationship. However it seemed really out of place. ME2 seemed like a "rush" to get the collectors and Jack seems like the sort of woman who needs more than a bit of time.