THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: KvP on 05 Oct 2007, 14:59
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Didn't see a thread, so I'll make one.
Bioware's new RPG for the 360 (http://masseffect.bioware.com/) is out in about a month and a half (Nov 20) It has a look similar to that of their last big hit, Knights of the Old Republic, but it's a new IP. Bioware made their name on D&D (most notably the Baldur's Gate games and NWN) and Star Wars, but they've only recently been focusing on original properties. Their last game was Jade Empire, which was somewhere between okay and great, depending on where you're sitting, but Mass Effect is looking a lot different and potentially a lot better.
The plot seems to be fairly standard as far as sci-fi goes. The PC is sort of a human interstellar cop, tracking down an ancient artifact stolen by an anti-human alien militant who commands an army of robots.
Supposedly the designers were going for an 80's sci-fi blockbuster sort of feel, which has resulted in the gameplay, particularly the dialogue, being a little over-the-top (think 24) and that's alarmed some people. This is a nice sample of the game (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24938.html) that shows off some of the game's features. There's the real-time combat, and also the unique dialogue mechanics. Basically, you use the right thumbstick to choose your character's dialogue. The catch is that you only get a brief synopsis of what your character will say. The purpose of this is to introduce the concept of time into dialogue. Whereas in previous games you took the time to read through possible dialogue options before choosing one, in Mass Effect the time it takes to choose will affect what the character says and how he says it. Choosing an option rapidly, for example, might cause the PC to interrupt an NPC and threaten him, altering the course of the conversation. This is made a little easier to control through the setup of the right thumbstick as a scale, the upper left being diplomatic and the lower left being aggressive, and all options on the right being "neutral". At least, that's the way it looks. Their facial expression tech isn't the best, so it'll take some getting used to.
Bioware has also stated that this is the most non-linear game they've ever made, although it'll take quite a bit to overcome Baldur's Gate. Some of the more purist RPG gamers have criticized Bioware for not taking player choice seriously enough, with KOTOR and Jade Empire both being fairly linear. They've also mocked the tone of the game, although it's important to point it out that all demos of the game so far have made it a point to choose the most "aggressive" options possible.
Anybody else looking forward to this? I'll give Bioware a shot at anything after BG2.
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Maybe it's because I haven't played it in years, but was Baldur's Gate really THAT non-linear?? Certainly the series have you a fuckton of quests to accomplish, but to my mind you were always on a fairly linear path to an ending.
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Maybe it's because I haven't played it in years, but was Baldur's Gate really THAT non-linear?? Certainly the series have you a fuckton of quests to accomplish, but to my mind you were always on a fairly linear path to an ending.
I think what they mean by "non-linear" is that there will be an abundance of non-plot-critical areas and quests to explore. Baldur's Gate had a central storyline, but there were also vast areas to explore for no good reason at all. I don't remember KOTOR having any area of the game that didn't play into the storyline. There hasn't really been a "non-linear" game made by the definition of there not being a central storyline with a beginning and end, unless you count the various Maxis games and their ilk.
Another criticism worth noting: Some have complained that the various dialogue options are really just different ways of saying one thing, and thus Bioware still isn't implementing any choice into the game.
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I wasn't really looking forward to this game but the more information and footage that gets released, the more interested I become. So at this point I am pretty excited to play this whereas when I first about it I may have thought about renting it but probably wouldn't have bothered. Now I'll prolly buy it if I find myself needing a new game to play around that time (when it comes out).
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Fuck yes Mass Effect. This game beats out Super Mario Galaxy by a hair for the game I'm most excited to play this year. Everything Bioware does is great, this looks fantastic and has a lot of pretty ambitious features in it, and it's on Microsoft's dime so there's no doubt that it's got the necessary funding behind it.
I haven't preordered this game yet, but I find that Gamestop's online store will usually toss out a deal a few weeks before a game comes out (usually free 2-day or overnight shipping) in order to squeeze a few last preorders out of people on the fence, so I've taken to waiting for those bonuses even for games I know I want. I just did it for Phantom Hourglass, and I got free overnight shipping on my copy of Orange Box as well.
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I had no interest in Mass Effect initially, though I was (and still am) very excited about Dragon Age, but that changed after the first substantial gameplay video showed up. I pre-ordered and am currently creaming myself over the possibilities for this game.
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Also, I'm curious as to which class everybody's planning on playing? The three 'pure' classes are soldier, engineer, and adept. Soldier is obviously the combat-heavy class, the only ones that can use all weapon types and wear heavy armor. Engineer specializes in tech stuff: hacking security systems, disrupting enemy weapons, and repairing stuff. Adept is the 'mage' class, for the lack of a better term, they specialize in the 'biotic powers' that serve as the game's spells. There are also three hybrid classes, that combine two skill sets but don't the the highest, most powerful skills of either set they combine, and those are Infiltrators (soldier and engineer), Vanguard (soldier and adept), and Sentinel (engineer and adept). Personally, I'm leaning towards Vanguard, because I like using magic in my RPGs but I also like being able to dish out the hurt when I want to. Providing heavy equipment doesn't impede skill usage, I think that's what I'm going to go with.
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I'll probably go with Infiltrator. That was my approach in Deus Ex, anyways.
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The dialogue seems rather painful. It also sounds like they haven't done much environmental post-processing on it either, so it all sounds pretty flat. Of course, there's still a month of dev time left, so maybe they'll put it in?
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Game Informer (who always seem to get early exclusives for this sort of thing) gives it a 9.75 out of 10 (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/16/game-informer-gives-mass-effect-a-9-75). The excerpts from the review that I've seen (since taken down due to copyright infringement) seem to be high on hyperbole, which might be earned or might not be. so if you're mistrustful of big game media (and there isn't much reason not to be, in this case) your expectations will probably stay the way they were before.
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The dialogue seems rather painful. It also sounds like they haven't done much environmental post-processing on it either, so it all sounds pretty flat. Of course, there's still a month of dev time left, so maybe they'll put it in?
Considering the sheer volume of dialog they'll have to write and record for a game like this, I don't think it's a realistic expectation for all of it to turn out completely right. I didn't notice anything 'painful' about it at all. It's all a bit tongue-in-cheek, admittedly, but once you get past that it seems like typically high-quality BioWare writing.
And yeah, why the hell is Game Informer always the magazine that gets exclusives for everything. I remember they broke the announcement of Borderlands and the official announcement of Brutal Legend (which of course was leaked much much earlier) as well.
And for the record, Game Informer gave Heavenly Sword a 8.75 and Lair a 7.25. Admittedly I haven't played either, but the general consensus seems to be significantly less enthusiastic, especially for the latter game.
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I just assume they have the cash to work out deals. GI's also got a 2-week or thereabouts exclusivity deal for anything Fallout 3 related.
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I'd say none of the dialogue I heard was painful, but it is very 80's action Sci-Fi levels of funny. I'm a big fan of anything that successfully captures the feel for 80's Action dialog and manages to put it into a epic story as well. All we need is Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a voice cameo while fighting a hideous alien beast.
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Well, a lot of the voice actors are pretty awesome. Did anyone watch the footage of the beginning of the game on youtube? The pilot is Seth Green.
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Well, it was bound to happen at some point. Bioware has revealed their, uh, sapphic love scene (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/08/mass-effect-sex-scene-is-sfw/). Minus the nipples that are apparently making it in.
Kudos to them for cutting out the DeviantArt middle man, I guess.
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i wonder if there's an option where you can turn off your character's voice. honestly, i prefered KotOR's interface.
but hey... L E S B I A N S !
can't go wrong with that.
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Did anyone else laugh at the Titanic hand-against-window ending?
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Did anyone else laugh at the Titanic hand-against-window ending?
They are going for the whole James Cameron feel. Hopefully it'll be more Aliens than Titanic.
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Did anyone else laugh at the Titanic hand-against-window ending?
I thought it was comedy gold.
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that was a good sex scene for a video game!
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I like how the commenters under the video were complaining about the lack of nipples in the video and such. Sex scenes don't need to be explicit, and personally, when a game feels like it needs to show nudity to act mature, I'm turned off the experience and taken out of the world its supposed to inhabit. I'm glad that this wasn't too serious, and, although quite funny, didn't go farther then it needed to. It felt just right for a game that wants to focus more on other aspects of game.
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I like how the commenters under the video were complaining about the lack of nipples in the video and such. Sex scenes don't need to be explicit, and personally, when a game feels like it needs to show nudity to act mature, I'm turned off the experience and taken out of the world its supposed to inhabit. I'm glad that this wasn't too serious, and, although quite funny, didn't go farther then it needed to. It felt just right for a game that wants to focus more on other aspects of game.
They'll love round two then, heh.
*edit - whoops, they pulled the video down right as I posted. Bad luck.
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My dad just got the game in today.
So mad. I want.
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(http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070919.jpg)
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I'd be excited for it if it were coming out for PC, instead those bastards are leaving me out in the cold.
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It'll get there eventually, probably in Special Edition form ala Jade Empire. You can count on that, especially now that EA's large and in charge.
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Also, I'm curious as to which class everybody's planning on playing? Personally, I'm leaning towards Vanguard, because I like using magic in my RPGs but I also like being able to dish out the hurt when I want to.
I'm really torn between Infiltrator and Vanguard. I may end up just starting two seperate games, one as each class, and see which I like better.
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Infiltrator for me, though I'm still somewhat in the dark over what exactly the Engineer's main purpose is. Healing / defensive casting?
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I'm really torn between Infiltrator and Vanguard. I may end up just starting two seperate games, one as each class, and see which I like better.
Dude just play it through the one billion times it's meant to be played through.
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Reviews are up:
Gamespot - 8.5 (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect/review.html?page=1)
Gametrailers - 9.6 (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/27704.html)
IGN - 9.4 (http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/833/833640p1.html) (includes both video and written review)
Gamespy - 5/5 (http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/mass-e...t/836239p1.html)
Eurogamer - 8/10 (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=87875)
Praise is standard for a Bioware game (story, voice acting, etc.) and complaints are generally about load times, AI hiccups and bugs.
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Since it's a planned trilogy, I'm sure they'll fix the issues people are talking about in the reviews in the next game. In a moment of weakness over the weekend I preordered it (I almost always wait for reviews before I get a game, but the Bioware pedigree and the thought of trying to get this game on Black Friday pushed me to bite the bullet and reserve a copy) and got overnight shipping, so it should be waiting for me when I get home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday night.
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only problems I have heard so far is the lack of a tutorial and load times, specifically elevators
thank god I don't have a morning class tomorrow
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It sounds like its exactly what I was expecting and more. Even the flaws sound typical of all of my favorite RPG makers.
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I'm getting it tommorow evening. Is there a part mage part soldier? Because I hear you have to be some variation of the soldier class.
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I'm getting it tommorow evening. Is there a part mage part soldier? Because I hear you have to be some variation of the soldier class.
Also, I'm curious as to which class everybody's planning on playing? The three 'pure' classes are soldier, engineer, and adept. Soldier is obviously the combat-heavy class, the only ones that can use all weapon types and wear heavy armor. Engineer specializes in tech stuff: hacking security systems, disrupting enemy weapons, and repairing stuff. Adept is the 'mage' class, for the lack of a better term, they specialize in the 'biotic powers' that serve as the game's spells. There are also three hybrid classes, that combine two skill sets but don't the the highest, most powerful skills of either set they combine, and those are Infiltrators (soldier and engineer), Vanguard (soldier and adept), and Sentinel (engineer and adept). Personally, I'm leaning towards Vanguard, because I like using magic in my RPGs but I also like being able to dish out the hurt when I want to. Providing heavy equipment doesn't impede skill usage, I think that's what I'm going to go with.
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Getting this tomorrow after class. And then not playing it until this weekend. FUCKING HOMEWORK.
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My plan, assuming I enjoy the game enough to play through it twice, is to do the first run with a Vanguard and the second with a Sentinel.
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His plan if the game isn't good enough to play though twice is to weep bitter tears.
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Vangaurd it is!!
I'm so excited, my brother is going to buy it after he gets off from work!!! I have Super Mario Galaxy and Lord of the Rings Online to keep me company in the meantime.
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I'm about to head to work and all I can do is stare at my UPS tracker and know that Mass Effect is "out for delivery". Goddamn you work!
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My brother is playing it right now.......
I'm so jealous...
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Yes,
the pixelated, overcomplicated, blob of old crap.
Everquest 2 is pretty rockin' though.
I made an African American version of Bjork. She is a vangaurd named Ursula! Also, I'm disappointed in my vangaurdie powers so far. I mean, a little blow up disc? LAME!
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Those are grenades.
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Vanguard skill blow up discs?
Still lame.
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I'm pretty certain grenades aren't a skill, they're an item. My engineer has them as well.
Edit: Nevermind, Tech skill. Still, nades are awesome.
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I......I think I am love :cry:
I love you so much Mass Effect
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My brother wants to know,
How do you tell your teammates to use their encryption skill to open a crate/other things?
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Initial impressions:
Combat isn't as hard as people were saying. You just have to be methodical. An aiming and cover system in an RPG makes for really, really fun firefights.
Menu system isn't great, but also isn't as bad as people were saying. You get used to it.
I'm starting to think I should've just rolled a Soldier. I have yet to actually use any of my fancy-pants Vanguard powers.
Voice acting and music are impeccable.
AI is kind of wack. Setting squadmates' ability usage to Active seems to mitigate this a bit.
There really are quite an awful lot of elevators.
Graphics are gorgeous but there is indeed some clipping here and there.
I HAS A SHINY RED SHOTGUN
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I suppose there's not much point in asking whether you like it, because my copy is at home waiting for me when I get back tomorrow. I gotta ask though, does using heavy armor or weapons hamper your biotic abilities like it did in KOTOR and Baldur's Gate? If that's the case, I might just pick one of the pure classes.
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The way it seems to work is only soldiers can use heavy armor and assault rifles (as well as all the other weapons). Other classes get various combinations of light and medium armor, pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles.
That being said, even the pistol is a pretty decent weapon, at least as early into the game as I am.
I really like it so far.
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SHINY RED SHOTGUN
Well, I'm sold.
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um....how do I heal my teamates?
by far my favorite character is Wrex, space turtle killed a fucker in cold blood even after he surrendered
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I only got to play an hour and a half, and that's probably all I'll get to play until Friday after work, but here's what I've got to say:
1: In the grand scheme of things, the graphical issues (clipping, texture-loading, frame-rate dips) really don't make a difference. When you see a Thresher Maw for the first time, and realize that sucker is being rendered at a distance that is too close for someone who's running around on foot with a pistol, you'll probably shit your pants.
2: I second the audio being top-notch...this shit is amazing.
3: They have ridiculous amounts of backstory and information in the Codex, with large portions of it being voiced over. That alone is an astounding achievement.
4: Even though you get no tutorial, half the fun is figuring out what you can and can't do. *Oh shit! Explosive barrels!*
5: THE FUCKING CITADEL IS AWESOME, in the literal sense of the word, as well as the "I'm too stoned for this, dude" definition.
6: I love equipment.
7: I have no idea what the story is behind what they've already told us (and the prequel novel, which I read, and has little to do character-wise with the game (oh my god, I actually typed in film and then backspaced it out and rewrote that)), but just the alien races are just so cool (the Elcor are awesome).
8: I seriously doubt that I've had that much fun in that short of a time, ever.
And you press Y to heal your teammates, it's the button MediGel is assigned to.
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Oh god yes I love the space turtles and the space elephants with depression
space depression
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Provided I don't get mugged on my way to the airport I will be playing this game in less than 24 hours!
Hasdfkhlaskjdflasdfk want to play nowwwwww
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I'm playing a straight engineer right now, and I'm finding I'm not using many actual skills other than a seriously leveled First Aid. Anyone trying out the Adept or Vanguard that might be able to tell me if the skills are any more interesting than HUGE nade explosions? Or do I just need to roll Soldier.
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Haven't used the Vanguard skills much.
Throw would be a lot more useful if you didn't have to have someone directly in your crosshairs and THEN select the skill.
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space elephants with depression
fuck yes, every time I talk to them all I can think about is Eeyore
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Why is using a grenade the back button?
What sort of sense does this make?
NONE.
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Okay I think I just ran into a brick wall.
I'm running around on this planet looking for a scientist when all of a sudden this weird chameleon robot thing jumps down, and a whole bunch of troopers run in along with a FRIGGIN WALKER.
I run behind cover to try and take them on, only to have the chameleon fucker jump all over the place and one-shot kill me. Over and over again.
Goddamnit!
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That sounds like fun.
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Got past it this morning.
From what I can tell, the key to combat in this game is finding the appropriate piece of cover. There seems to be one spot in each encounter where if you duck behind it you're safe. Everywhere else will just get you shot.
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You can map your throw skill to the back button I believe...
Yes, the controls are god awful, Mainly, the X to draw your button out and B to holster it... Couldnt you just hold down B if you holster your weapon and tap it to change weapons?
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i think you guys convinced me to buy this today. it was a toss-up between Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4. i think it's gott be Mass Effect.
thanks internet!
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I liked CoD4 better. =P But granted, I'm 2 hours into Mass Effect and about 25 hours into CoD.
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Not to steal Mass Effect's limelight, but they're both definitely worth purchasing a 360 for.
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I got shieldzorz today!
My gripes with the game are kind of done, the R1 (I was bred on the PS2) menu is getting easier to handle.
I still despise the Character Creation system... The next Mass Effect should make the tools better. I.E background info on your character, more face/hair options.
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God I'm such a dork for talking about a video game this much on the internet.
Messed around with Vanguard abilities some more today. Throw is actually pretty useful in firefights- it does damage, but more importantly it knocks people over, giving you more breathing room to heal/cool down/shoot them some more. The Vanguard (or is it a Spectre? I forget) resurrection ability has saved my ass many, many times already.
Shield bonuses seem to be the most useful armor upgrades. Ammo upgrades can make a huge difference in a fight- armor piercing rounds really tear through robots, and anti-personnel rounds chew up squishy folks.
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I'm rerolling either as Vanguard or a Soldier tonight. Mistress Shephard will whip the pathetic synthetics into submission.
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Dude, the shield thingy vanguard power is so tight. I put that on, equip my shotgun. and sprint in, pwning some bitches.
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If you try to use throw on a gasbag, they just pop. Which is fun to do.
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Chris Priestly: Mass Effect is planned as an Xbox 360 exclusive title. This means we are not working on a PC version and have no plans to start making one.
Fuck this shit!
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Woah, calm down. How else do you expect them to finish the trilogy in 5-6 years?
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Halo managed it. Admittedly RPGs require a fair bit more work with scripting and recording than a FPS. But still I was really wanting to play this game but apparently I'm not going to be able to. There's no way I'm buying a 360 just for this.
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Why not get some of the five million other games that are awesome that don't get PC ports? Or the games that have clearly superior console versions? Are you really going to wait to play Assassin's Creed with a keyboard and mouse?
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I probably worded that last bit wrong. I was more meaning: I can't afford/not allowed a console at the moment, and even if I could I'd probably get a Wii.
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just got into the game this morning. bioware absolutely rules. the entire game has a real 80s sci-fi feel to it, especially the background tracks.
i don't think i'm gonna be playing any other game any time soon.
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I'm assuming that since you can't afford a 360/not allowed, your computer probably wouldn't run Mass Effect anyway. Assuming they did hand it off to Obsidian to port, are you sure you'd want that? As it is, they'd have to majorly rework the interface, and it wouldn't be as wieldy as the console version because of it's Full Spectrum Warrior-like nature.
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Is it just me, or are the alien races FAR more cooler then the humans. I want to be them not my overly butch Bjork.
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I went through the game as a Vanguard. Like Jeph, I initially relied on my soldier skills, but as the game went on the biotic powers became more useful, particularly the Barrier power, which gives you a bit of an edge in a firefight.
I beat the game last night with about 20 hours clocked in all told. It would've been at least 32, but I unwittingly initiated the mission that kicks the endgame into action (hint - It's the one the council gives you) and as a result there were at least 12 sidequests that I never went through. I'm going through again as a Sentinel, and it will probably take some time to collect my thought and give a more uniform assessment, but I'll do my best here.
The game as a whole seems to be a continuation of the Jade Empire design philosophy. That is to say, Bioware's focus seems to be on making gameplay more "visceral" and immediate, which I think is a mistake, but I digress. They've worked hard on a (relatively functional) real time combat system and built the game primarily around that. It's more complex and more satisfying than JE, but it still feels off. Dialogue and characterization were typical Bioware, which is to say, above average, but there isn't a lot of progress, all things considered.
I actually think the dialogue system is sort of a step down. At times it's an outright con job. Since the game lacks consistent autosaving and I sometimes forget to save manually, on those occassions when I stumble into combat and get hit with a rocket I usually have to retrace my steps back through some dialogue, and I try and mix it up a little. What I've found is that in a lot of the dialogues there are really only 1 or 2 options, when there isn't a charm / intimidate opportunity. On those occassions when there are 2 given options (right and left) they are exactly the same. So you've got angry and conciliatory. The top two options on the right are conciliatory, and the bottom is the angry one.
I'm no Codexian, but I was still disappointed with the whole "consequences" thing. There are situations in which it seems like your choices might actually have ramifications down the road for the game, particularly the choice given after tracking down the Asari matriarch, but aside from what the Council says to you immediately afterward there's no real effect on the game at all. It's pretty anticlimactic given how important every fuckin' NPC makes it sound. There is one choice that has ramifications for your group and one situation that requires a high dialogue skill to keep one of your teammates from turning on you, but they're more or less part of the endgame. When I beat the game it seemed as though the 4 different endings were entirely dependent upon 2 dialogues you get before the end.
I had a lot of trouble with texture pop-in (damnable UE3) and dialogue that took place outside of the interface (elevator banter, triggered remarks, etc.) were nearly inaudible, although it may just be something with my surround setup. Other than that, technical presentation was highly agreeable.
So, all in all, Bioware remains where it was before. I hope the second iteration in the series varies the gameplay a bit along with the inevitable engine optimization, but that's all I can do, is hope. I never really bought the hype, so this game wasn't as big of a letdown for me as it was for other kids. 8/10.
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From a development standpoint, I'm not surprised the multiple endings can be traced to certain conversations. It's not easy creating conditionals for lots and lots of variables. Heck, Bioshock only had 3 endings, and it was as simple as save all/save some/save none. And the sheer amount of dialogue choices kind of have to be lumped into groups for the endings based on said choices to make sense.
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There are a number of ways to handle multiple endings. The simplest and probably most satisfying way would be breaking it up into a slideshow ala Fallout or NWN2. You have short epilogues for every significant location and NPC, the content of which is determined by your actions. But Mass Effect is too linear for that. It looks like most if not all quests have a single outcome (although routes to that outcome may vary) and I expect most of the NPCs to show up in the sequels so Bioware may have deemed character epilogues unnecessary.
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A lot of people think slideshow finales are lame, though. You've been playing this moving, breathing game, and you're given a few stills and some dialogue as a reward?
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Well, the game's got to end sometime. At some point it would be necessary to take the player out of the game, and whether through a cutscene or a slideshow, you ought to get some kind of perspective. I would personally find a slideshow preferable to the abrupt ending that you get with ME, where the Normandy flies into the distance in grand Star Trek tradition and the credits roll.
Like I said, it might just be because ME is the first of three games, but it still would've been more satisfying to at least hear about how the few big decisions you do make (which I won't spoil) turn out, because they leave pretty big holes, and the "sacrifices" you make feel arbitrary outside of the situations in which you make them. It's not a very severe criticism, I expect Bioware to pull out all the stops with the third game at the least, but still, I don't think it's too much to ask that ME stand well on its own.
I'll have to wait patiently for the second game and see how adventurous they're willing to be with their formula. It remains to be seen whether or not Shepard will still be the protagonist or what (although ME certainly seems better suited for "epic level" play than, say, D&D) From the outset they've said that the entire Mass Effect trilogy will be designed for the 360 and released within the console's lifespan (hopefully that doesn't change with EA's recent acquisition) so I expect that they'll be improving upon and using the same assets for the sequels, which should cut down on development time considerably. Hopefully they'll have the first sequel out by '09. I'm going to make a tentative prediction and say it will have something to do with the hostile Terminus Systems or the "veil" behind which the Geth originate. But I will tire easily if they try to out-"epic" themselves, because Mass Effect may have been a little too "epic" for its own good.
We should see DLC out within the next few months, most likely extra clusters on the Galactic map. I hope they're more robust than the often generic-feeling exploration, assault and retrieval sidequests included in the game.
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Halo managed it. Admittedly RPGs require a fair bit more work with scripting and recording than a FPS. But still I was really wanting to play this game but apparently I'm not going to be able to. There's no way I'm buying a 360 just for this.
Bungie didn't do the ports to PC, which took 3 years per game, and still didn't manage to complete the trilogy in the original XBox's life span, like Bioware is trying to do on the 360 with ME while making other games that are not ME.
What I'm basically saying is 'whatever'.
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nice game, bioware.
now where's my freakin' Knights of the Old Republic III?!
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is anyone else as disapointed in the sniper rifle as i am? i mean...i've had opportunity to use it maybe three times so far and once was just those explodey-sack-balloon things at the VERY beginning of the game. i chose infiltrator because of the sniper rifle (and tech obviously) but so far it has proved mostly useless.
also; no holding your breath? what's that shit?
this game is still amazing though. i can't wait to beat it so i can play through with the other classes
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nice game, bioware.
now where's my freakin' Knights of the Old Republic III?!
I had heard a rumor that they were going to develop KOTOR3 but were holding off on an announcement until Mass Effect's release. Given that Lucasarts and Bioware recently announced they're working on a project (http://www.lucasartsbioware.com/), that's looking more likely.
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I unwittingly initiated the mission that kicks the endgame into action (hint - It's the one the council gives you)
Is that the Virmire mission, or something after it?
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I unwittingly initiated the mission that kicks the endgame into action (hint - It's the one the council gives you)
Is that the Virmire mission, or something after it?
It's the Virmire one. The one where you go after the Salarian spy team? Make sure you're satisfied with the amount of exploration / random questing you've done out in the galaxy. Although it is worth mentioning that when you beat the game, you can go back through it at the level you ended with and the game scales accordingly with its loot and difficulty (or lack thereof). It's what I'm doing at the moment.
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Man, fuck Matriarch Benezia
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Man, fuck Matriarch Benezia
I barely got through it with Ashley and Garrus as a Vanguard. You just have to find good point of cover from the Matriarch's biotic attacks that still allows you to wallop the geth and commandos that pour in.
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I finally started my game earlier today. I like it a lot, but it's very reminiscent of KOTOR. That being said, it's probably some of the most well-realized fiction I've ever seen in a video game. They really went all out creating the backstory and the universe here, and it shows. It looks fantastic, but it's got pretty noticeable texture popping. I'm playing through as a soldier right now, and I was using Garrus and Wrex as my party, but I plan on swapping out Wrex for Liara, who I just saved before I stopped playing. Garrus will handle my tech skills and Liara the biotics. I suppose it would be a bit better for my team's balance if I used Tali instead of Garrus and had one pure class from each branch, but I like Garrus's skill set. I'm going paragon this playthrough, but I'm going to be a renegade adept my second playthrough and use Tali and Ashley as my party.
I'm using my shotguns and pistols until I can get an assault rifle with a decent accuracy rating. I've got more upgrades than I know what to do with, I need to sell some of them, or convert them to omni-gel.
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What "background" is everyone using? I played through with a war hero spacer. Prominence of your origins is scant compared to that of your psych profile, which have their own sidequests and everything. It was a nice touch, though, having your character being initially recognized as war hero / last man standing / cutthroat asshole throughout the game. I was worried the backgrounds would be less than cosmetic.
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I went war hero spacer too. Weird.
I started a game on my dad's 360 just to try it out a bit before I go home and play it for real. I'm really enjoying it. It's like Gears of War meats KotOR, which shouldn't be a good thing since I hate GoW, but it is good. I'm really, really enjoying the heck of cinematic dialogue system. I think Bioware really hit the nail on the head of what they're trying to do here, which is make an RPG that actually flows like a movie without sacrificing control for the player.
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I did war hero colonist. I figured it was fitting considering my class selection.
The thing is, I really don't think it's much like Gears of War at all. I can see where the comparison comes from, but I don't really think it affects the gameplay unless you want it to. First of all, if you play it completely in real time like an action game, you're going to die. A lot. Secondly, the cover system is almost unnecessary for the most part: if you keep strafing you can dodge most of the enemy fire. Really, it's just like a slightly more action-oriented KOTOR without lightsabers.
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Huh.
Well, I've been playing it like Gears of War to great success.
I didn't even know there's a way to play it in non-real time besides stopping to use an ability.
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I went Earthborn/Survivor
I think this is probably the first real time system I've played that still felt like it fit the RPG setting, and it's done it amazingly well, especially for a first attempt.
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if you keep strafing you can dodge most of the enemy fire.
Wow that has not been my experience at ALL. Try popping out from cover on the Luna side-quests and you get mobbed by a dozen angry robots with missile launchers. Try popping out from cover when you're fighting decently-powerful biotics and they chew you up with Warp and Throw.
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Yeah, I just beat the Matriarch last night after about 20 tries. (I'm doing this on the second highest difficulty setting) There was really no strategy that worked consistently for me, so I settled with going down the staircase to a corner, waiting for her to walk off the center platform in our direction, and shoot like mad with the shotgun while her commandos ran to us from behind her. I used Barrier in there somewhere. It somehow worked.
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I won by sheer luck. First half of it was easy once I realized there was a barrier between her platform and the back area. The 2nd half raped me a couple dozen times, and Damper was the only reason I won that fight.
Also, Wrex might just beat out HK-47 for my favorite badass in an RPG.
"If the executives don't blame him for this then they're fools. You should eat them."
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if you keep strafing you can dodge most of the enemy fire.
Wow that has not been my experience at ALL. Try popping out from cover on the Luna side-quests and you get mobbed by a dozen angry robots with missile launchers. Try popping out from cover when you're fighting decently-powerful biotics and they chew you up with Warp and Throw.
Well, you're no doubt much farther in the game than I am. That tactic works for me as well as using cover right now.
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My friend is making me read the book before I can play the game. Huh.
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I wish Kaiden was less useless... I mean, I use wrex and Gaarus the most.
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It's all about Ashley and Liara for me. I'm playing Vanguard so it's good to have a full-on biotic and full-on soldier backing me up.
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but dont you need tech skills? Decryption and such.
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Never figured out how to get other people to decrypt shit for me.
I GUESS MAYBE I SHOULD'VE READ THE MANUAL
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The more I play my
Engineer Operative the more I think that playing with a straight Solder without all the fun skills would be boring as hell.
How can you really argue with causing everything in a radius to have overheated weapons, no shields and the strongest of them hacked and going berserk!
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Never figured out how to get other people to decrypt shit for me.
I GUESS MAYBE I SHOULD'VE READ THE MANUAL
You use your party's skills. If Garrus / Tali / Kaidan has the ability to decrypt hard locks, you can decrypt hard locks. It's that simple. Works the same way with First Aid.
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Oh ho!
WELL NOW I KNOW
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Besides which, dude. We all know you chose your party members based on hot sexing potential.
Unless you're not playing as a dude, in which case you can't get it on with Ashley.
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Man Ashley ain't hott
her mouth is too big for her face
also she believes in God
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I'm trying to get with Tali.
WHAT'S UNDER THAT MASK, SUGAH?
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I don't think you can, actually. I think it's Liara for either gender and then Ashley if you're a dude or Kaiden if you're a girl.
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Man that's lame. Kaidan is a complete tool. You should be able to bang ANYBODY.
what I am saying is basically that I am sexually aroused by Wrex
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He sure does have a pretty mouth.
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Man I swear it is like God is conspiring on methods to prevent me playing this game.
First it was the new digital cable at my house rendering me unable to play video games on the old TV in my living room, and now the airline put my bag on the wrong plane so my consoles are stuck at the airport until tomorrow morning. I suppose it's better this way because I actually managed to do some studying for my philosophy midterm tomorrow before I got distracted and started playing Front Mission on my DS.
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I think kaiden is kinda hot... I would chose him as my mate for my guy character.
But alas, I cant. DAMN YOU BIOWARE!
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So...I did some exploring yesterday. New things to add to my list.
8: Space Monkeys. They went there.
9: Husks are scarier than Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day when you're in a room full of crates that are only four feet apart.
That was just in one star system.
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Beat Benecia on the second try last night. It was really easy, I guess because I had already done the Thorian and a whole mess of side-quests beforehand.
The Spectre-class weapons are INCREDIBLE. The shotgun in particular just tears through motherfuckers. Definitely worth the money when they become available.
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In the context of that statement, I should add that space exploration generally rewards you lots of money. I got 8000 credits for finding a gold vein on the same planet as the space monkeys. There was a Prothean artifact hidden in a corner, and I really wanna find out what it does.
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yeah, i'll second that the Spectre class weapons are righteous. the pistol, maxed out and given the proper upgrades, destroys everyone. as does the sniper rifle (and i haven't even maxed out it's stats yet), provided you are far enough away with appropriate cover.
exploration really does net you alot of credits. at the point where i'm at in the game i get over 20k credits every time i survey a new mineral/gas/metal. i've only got 2 systems left to explore and i've got over 5 million credits, 500 or so omni-gel, and all the fancy spectre weapons on all my guys. i'm glad i chose infiltrator because i wouldn't have scored nearly as much loot if i chose a non-tech class. also, blowing up groups of enemy weapons in one fell swoop is very satisfying.
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It becomes a pain in the ass your second time through with one character. you end up with 999 omnigel, 99,999,999 (or whatever the limit is) credits and 150 items and you end up wasting all sorts of useful stuff. The best way to handle it is to buy up all the Spectre X weapons and Colossus X armor (the best in the game, looks like) you find, spend omnigel at every opportunity and sell / convert your excess equipment and you'll come out around 93,999,999 credits with room for profit from surveying and a good amount of inventory space.
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I've been away from my beloved for two days, and it's keeping me up at night.
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I really don't know why I love this game so much. It's got some pretty glaring technical issues. Significant texture popping, load times, and framerate slowdown. But even still, I just cannot put it down. I am forgoing sleep to play more of this game. Not entirely, but I was extremely reluctant to roll out of bed this morning when the alarm went off because I've been up late playing more Mass Effect the past two days.
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The reason you love the game is because sometimes a game is more than its code. Mass Effect is a game that is very much greater than the sum of its parts. It is probably the most successful attempt ever made to have a video game with a deep, new mythos that pulls you into the game, a long arcing plot and, most importantly, never makes you feel like you're watching things happen to someone else. It's more or less the most successful choose your own adventure ever made and should be a template for games to follow.
The technical flaws can be cleaned up. They're using a new engine on a new console. No one has got a handle on UE3 yet and a lot people people are calling bullshit on that tostada, but people will figure it out. There's two more games on the horizon and they will be better.
They will be better than fucking amazing and that's awesome.
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Im dissapointed at how short the main quest is.
I mean, I can actually play through it (low attention-span) but I just want more...
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yeah, i was really surprised at how short the main story-line is. it's what, like 3 or 4 actual missions or something?
the game is no less amazing because of it but i wasn't expecting to beat it in less than a week. and that's with complete exploration of every planet...i can't even imagine doing it with no optional stuff.
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Right now I'm trying to get through the main game.
My second play through I'm going to do all of the extra missions
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I'm doing a bunch of sidequests before going to Virmire. I'm already almost at level 39 with the last two planets to go so I think I'll hit the level cap by the end of the game pretty easily.
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virmire is fucking insane
I wanted to cry, I epically failed and I lost one of my favorite characters.
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i lost one of my characters too! but not in the way you're thinking (i did that too). i was fighting some flying rocket-robots and they shot a rocket right at Talis feet, launching her off a cliff into a "no play zone"
after the battle was over i tried to revive her but she just died instantly upon revival so i ran around trying to find her but i couldn't until i finally looked over the edge of this cliff and there she was lying dead on some rocks near the ocean. i watched her for a while as she revived then died over and over again. it was amusing until i realized i couldn't get her back and i was boned. she reapeared once i got into an elevator though. it was weird.
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virmire is fucking insane
I wanted to cry, I epically failed and I lost one of my favorite characters.
Shoulda maxed out your Charm stat!
:-D - MY CHARM STAT IS FULLY MAXED
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virmire is fucking insane
I wanted to cry, I epically failed and I lost one of my favorite characters.
Shoulda maxed out your Charm stat!
:-D - MY CHARM STAT IS FULLY MAXED
Yeah, seriously. It's a western RPG. If you're not maxing out at least one dialogue stat, you're doing it wrong.
I have yet to go through with a renegade / intimidate character. I wonder how different it is.
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I maxed out my Charm stat, so I'm not worried about it. It was a bit of a spoiler though when I found out who the character in question was beforehand, though. Ah well.
But yeah, I'm playing Paragon Soldier this time around, so I'm doing Renegade Adept second playthrough just to make it as different as possible. The best part is, since I have the Shotgun and Assault Rifle Expert Achievements, I'll be able to use those weapons with my adept even though I'm not supposed to!
That's another thing I really like about this game, the achievements actually relate to in-game bonuses. I know other games have done it before (Dead Rising was the first, I think) but it's something I really think more 360 games should do.
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I've scanned all the seekers except the one next to the VI, anyone know how to *remove* her?
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But yeah, I'm playing Paragon Soldier this time around, so I'm doing Renegade Adept second playthrough just to make it as different as possible. The best part is, since I have the Shotgun and Assault Rifle Expert Achievements, I'll be able to use those weapons with my adept even though I'm not supposed to!
Oh shit, that is actually awesome. I'm probably rolling a Sentinel next game and that shotgun/sniper rifle combo will be pretty sweet.
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Wait.. if you get the weapon achevement you can sue that as other calsses? Holy fuck I had no clue!
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meaning you can train with it? or you are just good at it without training? i don't get it.
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I've scanned all the seekers except the one next to the VI, anyone know how to *remove* her?
Pretty sure that one doesn't count, since I completed that sidequest without removing the VI. You just have to be really thorough. Make sure you've checked everywhere. There are 2 in the Citadel tower aside from the one you start the quest with, there's one in the back rooms behind the financial district, there's one tucked away in Flux by the Quasar machines, etc. Really, the Keeper scanning is just a means to the end of getting Shepard all around the citadel and hopefully engaged in all the little side quests they've spread throughout it. I don't remember there being any huge payoff for getting all of them scanned, but it might be part of the Codex achievement, since all the other collection quests added an entry upon completion.
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meaning you can train with it? or you are just good at it without training? i don't get it.
After you unlock the achievement you get the Talent tree for that weapon on every future character you create. I never use Sniper Rifles, so my Adept will be able to train Shotguns and Assault Rifles next playthrough and that's basically better than a Vanguard only without Medium Armor.
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Pretty sure that one doesn't count, since I completed that sidequest without removing the VI. You just have to be really thorough. Make sure you've checked everywhere. There are 2 in the Citadel tower aside from the one you start the quest with, there's one in the back rooms behind the financial district, there's one tucked away in Flux by the Quasar machines, etc. Really, the Keeper scanning is just a means to the end of getting Shepard all around the citadel and hopefully engaged in all the little side quests they've spread throughout it. I don't remember there being any huge payoff for getting all of them scanned, but it might be part of the Codex achievement, since all the other collection quests added an entry upon completion.
The only places I can think I might not have checked thoroughly are basically just the med-clinic and a hallway in the markets...whatever, outside of killing the gang members on the other planets, I believe that's the only Citadel quest I have left.
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I think there might be one in the "transition corridor" between the Wards and the Presidium. Check there. Also there is a keeper in the hallway where you find Tali, and unless you went there before or after you probably didn't have the chance to scan it.
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OK, I just finished it about an hour ago. This year has been a monumental one for video games. Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, and now Mass Effect have all been released within the last 3 months and they're all some of my favorite games of all time.
I think I'm going to open another thread for spoiler-filled plot discussion, but I have to say that I've yet to see a world of fiction so in-depth and well realized in a game. Also, it seems like Mass Effect achieves what KOTOR was aiming to do but couldn't quite achieve: making you feel like your choices really do matter, and forcing you to make really hard decisions. I think removing the whole light/dark thing and replacing it with the more ambiguous system helped that to an extent.
Also, the dialog system is totally brilliant. Sure, the conversations precede similarly in some cases no matter what you choose, but it feels like you're so much more in control. I really felt like I was in control of Shepard, not just trotting him along some path that had been set out beforehand. It's a subtle thing that makes a world of difference.
The game isn't perfect by any standards. All the criticisms about load times and texture popping and framerate are totally legitimate, but I can't remember the last time I've enjoyed a game this much. This almost rivals BGII, in my opinion. I can't wait for the next one. I'm moving on to Assassin's Creed, but I fully intend to go back and do a second playthrough with my badass biotic renegade.
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Yeah, I beat it last night. Extremely satisfying.
I really, really hope they find a way to make the choices you made in this game carry over into the sequels. That would be incredibly badass.
I'm doing a second playthrough as a Soldier. It's much a more fun class than I was expecting!
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I opened the thread for discussing spoiler-related stuff!
(By the way Jeph, that friend request from Lilarcor is me. If you're curious who the hell sent it to you, anyway.)
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I was planning on buying this game next week. Then I fell victim to what some call the Red Ring of Death. For the second time.
I'm convinced the world hates me now.
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meaning you can train with it? or you are just good at it without training? i don't get it.
After you unlock the achievement you get the Talent tree for that weapon on every future character you create. I never use Sniper Rifles, so my Adept will be able to train Shotguns and Assault Rifles next playthrough and that's basically better than a Vanguard only without Medium Armor.
I think you can only choose one bonus talent. But I've only unlocked shotguns, so I'm not sure about that.
that friend request from Lilarcor is me.
nice.
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RE: sniper rifles, I'm playing through as a soldier now and have actually found them to be quite useful in a number of situations. Heck of a lot quicker than spending 5 minutes plunking away at some hard to reach sucker with the assault rifle.
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The Sniper Rifle just happens to suck early on when you can't keep it steady, and in close quarters, like the Luna base. Otherwise it's the most powerful type of gun in the game, and it's good fun.
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Yeah, that Luna base mission is a tough one. I'm gonna try running it tech-heavy next time and see if that makes it any easier.
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It's probably the hardest fight in the game, especially the third site. The rocket drones will one-hit kill you. As a sentinel, I found the best option was to have your team hang back in the first room you enter, and then try and lure as many drones as you can into the hallway between the main area and the first room. They pack pretty tight, so you can use overload and sabotage and turn a good number of them into sitting ducks. From there just have your team hit them with the most powerful weapon they have. Biotic powers don't seem to do much.
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Oh my god I hated the Luna base so much. Although getting the the specialized class was pretty cool. I went Shock Trooper because I used shotguns and assault rifles instead of pistols and sniper rifles.
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I actually found the Luna base easy as hell. of course I was a Engineer with all of the AOE attacks, recharge times and the like all near maxed. I'm kinda dreading going through that area with my Soldier.
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Does anybody have any references re: a PC port? I was pretty sure I had read a quote from a Bioware guy here or somewhere else that the game wouldn't receive one.
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BioWare has stated repeatedly that they have no plan to make a PC port. Of course, that doesn't mean anything (MGS4, anyone?), but if they're really trying to finish the trilogy within the 360's lifespan, they're gonna have to work on a 2-year cycle at least, and that's not going to happen if they have to split up the teams to ports. It'll be interesting to see how the EA acquisition affects the platforms this game will reach. I think it'll be a good measurement of whether EA will really be hands-off with them, because since it's on UE3 this game, which already has technical issues, would no doubt take forever to get working on the PS3.
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I just started a Spacer/Ruthless Soldier. I have not had this much fun being an asshole in a game ever. It makes me hope a lot that they do a serious overhaul on KOTOR III's Darkside/Lightside system.
When I'm trying to decide if I wanna be Good or Evil, there has to be an option other than "Save the villagers and kiss babies/Rape their pets and burn the villagers alive."
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I actually found the Luna base easy as hell. of course I was a Engineer with all of the AOE attacks, recharge times and the like all near maxed. I'm kinda dreading going through that area with my Soldier.
The secret to doing it as a soldier is to have the Spectre-class assault rifle. That fucker fires something like 60 shots before overheating. It's basically a squad assault weapon. SO worth selling everything you own to get one as early as possible.
You basically just stand in the hallway entrance and spray the doorway.
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Exxxxxxcellent. I'll acquire the Assault Rifle as soon as possible.
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The best part is when you get the Frictionless Materials weapon mod on Virmire for the first time, install it on that weapon, and realize you can basically hold the trigger button down until everything in the room is dead and it won't overheat.
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Luna base was not hard at all you pansies. I didn't use Spectre weapons or anything. I just let Wrex and Tali take all of the rockets while I picked the jerks off from the end of the hallway.
Also, Something Awful's Mass Effect article (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/video-game-article/mass-effect-2.php?page=1) is kinda good, but I love the review because it basically sums up my experience thus far:
I really wanted to give it a ten because it's pretty much the game I've always wanted, but my squadmates ran in front of me and blocked the "1" and "0" keys after I told them to stay behind cover. 9/10
I will be playing one of the best games I've ever played and then line up a perfect headshot with my sniper rifle only to find it hit Wrex's ass as ten merc biotics rush in to toss me around and I couldn't see a goddamn thing coming and it is frustrating.
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The best part is when you get the Frictionless Materials weapon mod on Virmire for the first time, install it on that weapon, and realize you can basically hold the trigger button down until everything in the room is dead and it won't overheat.
Oh jesus god yes
And Ozy I haven't noticed many problems with the AI! But that is probably because I tend to be in front of my teammates doing most of the shooting. Next playthrough I'm rolling as a Soldier with Tali and whatserface Asari chick.
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I'm having a blast playing through with the Infiltrator class with a commando subset. I've barely even gotten into the storyline yet, I've just been going on a million goddamn side quests.
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god damn Luna was hard for me, though I took some satisfaction from trapping the rocket robots in the corridor making them shoot themselves
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I found the luna station easy. But I did it my second time through. I just ran around the room while Tali and Garrus distracted them, shooting em in the back with my uber charged shotgun.
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Everything is easy when you go through again with one character. Especially if you're playing below hardcore difficulty, then nothing scales and you one-hit kill just about everything.
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i love this game like a son. i don't actually own an xbox, but many of my friends do, and i heartily enjoy playing it, even though i never get very far. huzzah for Mass Effect!
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I started my Hardcore difficulty game, and I'm pretty interested in how goddamn hard the Insane difficulty will be. I can see some of the bosses just being monstrous.
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I have discovered a new joy in the game. Use Lift on an enemy in an outdoor environment, and then use a fully leveled Throw attack. I've tossed people hundreds of feet over a cliff with great joy.
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I love just using a fully-leveled Lift on people outdoors. They go up, and up, and up.....
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I need help. I'm stuck at the part after you rescue Liara and a bunch of geth and some other alien dude ambush you. I seem to die pretty quickly no matter what I do, even when I set it to casual. Also, how do you melee attack?
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Yeah, I had trouble with the Krogan.
I had my support disable and destroy his geth while I ran to the place where he enters. There's a good cover spot there to take to the rest of the geth and then I just used assassinate on the Krogan until he bit it.
It's probably a good idea to have done a few side quests before then to make sure you have Unity in addition to enough power to take him down, but I think most people go straight for Liara and hot alien boning.
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You melee by just pulling the right trigger when you're right next to them. No science to it or anything along those lines. I didn't get around to getting Liara until after I killed -----(spoiler omitted)----, lul.
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I have discovered a new joy in the game. Use Lift on an enemy in an outdoor environment, and then use a fully leveled Throw attack. I've tossed people hundreds of feet over a cliff with great joy.
If you don't have access / don't usually use biotics, this can also be simulated by hitting things with the MAKO at full speed. Sometimes the corpses will get stuck on the MAKO's geometry and you'll drag them around on the hood for awhile. It's fun.
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Yeah, I think I went for Liara way too early in the game. I just might start over...again.
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Nope, you can do it right away without too much trouble.
The trick is to immediately run for where the Krogan enters and take cover behind the big crate on the right side. You can shoot just about everybody from there with minimal exposure.
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I went for Liara right away, not actually knowing it was a major plot point. The fight was pretty hard, but on the third try my team had the Krogan behind cover for most of the fight, killed all the geth, took the sniper's position behind the box. At that point the Krogan charged us, running quickly to his death
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I just finished getting Liara and it was the first of the three main quests I did. I ended up running around shooting the Geth while my squad dampened and sabotaged them, and then flanked and took out the Krogan. Pretty easy, but then again I did pretty much all the side quests at the Citadel before I left.
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The second playthrough really breaks the difficulty curve, I think. I had the Spectre master assault rifle (for my adept character, it's worth mentioning) by halfway through Feros. Still, I'm enjoying plowing through everything and just being a general dick. Except that I think it's a testament to how good the dialog system is in this game that I sometimes don't want to choose the renegade option unless I'm sure it will actually lead to getting renegade points.
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Just wait till you get to Insane Difficulty. The mini-bosses and bosses will rape you in several different positions.
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I actually have way more fun with the broken difficulty.
I'm on my THIRD(!) playthrough now. Started up a new character and basically just churned through side-quests and geth-shooting until I could afford the Spectre weapons. Now I am unstoppable.
Incidentally, there really is nothing funnier than going to shoot an enemy only to have Liara hit them with a fully-leveled Throw which sends them flying sixty feet through the air to splatter on the back wall. Running over Geth at full speed in the Mako comes close, and some of the elevator dialogue (especially the Wrex/Tali and Tali/Liara combinations) comes close as well.
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I love Wrex/Tali convos.
Wrex: Do your people ever talk about how you created the Geth, nearly destroyed your species, and put the entire galaxy at risk?
Tali: Do your people ever talk about how you declared war on the galaxy and had to be driven to near extinction to be stopped?
Wrex: All the time...
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Dang, I used Garrus and Liara my first playthrough, and this time I'm using Ashley and Tali. I haven't gotten anything particularly funny from those combinations.
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My favorite is the Liara/Tali convo:
Tali: Considering your interest in Prothean ruins, Liara, these missions must seem like a survey to you!
Liara: I would prefer longer studies...and fewer explosions.
Tali: Yes, every piece of technology I had hoped to bring back to the flotilla has subsequently tried to kill us.
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I actually really like the renegade options so far. I'm still on Eden Prime, 2nd playthrough, minus good weapons, Hardcore difficulty. And I knocked Manuel the fuck out. She just saunters up to him slowly, says "Night, Manuel", and socks him in the jaw. It was delicious.
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So has anybody gotten the achievements for using a party member through the majority of the game? I'm interested, because it seems like most of the achievements have tangible benefits for gameplay (smart move on Bioware's part) and I wonder what the party member achievements do.
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I got the one for Garrus, but I'll have to check and see what it does.
Hm, apparently it reduces the recharge time for Damping and Overload by 10%. That just makes me wish I had done a few more missions and gotten the one for Liara now that I'm playing an adept character.
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Getting the one for Liara is rather difficult I found. You Quite literally have to do no quests (outside of the required ones) whatsoever until you get her. I found that I couldn't get it at all after doing everything my 2nd playthrough.
I'm on my 3rd play through (on Insane) and I'll eventually get back to her. I'm going for Tali/Ashley this play through.
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That's Effing Terrible about Liara's achievement. I just got the Garrus achievement and I'm at the endmission now. Fuck.
I remember looking at the achievements and thinking "I am going to have to play this game into the ground." And now I want to, infinite replayability.
So is it settled that it is easier to use a pre-existing character (I have a fully loaded 58) than to start a new character for the harder difficulties?
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You have to start a new character for the harder difficulties if you want the achievement. I doesn't give you the option of changing the difficulty before you start the game, and part of the condition is you never change the difficulty during gameplay.
It's allowed me to play each full class into the ground to get all the goddamn achievements for skills.
Also, it's pretty damn neat seeing how big of a gameplay difference it is between classes. Until later when your shields are monstrous no matter what class you are.
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Actually, as long as you set the difficulty to something harder before you finish Eden Prime, it counts.
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Strangely it never occurred to me to even try that. Oh well, I needs all of my achievements anyways.
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I think the achievements are cool and all, but I'm not sure if I'm going to play through the game as many times as it would require to get them all. I love the game to death, but I can't see myself dumping all that time just for a number on my gamertag.
And that's as someone who has way more points than you.
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agreed. i'm the type of person to play a game a million times just to get all the achievments but even i can't see myself playing through this game that many times. at least not right away...maybe later on i'll come back to it but for now...two is enough. i still have to collect all those stupid flags from Assassin's Creed.
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I don't really play games for achievements, I just don't normally have the patience for it. Dead Rising and Crackdown are two examples of games I would never be able to bother getting all of the achievements on them just because they are so ridiculous.
This game though... I'm on my 3rd play through and I'm not bored of it in any way whatsoever. It's one of 4 or 5 games I can say that about (BGII, Fallout 1&2 among them) and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Just switching between it, Psychonauts and Catan for a while should get me a ridiculous number of full game completions and 3 - 5 Saved games ready for the sequel an the Ex Packs that will be available later.
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my third playthrough is so fun now that I discovered you can fast-forward through conversations with the X button
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Heh, I found the x button pretty fast. Turn on the subtitles and read it.
I can't wait to play my 360 again. ;_;
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Matriarch Benezia is a whole new kinda fun when you roll a new Adept on Insane difficulty. It's like shoving nettles up your dick.
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see now that is not my idea of "fun"
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Is anyone reading the book?
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Already did. It's solid sci-fi, nothing Hugo-recommendable.
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Okay, so, I was a little confused about how the ally achievements worked, so I did some asking around and a Bio forumgoer responded thusly:
45 assignments and 11 missions.
...
the confusion comes with the assignments, many of which can be completed sans party. go back to normandy and talk to hackett to complete? well then, that assignment not count towards ally achievement. complete any of the goose chase assignment (minerals/writings/insignia/medallions/etc.) from galaxy map and again you gets 0 cred towards ally achieve. is 50+ total possible assignments.... something like 54. however, at least three or four is completed with a hackett dialogue on normandy. goose chase = 4 more. as you can see, if you has misfortune to complete all goose chase assignments via survey function of galaxy map, then your window o' opportunity shrinks dangerously... 'specially if you play good and skip the 3-4 shady assignments.
So a bit of a design flaw.
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i was wondering what the deal with that was.
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why is it that no guide told me that I can make Saren kill himself? I have to say, it made the whole conversation a little anti-climatic when he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
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They just announced another book to take place in the setting. It will continue in the vein of the first, except instead of a prequel it will serve as a ligament between the first and second games. It's safe to assume then that Bioware will be adopting a "canon" plotline, at least in part.
Also in case anybody was still wondering, according to interviews over at EGM Bioware plans to make it possible to play through all the games with the same character ala Baldur's Gate.
It is my hope that the sequels will, above all else, feature better and more involved villains than Saren, and that the Reapers don't immediately become public enemy #1. Perhaps a human Cerberus colonel, or something. Saren was the Sarevok, now we need an Irenicus.
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Sarevok, now we need an Irenicus.
:-o
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Oh shit, they have some syllables in common! Alert the conspiracy theorists!
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OH CREATIVE BANKRUPTCY.
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Fairly against the grain here but i found mass effect to be somewhat of a let-down. I'm not saying its a bad game, not by a long shot but i was expecting something a lot more heavily RPG-based. The main missions are really quite short, the planets are dull and lacking and the classes are pretty poor. By the time i had finished the game once i had a full "bank" with nothing of worth to spend my credits on and found myself wandering around playing the same campaigns i had just completed.
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I just got this game today.
I have already recklessly begun converting lesser firearms into credits and "omni-gel."
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Just a heads up, you may want to hang on to the level III weapon upgrades (not the ammo upgrades, just the weapon upgrades) because depending on how many side missions you do, you may still be using them through the end of the game. Especially the heat sink and weapon focus buffs. When your weapons hit VII, you're going to be able to use two weapon buffs and one ammo buff.
Also, the "omni" in "omni-gel" isn't an exaggeration. That stuff really can be used for anything *wink* *wink*
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He's trying to tell you it doubles as lube.
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Cake frosting, man. Cake frosting.
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I haven't been throwing upgrades away, but I mean if I pick up a level I shotgun why the hell would I keep it when I have enough level II and III shotguns to go around?
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Naw man, I'm talking about the weapon ups like "Heat Sink III" and "Kinetic Coil IV", rather than the weapons themselves. Of course vendor whatever weapons you want, although it's generally better to convert the I and II weapons to omnigel since you don't get much for them. And if you get better weapon ups, by all means get rid of the early ones.
What I did in my first playthrough though was converted a whole bunch of Heat Sink IVs to omnigel and then never got anything better that reduced weapon heat. Which to a completist who wants to max out his characters like me is rather galling.
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You start getting the better version of the Heat Sink (called 'Frictionless Materials') on Virmire, but that's obviously almost the end of the game.
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Oh yeah, those were excellent and I forgot about them, but there weren't enough of those to kit out all three of my characters. Like I said, this would only bother certain people (who should probably be seeking hobbies involving the outdoors). And as Jeph's pointed out, once you get the Spectre weapons and barrier maxed out, the fights are cake pretty much through the end anyway. It's actually kind of funny near the end when a Geth Prime can blow a hole through your tank in about five seconds but your team can take it down on foot about as quickly.
From reading fourms, I gather that the stuff that drops depends on your level (which is apparent anyway I guess) so getting the cool stuff like the geth weapon and the IX and X weapons before the final two missions requires pretty much doing all the side quests as far as I can tell.
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Getting level 10 tech requires a second playthrough, I'm 100% sure of it. Doing all sidequests in a single playthrough will get you to level 8 or 9, I think.
These people are all wrong!
Around the time you start getting 4th tier stuff, you should have plenty of equipment, and you'll want to start selling or gelling your less good stuff. This is a lot easier if you decide to go through the game with the same 2 people, because then you won't have to worry about equipping the whole party (except for maybe the Virmire mission, which can throw you off depending upon your chosen people) The main reason for this is that you're never really aware of the size of your inventory, and it's best to slim it down as much as possible when possible. Keep 2 at the most of every upgrade unless they have sentimental value. As you start gaining levels and the quality of found equipment follows suit, keep selling your lesser items.
But note that the higher-tier ordinance upgrades, while powerful, come with drawbacks. Snowblind rounds decrease rate of fire, inferno rounds decrease accuracy, hammerhead rounds increase heat, etc. Lower-tier upgrades don't have this problem. In particular, look out for the cryo rounds. I think they become snowblind rounds around tier 7 or 8, but hang onto them when you start getting snowblind rounds, because their shield bypass is powerful and useful later game, and the decrease in accuracy applies to whoever you're shooting instead of you.
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Yeah I never really saw the point of progressing past the highest level shredder and tungsten through the last part of the game. The high explosive ammo was fun but borderline useless. Sad to hear about the unavailability of the level X stuff because for whatever reason (I think because I chose not to save or something) my second playthrough didn't keep the levels from my first.
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That's weird. It gives you an auto-save at the end to load up when starting a new game, and that should retain all your stats.
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Either my xbox screwed up or I did. The two are equally likely :)
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Pilsner, I dunno if you've figured this out, but what you need to do is select "start new game," then go with "use existing career." It had me stumped for a moment too - "autosave" isn't quite the word I'd use.
Anyways, I'm really resurrecting this thread to talk about the completely insane Fox News thing (http://kotaku.com/348791/fox-responds-to-ea-invites-onto-news-show) going on.
To bring everyone up to speed: Fox News made erroneous claims about Mass Effect. Game journalist and one-time Kotaku guest editor Geoff Keighley tried to clear the air, but the network's panel and dime store Freud shrink Cooper Lawrence wouldn't listen. The internet got angry and spammed her book's Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble listings. Amazon.com has since turned off the comments and erased user added images for her book's page.
Electronic Arts, likewise, got upset and called out the news network on its "insulting" inaccuracies. The Fox producer of the segment in question blew off Electronic Arts' request for a correction. There still hasn't been a correction or an apology from Fox News.
EA seems pissed off. Like, really pissed off. They just bought BioWare and they probably aren't pleased with the fact that the new IP they were excited to acquire is being tremendously misrepresented in the media.
Personally I hope they sue or something. Fox News isn't backing down and doesn't seem to understand the gravity of a libel charge. It's a mere pipe dream but I'd find Fox's misery absolutely delectable were they cut down to size by a game publisher.
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Fun stuff. I especially loved the fact that Cooper Lawrence, author of several books on dating such as: The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever; Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry; The Fixer-upper Man: Turn Mr. Maybe into Mr. Right in 5 Easy Steps; -and the unforgettable Cosmo Girl’s Quiz Book: All About Guys, went up against Geoff Keighley on a subject she knows little to nothing about.
Also, talking about the basic gamer stereotype of demorilizing women when she has books with titles listed above.
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I wonder how many of us would have to swear fealty to EA to get them to pursue this to the highest court?
I'd be willing to do it, they've cut their ratio of "crap game : good game" down to a reasonable one.
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They're better than they used to be, I suppose. I trust them more than I trust the current #1 publisher, Activision. EA looks to be doing all the right things with Rock Band (they've hinted at less focus on sequels, and more focus on new content, or at the very least making sequels compatible with prior game content) and as of yet they haven't made any wrong moves with Bioware. They'll almost certainly keep Dragon Age from cancellation.
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They should totally do it. I would make a shirt that says "I take back everything bad I ever said about EA" if they sued FOX.
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Hey guys, EA Vice President Jeff Brown sent Fox a discerning letter which can be viewed here:
http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/9a630438-03bd-4c0d-a518-bbef7c467c7d.htm (http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/9a630438-03bd-4c0d-a518-bbef7c467c7d.htm)
I love how he subtly mocks the 'fair and balanced' network and calls them out on their own hypocrisy.
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Also, the author admitted (http://kotaku.com/349296/ea-vs-fox-lawrence-recants-mass-effect-judgement) she didn't understand what the sex scene was actually like before she came on the show. Doesn't make up for the condescending attitude she took, and it certainly isn't the same as the network itself admitting that they downright lied about the game, but it's a start.
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I do have to point out one inaccuracy in EA's defense:
It’s also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate
Except that you can basically have sex with the Asari consort because you don't think her gift of words was enough.
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Adam Sessler is a pretty cool guy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTh1xy5XAI&eurl=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/26/gamers-wage-war-on-mass-effect-bashers-book-garner-apology/)
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I like how Jeff Brown mentioned Family Guy, which, love it or hate it, is a show that makes it extremely clear that quite frankly, there's double standards applied to all sorts of media. Bottom line is that Mass Effect already has an MA rating and is no more offensive than say, Total Recall.
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Except that you can basically have sex with the Asari consort because you don't think her gift of words was enough.
True, but do you think that the opposing parties will ever find that out?
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I dunno man, Fox News staff would probably go with Renegade choices on instinct.
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I'm glad this is getting out to actual media instead of just being the big story of the week for the VG industry.
And big fuckin' kudos to EA for stepping up and throwing their weight around. Yeah, they're defending their purchase, their property, and their profit, but doing it in a legitimate way that respects the industry, their employees, and is bringing the stupidity of the mass media about video games to the forefront.
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If they sue, I'll start beginning to forgive EA for Westwood and Origin.
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So I totally just found out that Shepard has his/her own locker that gets random loot drops.
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Yeah Geth keep wandering into it and killing themselves.
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Jack Thompson weighs in on the EA/FNC thing. (http://kotaku.com/349423/jack-thompson-defends-mass-effect)
(You have to read it to believe it.)
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THAT SONUVA...wait...he said what now?
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Why can I not stop playing this game, WHY?!
Alright, actually, I can - my housemates keep dragging me away from my own goddamn XBox 360 so they can play it instead of me... selfish gits...
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Hey guys, go check the description of the planet Jartar in the Dis System of the Hades Gamma Cluster. Possible clues as to add-on/sequel content.
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Man, the planet descriptions are so great. I honestly read every one of them on my first playthrough.
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I've found it to be one of the best RPG's in a long time, mostly because it wasn't turn based and you actually had the opportunity to influence the way a conversation would end. That's the most exciting part of it for me. Well, that and for the second game, you carry your character over as well as any of their actions that have influenced other people, like deciding to let the council die or not.
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So, they're releasing some downloadable content March 10th. It introduces the Batarians, who are trying to get a hijacked satellite to collide with a nearby colony. 400 points.
FUCK YES
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400 points, 50 extra achievement points, and about 90 minutes of additional gameplay according to Bioware. Due to come out on March 10th. I'm mildly surprised they're putting DLC out this quickly, but I'm more than happy to pay for more content.
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sweeeeet.
Kinda makes me wonder if they are planning on releasing more than one DLC.
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I did find it odd how they put in a little rendered picture of a batarian in the codex when you never even see them in the game. That should have been a big enough clue.
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sweeeeet.
Kinda makes me wonder if they are planning on releasing more than one DLC.
Considering the sequel won't be out until sometime next year, I would say it's very likely.
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The "Bring Down the Sky" content pack will be released to Xbox LIVE® Marketplace on Monday, March 10 at 2:00 A.M. PST, and will be available for 400 Microsoft points. This is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that further expands the Mass Effect universe and continues the adventures of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy.
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They've said they're planning on doing several DLCs. And there are a few planet descriptions involving Batarians...the most interesting one is Jartar (Dis System, Hades Gamma Cluster).
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So, will we be able to play it from any point in the game, or will we have to restart to play it?
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Sounds like any other sidequest, so as long as you're between New Eden and Virmire you'll have access to it.
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ME coming to PC May 2008. (http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20080212005536&ndmHsc=v2*A1200229200000*B1202857205000*DgroupByDate*J2*L1*N1000837*Zvideo%20game&newsLang=en&beanID=202776713&viewID=news_view) Expect huge-ass sys reqs.
And I found out that contrary to my previous beliefs, Virmire doesn't auto-bookend the main storyline. I'd just did it last up to this point.
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Woot! Now lets hope it's ported well.
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Apparently it's supposed to allow you to hotkey all your tech and biotic abilities to give you a greater focus on the action so you don't have to slow it up with the selection menu.
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Surely I wasn't the only one who found the pause menu for directing teammates fairly intuitive?
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I thought it worked just fine, personally, but I see how hotkeys would help. The only thing about the PC version I would really like on the 360 would be the streamlined inventory UI, but I guess that's the tradeoff for getting the game 6 months earlier.
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The PC inventory won't be streamlined so much as not stupidly obfuscated. It's not like an accelerating scroll bar is utterly beyond the technical capacity of the 360. I'm definitely going to be playing the DLC, although an hour's worth at a time sounds lame.
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Depends on how often the DLC is being released. 90 minutes of extra gameplay a month sounds pretty reasonable. Presumably they've been working on a batch of DLC and it didn't take them 4 months to hammer out a single download.
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I'm psyched for the DLC even if it IS just more pallette-swapped planets and shooty-shooty.
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Man. There are just so many missions and assignments that I probably won't even need DLC until much later this year.
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DLC is out tonight.
Anybody played?
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downloading now. i'll get back to you.
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Downloaded it, too busy with Brawl to play it. I'll get back to it eventually.
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started playing Bring Down the Sky last night and i'm pretty optimistic. (i didn't get very far before i died and had to start over, so i haven't really made any progress).
there's a little more variety (that's actually what killed me. i wasn't expecting it) and also...
when you land on the asteroid...take the time and just look up for a while. it's pretty awesome.
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Taking a break from Brawl and downloading it.
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DLed it, not gonna have a chance until *maybe* thursday, if not then, then *maybe* the weekend. If not then, well, I'm gonna be pissed. I'm too goddamn busy all the sudden.
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I have to take a break from school in order to play Brawl. What in the Christ are you people doing with your lives that you have the time to take a break from what I'm taking a break to do?
MOSTLY I AM JEALOUS AND WANT TO PLAY SHOOTY SHOOTY SPACE BLOW UP-Y
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played it the other day. started a new mission with one of my completed characters just to play 'bring down the sky'.
don't want to spoil too much, but this mission fleshes out some of the grievances that the batarians have with the human race. the batarians feel that the council was giving humanity too much preferential treatment... mostly at the expense of batarian interests. the batarians have since left the council and have waged a campaign of piracy against humanity.
while the assault on elysium was backed by the batarian pirates, the hijacking of x57 appears to be more impromptu. i wouldn't be surprised if there are more batarian side missions released in the future.
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Actually, pretty much all of that was mentioned in the Galactic Codex.
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Anyone else read Iain M. Bank's The Algebraist? There's a surprising degree of overlap (and it's well worth a read for a sci fi geek). Expect:
-- A galactic imperium run by aliens;
-- A plot focusing on control over the means for ftl travel;
-- A galactic imperium bent on destroying AIs (thanks Frank!);
I'm not sure if these are just common sf tropes or if Mass Effect relied on Banks for inspiration.
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Interesting little tidbit for prospective PC gamers -
ME will require authentification via internet every 10 days in order to play (http://kotaku.com/387846/mass-effect-copy-protection-an-opportunity-to-use-the-adjective-draconian).
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And now we feel the effects of EA kicking in.
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I started playing a second run, and I was really disappointed I was going to have to play the same person twice.
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Also, I'm curious as to which class everybody's planning on playing? Personally, I'm leaning towards Vanguard, because I like using magic in my RPGs but I also like being able to dish out the hurt when I want to.
I'm really torn between Infiltrator and Vanguard. I may end up just starting two seperate games, one as each class, and see which I like better.
[/quote
mass effect is amazing in every class, they made huge efforts in equalizing it. Infiltrator was my personal favorite, sniping in the game was hard but worth it
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I hate to resurrect this especially positive discussion with this, but that PC DRM is aweful.
You only get 3 installs... I mean, I just read 6 pages of awesomeness and I still can't force myself to throw away money, when I only get 3 freaking installs! Gah! This is the type of game I'd come back and play 5 years from now. The chances of having those installs then are slim at best.
I've installed games that fail during installation. (my computer laughs) thats 1.
Play through it, eventually format 3 months later. Thats 2.
If I want to play it again I'd have to be damned sure I want to. IE, it sits in a box forever with 1 freaking register. Woopie.
I know they are trying to prevent this, but meh; I also tend to play games and resell them getting 50-75% back on half.com or something. Thats completely out now. I ignored it for Bioshock thanks to the revoke tool and had 5 activations. 5 activations would be fine imo. Plenty for errors and reformats, but geeze, 3?
/Sorry, whiney McWhinerson here. But man, I feel screwed. I was going to pay $50 out the gate, but now I feel compelled to wait until someone officially cracks the DRM. Then I'll burn it to a dvd and tape it to the Mass Effect disc, which I eventually either copy or get on half.com for $5, since after a couple months people will be wanting to get rid of it.
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If you've got problems (and it seems like a lot of people do, my copy's serial # allows me to play the game but not to register online, for some strange reason) and have run out of installs, tech support should give you more. Just, uh, be willing to wait a few days.
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If you've got problems (and it seems like a lot of people do, my copy's serial # allows me to play the game but not to register online, for some strange reason) and have run out of installs, tech support should give you more. Just, uh, be willing to wait a few days.
That sir is awesome, but I can't risk one of your installs if it goes wrong. Thanks anyway.
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After tiring a bit of GTAIV, I started up my Mass Effect campaign again last week and finished it last night.
The game is awesome. So much more detailed and involving that KOTOR ever was, and KOTOR was pretty detailed and involving.
I managed to play "Bring Down the Sky" right before the point of no return, which kind of broke the whole "Race against time" flow of the game, but whatevs.
I almost want to buy another copy for PC just for the streamlined UI, but really, I like getting Xbox Achievements.
My initial playthrough was with a female Shephard Infiltrator, so I guess I'll go male Soldier or Adept this time.
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See, I did a Paragon Soldier the first time, so after getting the Assault Rifle achievement I could immediately give the Renegade Adept I started next weapons he shouldn't be able to master and created a completely broken character that can use powerful guns and all the oh so amusing
Force biotic powers at the same time.
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So THAT'S why my new Adept can wield Assault Rifles and Shotguns now. Broken to the point of AWESOME, but it wasn't a particularly difficult game anyways. I'm going through a third playthru with Bio-fucker (my first 2 were with the same Soldier, to max out my level and get all the Spectre gear), and being a complete prick to everyone. Awesome.
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Got the PC version finally. I can't seem to get the DLC however.
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I'm considering getting the PC version, is there anyone here who can vouch for it being as awesome as the 360 version (which I have not actually played)?
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It's pretty damn good (well, as long as you don't start doing sidequests).
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I'm considering getting the PC version, is there anyone here who can vouch for it being as awesome as the 360 version (which I have not actually played)?
It is extremely awesome, and the redesigned (well, tweaked) user interface works incredibly well on the PC. I am lovin' it loving it' lovin' it like that.
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CMON ALREADY (http://kotaku.com/5126650/mass-effect-2-makes-a-guest-appearance-at-gdc)
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Cocktease!
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fuckfuckfuck i cannot fucking wait for me2 fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
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EA filed some sort of brief with the gov't. indicating a Q1 2010 release for ME2 on multiple platforms.
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Awesoooome. I got this for Christmas. It's fucking epic.
Probably the most gorgeous game I have yet to see.
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Fight club in Mass Effect? It's more likely then you think (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172814)
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Well, it never really hit me as unlikely to begin with; Bioware put arenas in Jade Empire, Kotor 1 and a fight club in the NWN1 OC. I dunno why but RPGs in general have a great big stiffy for gladiator style events.
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That does not sound particularly interesting.
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maybe i'm just insane but i actually enjoyed the combat and driving in mass effect more than the story so it sounds okay to me
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I didn't mind the driving so much when you were on story driven planets in which there was really only one (relatively flat) area to drive the mako, but the driving around on hilly/mountainous planets just to pick up some scrap metal sucked badly.
But yeah, mostly, you're insane.
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i actually liked driving around on virtually empty planets.
it felt more like exploring REAL space. you know, that place that's mostly empty? plus i like the whole hill-climb thing; it's like a puzzle that involves driving. it was also a lot of fun to jump off mountains at weird angles and fire the boosters.
maybe i'm just easily amused.
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I didn't mind it that much either, but it was still largely copy-pasted from a source that was pretty terribly designed in the first place.
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I thought it was sort of cool the first time, but got old quickly. Then again, I still feel like mass effect's primary quests were so good and nicely paced that the side quests couldn't help but feel kind of janky. Still one of my favorite games; it's all relative, really.
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I still feel like BG2 is the gold standard - instead of 3 two-hour long mandatory large quests with assorted optional little combat missions leading to a bottlenecked conclusion, you had 10, 11, 12 two-hour long, mostly optional large quests with an even greater variety of little missions leading to a bottlenecked conclusion. Bioware's games have gotten progressively tighter since BG2, with Jade Empire being the worst of the bunch, for numerous reasons. ME tried to have it both ways but it ended up just being a KOTOR-style linear romp with a lot of blubbery noise tacked onto it.
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I have no beef with that opinion. I mean, honestly, in BGII you can stop an evil, self-mutilating cult by delving into the sewers of a great city and enlisting the aid of a forgotten god. If that doesn't really interest you, you can always go put an end to Lavok, a selfish necromancer who preys upon the lifeforce of his descendents and travels the planes in a gigantic arcane sphere. Of course, it turns out that he has since redeemed himself by sacrificing his sanity in order to contain an even greater evil, but in the meantime you still need to figure out how the hell to get the damn sphere back home, because by now you've managed to get your silly as trapped in the Abyss. Entire game series have been spawned from less.
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man, that sounds fucking sweet
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Baldur's Gate II was a pretty amazing game. You should try it out if you haven't!
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My love for BG2 is unconditional. I don't even really bother to compare other games to it because it seems rather unfair, all things considered. Voice acting and cut scenes ares pretty much de rigueur these days, and scripting events into an otherwise fairly wide open game world is tricky enough as it is; BGII was actually rather buggy when it first came out. I don't honestly expect to see a game that matches its odd combination of linearity and breadth while still adhering to modern day presentation standards any time soon. When I call a game like Mass Effect one of my favorites, I just mean it's entered the Pantheon of my affections, not that it really matches up with BG2 or Fallout. It also doesn't hurt that those games came into my life back when I still cared perhaps a bit too much about video games in general.
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I would put Morrowind on the same level as BG2, I think. Baldur's Gate has the whole isometric thing going for it though, I love that.
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I'm not a big Bethesda fan, although Morrowind is better than their other stuff, even if I didn't really particularly care for it that much. I'm comfortable with supplying my own narrative, but only up to a point. Morrowind has a fair amount of freedom but years later, I can't really remember any particularly memorable quests or even who the major bad guy was, whereas I wrote the stuff about the Baldur's Gate II quests pretty much off the top of my head.
Objectively, Morrowind has more substance than BG2 did, but I didn't give a shit about any of it. The books you could pick up and read throughout the game were generally more interesting than anything that ever happened to my character.
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I agree, to an extent. Morrowind does have some fairly memorable quests, I haven't played it in a long time but I distinctively remember some really interesting quests you could do for the Daedric gods. And some random cool side quests, those beginning ones in Seyda Neen are really memorable, like stealing the dudes ring.
But then you have such memorable quests in Baldur's Gate 2 like the one where you have to track down a serial killer skinning people, and it spans over several different side quests, epic. Or the cult of the eyeless quest, or the shadow dragon. Yeah, fuck, some really memorable shit there. The expansion had some awesome stuff too, not as good though.
Morrowind's advantage I suppose was always the open ended aspect, though there are some cool things to find, like the Orc who you find carrying "Umbra", or the line of quests where you work for this noble and eventually expose him as being crooked and get him arrested.
Icewind Dale (+expansion) and IWD 2 are the other great ones I don't think anyone has mentioned so far in this thread. Those dungeon crawls are very engrossing, just like actually sitting down in a basement and doing some hardcore D&Ding. I usually play epic Doom metal, like Candlemass.
Knights Of The Old Republic stands as being far more linear compared to BG and Morrowind, but probably the most non linear dialog and memorable story/characters/plot twists of any recent games.
On the actual topic of the thread, Mass Effect, well, I enjoyed it. But one thing that really irked me was the fact that you had little real choice in the progression of the game, and the "side quests" had absolutely no non-linearity, aside from dialog choices that still filtered you into the same situation. Bioware must have known this, I am just going to assume EA forced them to release it ahead of schedule, or the same reason they re-used textures (not enough space on the disc). Well, at least the combat was fun and you had a few choices with that.
And I'll stop my musings on RPGs, as I could go on for pages.
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ME got pushed back a few times, so I don't think it was rushed, necessarily. If they were planning on making the sidequests any more in-depth than they did they bit off way, way more than they could chew, honestly.
And if anything I'd attribute the linearity of dialogue in post-BG2 Bioware games to their commitment to having 100% of all dialogue VA'd. Although when you really got down to it none of the Bioware games were all that non-linear w/r/t dialogue. The Troika dudes and especially Black Isle under Chris Avellone (hello Planescape: Torment) consistently blew them out of the fuckin' water. Bioware was just good at eliciting a particular sort of epic drama in their games.
As for the Icewind Dales, they're still fun but incredibly linear dungeonhacks in every sense. I know the project lead on them, sorta. It sucks for the guy because he was heading up BG3 and the original Fallout 3 when they got canned and now his current project (the Aliens RPG out of Obsidian) may be cancelled as well. At the very least it's on ice for awhile.
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Bioware was just good at eliciting a particular sort of epic drama in their games.
Location, location, location.
BG1 is a great game, but a lot of things happen Out in the Woods or In Some Damn Cave. A lot of the backdrops and setpieces simply aren't all that memorable. It was a fun game, but many of the quests tend to bleed together into one forest green mush, and much like with Morrowind, it could feel a bit repetitive while I was playing it. BG2, on the other hand didn't send you out scrambling through the woods. It sent you to Suldanesselar, or Spellhold, or the Planar Sphere or into the Underdark, and all of those areas had their own visual style and identity. The visual part of the equation is not something to be underestimated by any means either-- go ask Blizzard or the guys at SCE Santa Monica. Neither Diablo II or World Of Warcraft were the best looking games when they came out, and they are both repetitive by nature. On the other hand, Blizzard's art department does a masterful job of giving each area its own color palette and creating visual variety even if there isn't any real gameplay variety. Same deal with God of War; the game never really changes all that much, but people sure seem to remember the backdrops without a problem. The difference between a decent game and genre poster boy comes down to sleight of hand and a sense of drama more often than people think.
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I think by and large that is how you sell a repetitive game.
I do not remember God of War for combat. I typically hate action games like that. But it had really fucking good setpieces for the puzzles. God of War 2 was even better at this.
When I first heard about Mass Effect, I was led into thinking that the other unexplored worlds would be a little more interesting than they were. I still enjoyed the game quite a lot (I had 2 saves completed and one halfway done before moving on to the games I got for Christmas that year), but the only real difference between each of those places was mostly the color of the ground and/or sky. I still love the shit out of Oblivion/Morrowind/Fallout 3. Even though they did not have quite so varied dungeons and locales (this was pretty much the reason I actually bought Two Worlds, what a dumb idea), they found ways to make most of the dungeons have unique qualities. The notes left behind by corpses, a hidden door that led to a Goonies-esque pirate ship in a cave, a domino setup made of Abraxo cleaner and BlamCo Mac and cheese, the family dungeon in Shivering Isles that had a trap that dropped money on you. Fuck all if I can remember the names of the ones I've been to, but I remember quite a lot of awesome little things that I found while mucking about.