Ghost Train Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 A dating sim? Why... if ME were any more dumbed down it would be bejeweled in space! Because lord knows it ain't a real RPG unless 90% of the time is spent monkeying around with your inventory and trying to figure out the best gear on an excel spreadsheet. I do spend a large portion of my online gaming time staring at what amounts to an Excel spreadsheet with a nice space combat themed UI. They were nice enough to throw in a little calculator so I can figure out things like maximum missile range or the probability of my ECM jammers.
eugimon Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 I do spend a large portion of my online gaming time staring at what amounts to an Excel spreadsheet with a nice space combat themed UI. They were nice enough to throw in a little calculator so I can figure out things like maximum missile range or the probability of my ECM jammers. I like to roleplay classes other than accountants and inventory managers.
HoveringCheesecake Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 A dating sim? Why... if ME were any more dumbed down it would be bejeweled in space! Because lord knows it ain't a real RPG unless 90% of the time is spent monkeying around with your inventory and trying to figure out the best gear on an excel spreadsheet. While I'd agree that the original inventory system was a disaster on the 360 (didn't play the PC version), ME2 did not have ENOUGH RPG elements. I'm hoping that they find the happy medium with the inventory system. More armors, more weapons, and weapon upgrades that I don't just find on missions. "THIS COULD BE INTERESTING!" I want to pick my upgrades like I did before. Maybe not to the level of ME, since the amount of armor, guns from different manufacturers, and upgrades was a little silly. But there has to be a sweet spot. Likewise with planet exploration. Mako, at least the way it was first used for UNC missions - obnoxious. Hammerhead - a faster "armored vehicle" with armor plating as thick as a tin can that I can't get out of before it explodes. Common now. At least they appear to have realized that mining planets over and over does not equate to good gameplay. Make people work for resources, fine, but probing planets destroys the flow of the game at times.
eugimon Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 I just dont equate inventory management with "role playing". I agree that there could be more armor variety but there's a ton of customization available. The different guns aren't just upgrades of one another but have unique attributes to fit gameplay style, how you upgrade your party members has real strategic importance (they're not just stronger but can either compliment your style of play or help make up for any deficiencies you may have). As for world exploration, I agree they still haven't figured that out. But on the whole, I'll take a few well designed maps over a dozen empty worlds with the same few crates and bases thrown into the corners any day.
Lynx7725 Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 My opinion is that if you want to run it as an RPG, then make the Paragon/ Renegade choices have more of an obvious impact. It's a bit weird to see Samara calmly accepting me kicking an Eclipse merc out the window. Or Jack sticking around with a goody-two-shoe Paragon. But Real-Life concerns got to cap the feasibility of that... Prefer a bit more mix of armour and customization, but just a little more. The level of inventory management is just about right, but a bit more variety is nice. Planet scanning does nothing to the game other than to slow it down. You mine resources simply because the game require you to mine it before it unlocks the tech -- it's a counter for the sake of counting. Better IMO to have team management -- all those "deadweight" sitting around the deck while the three of you go on a mission? Assign them to a research project. The best fit get the job done fastest, but you gotta balance that against the needs of the current mission. Progress on RenAdept: Well, her eyes are glowy now... My eventual goal for this run is to open up the Dominate power, but from previous playthroughs I know I have a long way to go. Did the Ship mission today. Wasn't too bad, lvl 3 Warp did the trick most of the time. Picked assault rifle training, found the Mattlock to be absolute pants for me -- gone back to the Vindicator. Overall the assault rifle isn't to my liking at the moment -- too general for my taste. Maybe it'll grow on me. The husk portion? Loved Singularity. A big ball of suck is what clearing husks calls for. I'll be real happy when the next husk-heavy mission rolls around.
Ghost Train Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 I'm doing a Soldier run for the first time. I hope that in ME3, EDI gets a holographic human body, something akin to her voice actress would be ideal .
David Hingtgen Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 But then everyone would say it's too much of a Cortana rip-off. Needs to be a bit different. Of course, ME has already established holo-VI asari tour guides...
Lynx7725 Posted January 24, 2011 Posted January 24, 2011 RenAdept progress -- Did Zaeed's mission. The stack of Renegade points there is nice. Then went to Citadel and insulted everyone there. That's nice too. I'm starting to learn how to use the Adept. Infiltrator/ Assassin is a loner; s/he sneaks in and kills things, relying on the squadies to keep mooks off his/ her back. Adepts can't do that. Adepts are crowd control and squad multipliers; they set things up so that the squadies can kill the enemies. During the last fight of the mission I had an easy time; Zaeed and Arcangel were both using Vipers. I simply Singularity or Pulled the enemies up, and the two of them will do the honours. I think it'll work even better with Legion-Widow and Grunt-Boomstick. Both are one-shot kill weapons which I can feed with biotics. For now though, I'll probably stick with twin Vipers for the kills; having Overload from Arcangel, and Concussive shots from both is a bonus. Do regret picking Assault Rifle training a wee bit, but to be honest sliding back to the Avenger for suppressive fire is quite useful. Three long rifles with biotic magnets might be a bit overkill in most missions.
Scream Man Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 FINALLY knocked over ME1 with my female Vanguard. Marks only my third completion of the game, but this was easily the hardest. Still, finally done with that and get get back to the sweet bliss of ME2. Playing the 'bad' characters is HARD! I'm no good at even being slightly evil.
CoryHolmes Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 Playing the 'bad' characters is HARD! I'm no good at even being slightly evil. That's what I thought too... until I got to ME2, where there were so many choices that needed the renegade option. Bioware wasn't kidding when they called ME2 the "dark, middle chapter of the trilogy". Speaking of the trilogy, has any information been released about ME3 and its gameplay? I'll be sorely disapointed if we have to gather yet another team together, unless it's a combo of the teams from the first two games. I don't think there'll be enough time to really give a satisfying ending to the plotline, to the characters we've grown attached to, and introduce a whole new roster all in the same game. And I'll be even more disapointed if we don't get more than one scene with our ME1 love interest
Lynx7725 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 (edited) It's not so much about being evil as being ruthless. A Renegade Shepard is still a hero (he's trying to save the galaxy, after all), he's just not afraid of stomping on as many toes as he can/ has to. One thing I would like to see in ME3 is more of progressive Paragon/ Renegade consequences.. Being an ass should come back to bite you in the ass. There are some tidbits of ME3 info, but not much -- it's still early days. From memory, there will be vehicular sequences, and mining's still in. Given that a dead ME2 Shepard won't revive, as the dev team has stated, it's likely ME3 would start with a bit of "group bonding". I'll like to see Shepard do more strategically significant tasks, or at least have the ME2 strategic choices bear fruit -- Geth/ Quarian peace, Krogan revitalization, kicking Cerberus in the balls, Overlord-ing, y'know, that kind of things As much as I like the shooting aspect of ME2, seeing galactic-scale consequences is what space opera is about, right? RenAdept progress: Did Miranda's, Thane's, Archangel's and Taylor's loyalty mission, and one random N7 mission. Overall, now that I figured out how to use the Adept efficiently, it's becoming mechanical. Suck, Pull, snipers, Warp. Once the mooks are dead, hammer the mini-bosses. Moradin's and Grunt's are up next I think. Not too sure how the Maw's going to go down to biotics -- I miss my sniper rifle. Don't think the assault rifle's a good replacement... I'm down to Avenger for range splattering on full auto. Dislike the Vindicator and Mattlock's burst-only settings, and no access to the LMG. Leaving Jack's mission to later (to attempt to retain both loyalties), and Samara's last; I'm going for Dominate, so I need to get my Ren scores up. Edited January 28, 2011 by Lynx7725
eugimon Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 the thing I don't like about the renegade options is that often times they're just the impatient, short-sighted option rather than anything that's actually morally grey or ruthless.
Wanzerfan Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 It's not so much about being evil as being ruthless. A Renegade Shepard is still a hero (he's trying to save the galaxy, after all), he's just not afraid of stomping on as many toes as he can/ has to. One thing I would like to see in ME3 is more of progressive Paragon/ Renegade consequences.. Being an ass should come back to bite you in the ass. There are some tidbits of ME3 info, but not much -- it's still early days. From memory, there will be vehicular sequences, and mining's still in. Given that a dead ME2 Shepard won't revive, as the dev team has stated, it's likely ME3 would start with a bit of "group bonding". I'll like to see Shepard do more strategically significant tasks, or at least have the ME2 strategic choices bear fruit -- Geth/ Quarian peace, Krogan revitalization, kicking Cerberus in the balls, Overlord-ing, y'know, that kind of things As much as I like the shooting aspect of ME2, seeing galactic-scale consequences is what space opera is about, right? RenAdept progress: Did Miranda's, Thane's, Archangel's and Taylor's loyalty mission, and one random N7 mission. Overall, now that I figured out how to use the Adept efficiently, it's becoming mechanical. Suck, Pull, snipers, Warp. Once the mooks are dead, hammer the mini-bosses. Moradin's and Grunt's are up next I think. Not too sure how the Maw's going to go down to biotics -- I miss my sniper rifle. Don't think the assault rifle's a good replacement... I'm down to Avenger for range splattering on full auto. Dislike the Vindicator and Mattlock's burst-only settings, and no access to the LMG. Leaving Jack's mission to later (to attempt to retain both loyalties), and Samara's last; I'm going for Dominate, so I need to get my Ren scores up. If you're going up aganst the Thresher Maw, use the Collector Particle Beam Rifle, Just make sure you get him in the head. Failing that, the Maw is very vunerable to incendary ammunition and Bioitics (its health bar being only armor, after all).
Lynx7725 Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 If you're going up aganst the Thresher Maw, use the Collector Particle Beam Rifle, Just make sure you get him in the head. Failing that, the Maw is very vunerable to incendary ammunition and Bioitics (its health bar being only armor, after all). Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try when I go after the Maw. Essentially I didn't have the time to play very much for the last week -- there's a major festival coming up and had to spend family time. So I went with a N7 mission series, the Blue Suns one. I always did like fighting against Mercs, they are sufficiently challenging but you know they can't pull off weird tricks to nail you. The Mule line of missions is particularly fun. In the kind of missions where you are in narrow confines, Wide Singularity becomes staggeringly good. Doorways are now deathtraps, and once their health are down, throwing an Unstable Warp just adds injury to insult. To be honest, Pull seems quite irrelevant in view of Singularity. There's a difference, but not that much practically. Think I'll swap it over to Shockwave instead -- I can always use a bowling ball. In addition, I also did Tali's loyalty mission. I took Tali and Grunt; the fight was harder than I expected. In hindsight, taking two shotgunners might be a bad idea, I've grown used to Arcangel/ Thane's Vipers and sorely missed them here. I actually had to use my Avenger to put down geth, for crying out loud. Let's see.. I'm left with the following loyalty missions: Mordin, Grunt, Jack, Samara. I'll probably do them in that order, to push my chances as much as possible for Jack and Samara. I might go tool around a few more N7 missions just to get to Level 30 before the main story missions, but truth to be told I'm fairly played out -- I've done 2 classes and three run-throughs. If I get Dominate I might do an Engineer, but I think I'd switch soon to DAO/A/etc. in preparations for DA2.
HoveringCheesecake Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 You did it wrong if you didn't take Legion to the Flotilla. Likewise if you don't take Tali to Heretic Station.
Lynx7725 Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 I know the results. Unfortunately, the timing you acquire Legion precludes these if you want to save the crew. I'm playing a RenShep, but not that Renegade. I think I did take Tali to Heretic Station before, in my 'Filtrator playthrough. Wasn't that memorable though. Would love to try Legion in Flotilla, for laughs.. just not on this playthrough I Guess.
Kanedas Bike Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 So is anyone playing, or planing on playing the PS3 version of ME 2? -b.
HoveringCheesecake Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 I know the results. Unfortunately, the timing you acquire Legion precludes these if you want to save the crew. I'm playing a RenShep, but not that Renegade. I think I did take Tali to Heretic Station before, in my 'Filtrator playthrough. Wasn't that memorable though. Would love to try Legion in Flotilla, for laughs.. just not on this playthrough I Guess. OK good. My Renegade let the whole crew get juiced. I didn't realize Chakwas could die without an escort, otherwise I would have let her run off by herself just to see what happens in ME3. The hilarity on the Flotilla is worth it. I still don't know how to get the dialogue option that comes after the guard tells you to get that "thing" (Legion) off of his ship. You can reply with something along the lines of "funny, that is what I hear from some people when I go somewhere with Tali." Saw it on a Youtube video.
Lynx7725 Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 Ok, here's something. IGN put the PS3, XBOX and PC versions of ME2 next to each other: Considering that the PS3 versions run on a ME3 engine, and that it's visibly crispier and not as dark, it may be a good indicator of things to come. Or not, YMMV.
Lynx7725 Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 ... And they seem to like dropping things in a bunch. ME2 Facebook page reports that they would be releasing an alternative appearances pack for Tali, Miranda and Grunt on 8 Feb 2011. I am so underwhelmed. Hope this is not the DLC they are talking about.
HoveringCheesecake Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 I'm getting sick of them putting visors on everyone. Garrus has always had one, fine, but giving it to every character is stupid.
Lynx7725 Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 You said it. I dislike it as the base models for the characters are generally nice, and the visors just get in the way. Garrus' visor is already a bit obtrusive, and the Archon visor is definitely in-your-face. The sniper visor is decent but still annoying... Hopefully this is just a teaser. We don't really need new wardrobe for these jokers since their loyalty costumes are much better (especially as a group). A proper DLC to link ME2/SB to ME3 would be a lot nicer.
Knight26 Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) I still prefer the PC version looking at that video. The PS3 version is almost too bright, and you lose details as a result, especially on that close up of shephard. As for the appearance pack DLC, I would rather if they included some better armor for the characters, and helmets for vacuum missions. Edited February 2, 2011 by Knight26
CoryHolmes Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 I still prefer the PC version looking at that video. The PS3 version is almost too bright, and you lose details as a result, especially on that close up of shephard. Yeah, but both of 'em blow the 360 outta the water. Pity, since that's the system I've got.
Lynx7725 Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 Hey, the 360 has some advantages. You don't get to see Jacob give you lips (literally) that well, and the model problems aren't as noticable... (I noticed T'loak's detached head talking away though...) I'll probably go PC with the rumoured ME3 pack. It's a lot more flexible that way, can FRAP, can hack, can swap save files...
eugimon Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 Not sure how muddy textures, less lighting effects and a choppier frame rate is better... but okay. I'm just glad that Mass Effect is getting more exposure.
Lynx7725 Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 Eh, I think I put a smilie there... Actually today hit an odd thing. I was doing Overlord, on the dish -- just sucked a Geth Prime and a normal trooper and Warped the trooper. Geth Prime went flying off screen, and the whole game just hung. Had to reboot the whole system. It's late here so I'm not bothering with it tonight.. maybe tomorrow. Did Grunt's mission. The Maw was less of an issue than I remembered. There's an exploit on that map and 'sides, I was just warping my way off planet with that thing. The subsequent fight was worse, as I accidentally let a Krogan get too close. Ugh.
eugimon Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 Eh, I think I put a smilie there... Actually today hit an odd thing. I was doing Overlord, on the dish -- just sucked a Geth Prime and a normal trooper and Warped the trooper. Geth Prime went flying off screen, and the whole game just hung. Had to reboot the whole system. It's late here so I'm not bothering with it tonight.. maybe tomorrow. Did Grunt's mission. The Maw was less of an issue than I remembered. There's an exploit on that map and 'sides, I was just warping my way off planet with that thing. The subsequent fight was worse, as I accidentally let a Krogan get too close. Ugh. I was referring to CoryHolmes' post... I keep encountering a bug on that mission where you explore the ship that crashed and is perched on the side of a cliff... running around on the planks I always end up floating in the air, unable to get back down to the ground. It's pretty annoying.
Knight26 Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) So, if the PS3 version is suppossed to use the ME3 engine, are there any gameplay changes, or is it strictly visual? And, are the visual issues we see on the PS3 version a limitation of the PS3 and not the engine, kind of like on the X-Box version? I am running on a no where near maxed out PC, no consoles here, and still think that what I see on it is superior to either console. The only real difference I have seen so far is in Jacob's face, but even there, the difference appears greatest between Xbox and PS3, with the PC version looking on par with the PS3 in terms of the face. The biggest thing that bugs me with the PS3 version is the washed out colors and brighter lights on the character. Edited February 2, 2011 by Knight26
HoveringCheesecake Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Since the PS3 version is running an optimized version of the ME3 engine, I don't even know how a comparison is valid. Only reason to do so is to see how ME3 will look. The hardware differences are pretty minimal between the 360 and the PS3, are they not? But I think the lighting we see on the PS3 version is how ME3 will be, with some tweaks I'm sure. As for PC looking better if it is "nowhere near maxed out," I have trouble believing that. I'd say on high or very high with maximum AA and AF it'd look better, but if you're running on medium or something I think it's all in your head. The 360 version looks great, and it is very stable on my end. I've only had one actual crash, and that was due to some DLC mucking up when I went to the Captain's Cabin. The other crash I had was an Xbox Live problem. And as for glitches, I've only been stuck in terrain (or in this case, crates) once. So, I guess if you must have the absolute best visuals, then yeah PC is for you. The control scheme is clearly designed for consoles, though, the 360 in particular. And when I play on the 360, I never say to myself "the game looks like poo, wish I would have spent all of that money to upgrade my PC to max out the settings." I think it looks great on all platforms.
Knight26 Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 quick question, I accidently ticked off miranda after hers and Jacks loyalty missions now it says she is not loyal, any way to fix that before the suicide mission or barring that any way to hack it so I can turn her back loyal?
BeyondTheGrave Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 quick question, I accidently ticked off miranda after hers and Jacks loyalty missions now it says she is not loyal, any way to fix that before the suicide mission or barring that any way to hack it so I can turn her back loyal? No. not that i know of.
HoveringCheesecake Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 Miranda has some serious plot armor, so I think if you keep her on your team during the Suicide Mission you will be ok. You have to TRY to kill her on the last mission, apparently. Or if you have high enough Paragon you might be able to go talk to her again and get her loyalty back. Or maybe that is just with Legion and Tali.
Ghost Train Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 I did something crazy, and picked up a Widow instead of the assault rifle for my Shep soldier . Adrenaline Rush + Sniping is actually quite a fun combo as it makes headshots so much easier... much more so than Cloaking and Sniping imo. Though I'm doing this playthrough in normal, not sure if this holds up well on higher difficulties.
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