Support NeoGAF

[belvedere]

Had to pop in and say I'm really digging this game, much, much more than the first.

Good stuff!

Gotta go feed my fish!

 

[GuardianE]

Also, for any of the "kill x using y" achievements, I would suggest finding a mission where you can get a few kills done, die, and reload the checkpoint. So kill the enemies, die, reload, kill, die, rinse, repeat, etc. until the achievement pops. Even though you die, you still accumlate those achievement-related kills, even though you didn't manually save or reach a checkpoint.

You don't even have to die. Just reload the checkpoint. It worked this way in ME1 as well. It's weird, as there seems to be an overarching communal save.

 

[Meier]

Question regarding the suicide mission:

Spoiler

So for whatever reason, Tali died when I was doing the suicide mission on the first part where you have the person hack the locked door. I unlocked each gate in the duct system almost instantly and she was loyal to me... what gives? Should I just start over and have Legion do it since he'd presumably have more health and might be able to take a shot when we're closing the door? I want to get that achievement...

 

[Mindlog]

Question regarding the suicide mission:

Spoiler

So for whatever reason, Tali died when I was doing the suicide mission on the first part where you have the person hack the locked door. I unlocked each gate in the duct system almost instantly and she was loyal to me... what gives? Should I just start over and have Legion do it since he'd presumably have more health and might be able to take a shot when we're closing the door? I want to get that achievement...

Who was the leader of the 2nd group?

Spoiler

It should be Miranda or Garrus.

 

[GuardianE]

Who was the leader of the 2nd group?

Spoiler

It should be Miranda or Garrus.

Spoiler

Or Jacob.

 

[Meier]

Who was the leader of the 2nd group?

Spoiler

It should be Miranda or Garrus.

Spoiler

I had Samara be the leader since I thought that would work well... Miranda complimented the choice even. Didn't realize it would have an affect on Tali's health. Guess I'll try again.

 

[GuardianE]

Spoiler

I had Samara be the leader since I thought that would work well... Miranda complimented the choice even. Didn't realize it would have an affect on Tali's health. Guess I'll try again.

Spoiler

Yes. This is why. Samara is a surprisingly frequent choice for a lot of people here. I don't really get why. She's experienced at being a solo renegade, not a team leader. The team leader affects whether or not the tech specialist in the vent dies.

 

[Patryn]

Spoiler

I had Samara be the leader since I thought that would work well... Miranda complimented the choice even. Didn't realize it would have an affect on Tali's health. Guess I'll try again.

Spoiler

Miranda is always wrong. Always. No ifs, ands or buts. DO NOT LISTEN TO MIRANDA WHEN IT COMES TO THE SUICIDE MISSION. If you do, people will die.

She is just plain wrong.

 

[EatChildren]

ME2 PC patch is live.

 

[HK-47]

I'm neurotic about it. I had over 100 saves before I beat the game in ME1. But I would also save before conversations to see how they would pan out. Something about these games makes me feel like I need to save constantly.

lol try like 200 something

Yup, I'm a OCD saver.

 

[Dresden]

Any Bioware fan knows to save constantly. Then you backup some of your saves in case they get corrupted. Then you backup the backups because you get paranoid.

I think I had 150-ish for ME1, though.

 

[Arjen]

Spoiler

Miranda is always wrong. Always. No ifs, ands or buts. DO NOT LISTEN TO MIRANDA WHEN IT COMES TO THE SUICIDE MISSION. If you do, people will die.

She is just plain wrong.

Thats not true, she

Spoiler

suggests that you need an tech expert for the vents

 

[OMG Aero]

Man Insanity mode is hard.
In ME1 it just meant that 90% of enemies could use Immunity but in this game it actually makes it a lot harder.
I must have died at least ten times on Mordin's recruitment.

 

[kinoki]

Thats not true, she

Spoiler

suggests that you need an tech expert for the vents

That's not true. You pick Thane so he'll get shot in the face.

 

[BolognaSoup]

I was looking out this window and apparently Grunt couldn't get himself a good view so he just made himself at home on this Quarian's head. Just like a true Krogan! :lol

(excuse the blurriness - garbage camera)

 

[Revelations]

What the hell!?

 

[Always-honest]

god i want to play this game..

my 360 RROD'ed on me last week while i was starting up the game...

now i just read this topic untill my 360 is fixed............

 

[Salsa]

Never forget ! (could be considered SPOILER maybe ?).

That dlc is a great little adition.A couple of hours in right now. Im enjoying the Vanguard class a lot more than the previous Soldier class in ME1, glad i changed it.

 

[The Lamonster]

Any Bioware fan knows to save constantly. Then you backup some of your saves in case they get corrupted. Then you backup the backups because you get paranoid.

I think I had 150-ish for ME1, though.

I have a save at the start of every mission in ME2. Unfortunately, on the Xbox there is a cap to the number of saves you can have. I think it's 50.

 

[Lakitu]

I save as much as I can in pretty much every game. That's the way I am. I don't trust autosave.

 

[Skilotonn]

Any game with saving at any time you want, I totally abuse it because it's there to be used...

I had saved more than 850 times in Mass Effect 1, and I believe I'm over 450 in Mass Effect 2...

 

[Easy_D]

Mordin is the best character to date in Mass Effect universe. Just sayin'

Well, he is after all the very model of a scientist salarian. I laughed so hard at that.

 

[theMrCravens]

Well, he is after all the very model of a scientist salarian. I laughed so hard at that.

heh. I kept a save just for that part.

 

[chewydogg]

Infinite squad points for Xbox360's players, sorry if old:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZAq7wcweUQ

Nice if you want to mess around a bit in insanity

Do we know if this effects achievements?

 

[TheFallen]

What's the patch do? (link is down) and is it coming to 360? Curious if I should shelf the game for a week or so until it does.

edit: nm, seems more like small technical issues for the pc only. Thought it was balancing. :lol

 

[Mindlog]

Any game with saving at any time you want, I totally abuse it because it's there to be used...

I had saved more than 850 times in Mass Effect 1, and I believe I'm over 450 in Mass Effect 2...

I believe one of my ME characters topped out around 250.

I used to packrat save. I'd keep saves before every major decision. I don't do it anymore. I realized I never actually use those old saves because I never remember what they were for :lol

Now I just have one base save. It will always be #1 (delete all then save again.) When I start a mission I'll start 1 new save and then I just keep saving as needed. When I finish the mission I delete everything and start at 1 again.

What are some good 'non-standard' builds?
Trying to figure out my next playthrough.
There's the weapon hating Reave Soldier.
Sniper hating Infiltrator.

???

 

[ChoklitReign]

I have a save at the start of every mission in ME2. Unfortunately, on the Xbox there is a cap to the number of saves you can have. I think it's 50.

I think the cap is on the PC as well. I remember it was around 51.

 

[Helmholtz]

I think the cap is on the PC as well. I remember it was around 51.

Yep, definitely a cap. 50 saves sounds about right. Kinda annoying considering how big PC hard drives are. It's easy to delete a lot of saves at once on PC though, just go into my documents>bioware>mass effect 2.
Mass Effect 1 had no cap on PC though.

 

[chewydogg]

Speaking of saves, I was pissed to find out that starting a second playthrough with my existing Shepard erases all my previous saves. I went to load a save from playthrough #1 and they were all gone. WTF! I don't remember ME1 doing this...

 

[Arde5643]

Pull kills Husks in one hit on Insanity? That's good to know. I never used anything on them except Heavy Warp and Charge.

One point of pull/throw/shockwave will kill unprotected husks in any difficulty.

So if you have a husk rushing towards you, just shoot down the armor with a heavy pistol and then throw/pull/cyro blast it for insta-kill.

If you have multiple husks swarming at you, use wide incinerate/unstable warp and then use shockwave (even with just 1 point)/area throw/area pull/wide cyro blast on them to kill them instantly.

If you're an adept, it's even easier - use singularity to stun a swarm of husks in one spot, then use unstable warp/wide incinerate to kill them instantly as singularity sucks them in once their armor is gone.

 

[Dan Yo]

The implication was there, since you lauded Modern Warfare's 'spawn shit till the player trips the invisible flag while chucking fifteen grenades around him to make things challenging' school of game design.

I implied nothing. I spoke very specifically about what I liked of Modern Warfare 2 on higher difficulties. Spawning enemies was something that was in every difficulty in past COD games, and was not dependent on the difficulty setting being set higher.

Not to mention that IW has done away with the infinite spawning.

 

[Arde5643]

I believe one of my ME characters topped out around 250.

I used to packrat save. I'd keep saves before every major decision. I don't do it anymore. I realized I never actually use those old saves because I never remember what they were for :lol

Now I just have one base save. It will always be #1 (delete all then save again.) When I start a mission I'll start 1 new save and then I just keep saving as needed. When I finish the mission I delete everything and start at 1 again.

What are some good 'non-standard' builds?
Trying to figure out my next playthrough.
There's the weapon hating Reave Soldier.
Sniper hating Infiltrator.

???

Shotgun infiltrator/engineer/sentinel/adept.
Sniper vanguard/engineer. (no adepts or sentinels here - snipers really suck for them)
AR infiltrator (AR engineer/sentinels/adepts are the optimal boring builds).

Shotgun engineer is the toughest build actually of all the builds here.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Gosh, Tali is cute when you flirt with her. Plus, that pre-romancing scene was just... great. I just hope romancing her doesn't end up disappointing me.

48 hours now. I have two solar systems to check out - and then I'm hitting the Omega-4 relay for the first time. Any non-spoiler advice?

 

[Peff]

Gosh, Tali is cute when you flirt with her. Plus, that pre-romancing scene was just... great. I just hope romancing her doesn't end up disappointing me.

48 hours now. I have two solar systems to check out - and then I'm hitting the Omega-4 relay for the first time. Any non-spoiler advice?

Don't listen to Miranda. Also, despite whay you may be led to think, there are no sneaking missions.

 

[Gattsu25]

Gosh, Tali is cute when you flirt with her. Plus, that pre-romancing scene was just... great. I just hope romancing her doesn't end up disappointing me.

Wait till you see her face--so pretty

 

[Dresden]

Shotgun infiltrator/engineer/sentinel/adept.
Sniper vanguard/engineer. (no adepts or sentinels here - snipers really suck for them)
AR infiltrator (AR engineer/sentinels/adepts are the optimal boring builds).

Shotgun engineer is the toughest build actually of all the builds here.

To be fair, an engineer with drone/dominate probably doesn't have to fire a shot to finish battles. Just rely on incinerate to finish things off. I have a new game+ save with an engineer at 30 that I'm going to play once the DLC hits, and up to Horizon, I almost never fired my gun.

 

[Arde5643]

To be fair, an engineer with drone/dominate probably doesn't have to fire a shot to finish battles. Just rely on incinerate to finish things off. I have a new game+ save with an engineer at 30 that I'm going to play once the DLC hits, and up to Horizon, I almost never fired my gun.

Really? I find it faster/more efficient/effective/fun to use drone to distract, AI hack on unprotected mechs/geths, dominate on unprotected organics, and then cyro blast to freeze enemies and shoot them to pieces with my trusty vindicator AR.

While you also use drones and AI hack/dominate, do you also use cyro blast? I find cyro blast to be indispensable for my love of shooting things till they die as an engineer.

This is totally different from my adept run, where shooting things till they die is stupid and pointless as an adept.
It's much better to use weapons only for stripping down shields/barriers while they're stunned in singularity and then either fling them to the open sky with throw or do biotic grenade on them with warp.

Yeah, the adept run was much more boring than the engineer run.

 

[Mindlog]

Shotgun infiltrator/engineer/sentinel/adept.
Sniper vanguard/engineer. (no adepts or sentinels here - snipers really suck for them)
AR infiltrator (AR engineer/sentinels/adepts are the optimal boring builds).

Shotgun engineer is the toughest build actually of all the builds here.

ohhh, a Charge/Sniper Vanguard sounds nice

I started a Shotty Sentinel. I plan on just abusing the squad point 'workaround' to mess with some stuff. I'll get at least 1 save with 30 extra squad points on all my ME3 Sheppards before they patch that out (if they do.)

 

[ChoklitReign]

Wait till you see her face--so pretty

Nice try.

 

[OMG Aero]

Speaking of saves, I was pissed to find out that starting a second playthrough with my existing Shepard erases all my previous saves. I went to load a save from playthrough #1 and they were all gone. WTF! I don't remember ME1 doing this...

It doesn't, it just classifies the new playthrough as a new career. There is an option when loading to select which career you want to load.

 

[Dresden]

Really? I find it faster/more efficient/effective/fun to use drone to distract, AI hack on unprotected mechs/geths, dominate on unprotected organics, and then cyro blast to freeze enemies and shoot them to pieces with my trusty vindicator AR.

While you also use drones and AI hack/dominate, do you also use cyro blast? I find cyro blast to be indispensable for my love of shooting things till they die as an engineer.

This is totally different from my adept run, where shooting things till they die is stupid and pointless as an adept.
It's much better to use weapons only for stripping down shields/barriers while they're stunned in singularity and then either fling them to the open sky with throw or do biotic grenade on them with warp.

Yeah, the adept run was much more boring than the engineer run.

I've never used cryo blast, actually. Hmm, I'll have to give that a try. I just max out Overload, Incinerate, Mechanic, Attack Drone, and Dominate.

 

[chewydogg]

It doesn't, it just classifies the new playthrough as a new career. There is an option when loading to select which career you want to load.

I missed that somehow.

 

[Arde5643]

I've never used cryo blast, actually. Hmm, I'll have to give that a try. I just max out Overload, Incinerate, Mechanic, Attack Drone, and Dominate.

Compared to pull/singularity/throw, the cyro blast isn't actually the best CC ability in the game, but it corresponds very well with the engineer's abilities to CC very effectively.

The engineer's problem isn't in CCing enemies, it's in killing them (adepts have more problem ccing enemies if one or more enemies is invulnerable to singularity).

Cyro blast stuns enemies and you get a big bonus damage when shooting at frozen enemies.

 

[Patryn]

Compared to pull/singularity/throw, the cyro blast isn't actually the best CC ability in the game, but it corresponds very well with the engineer's abilities to CC very effectively.

The engineer's problem isn't in CCing enemies, it's in killing them (adepts have more problem ccing enemies if one or more enemies is invulnerable to singularity).

Cyro blast stuns enemies and you get a big bonus damage when shooting at frozen enemies.

I personally found Cryo Blast to take way too long to take effect. Maybe it's better if you could max it out, but that's a lot of points.

Frankly, it's points that I'd rather dump into Incinerate, Overload, the class skill or Drone, all of which are far more helpful, especially considering that you don't get enough points to max all your skills.

In terms of CC, I always found the Drone to be more useful. Does a little damage and can really distract enemies. The cooldown is really short, as well.

 

[Arde5643]

I personally found Cryo Blast to take way too long to take effect. Maybe it's better if you could max it out, but that's a lot of points.

Frankly, it's points that I'd rather dump into Incinerate, Overload, the class skill or Drone, all of which are far more helpful, especially considering that you don't get enough points to max all your skills.

In terms of CC, I always found the Drone to be more useful. Does a little damage and can really distract enemies. The cooldown is really short, as well.

Incinerate and overload takes 6 seconds while cyro takes about 4.5 seconds.

When enemies are unprotected, with cyro I can freeze them, shoot them till they die (which is very fast due to the damage bonus especially with ammo powers), and then throw another cyro or incinerate on the other enemies.

Otherwise I keep having to stay in cover and waiting for incinerate to recharge without being able to advance.

 

[feel]

Sorry if this has maybe been mentioned to death, but I'm still playing and afraid of reading much of this thread right now in fear of spoiling stuff.

Is everyone else getting very aliased visuals on the 360, the game looks stunningly beautiful, but the jaggies are ruining it a bit? Shadow detail also appears to be non-existent in this game,shadows are just pitch black with no varying levels of darkness, even if I tweak my tv (I get great shadow detail in movies and other games). Are these normal for everyone else? I just got done with a ME1 replay in order to get ready for 2, and I didn't notice these 2 problems on that. If they're normal problems its not a big deal, I just need to know. Sorry again if this has already been talked about lots.

 

[Gattsu25]

Sorry if this has maybe been mentioned to death, but I'm still playing and afraid of reading much of this thread right now in fear of spoiling stuff.

Is everyone else getting very aliased visuals on the 360, the game looks stunningly beautiful, but the jaggies are ruining it a bit? Shadow detail also appears to be non-existent in this game,shadows are just pitch black with no varying levels of darkness, even if I tweak my tv (I get great shadow detail in movies and other games). Are these normal for everyone else? I just got done with a ME1 replay in order to get ready for 2, and I didn't notice these 2 problems on that. If they're normal problems its not a big deal, I just need to know. Sorry again if this has already been talked about lots.

Pretty sure the shadows are of the soft-edged & transparent variety and regarding aliasing? I'm a gamer with a PC background but I never gave two shits about jaggies or AA

 

[Laughing Banana]

I'm going to cheat the shit out of this after ME2 took my Insanity Achievement from me. I can't view the video from here. Is there a particular point in the game you have to reach before this works?

As far as I can tell, as long as you have 10 squad points to spare (leveling up one skill bar fully), you can do this trick regardless of where you are in the game. Just be sure to save before since the timing is somewhat tricky.

Oh, and this trick should not affect your achievements.

 

[Patryn]

Incinerate and overload takes 6 seconds while cyro takes about 4.5 seconds.

When enemies are unprotected, with cyro I can freeze them, shoot them till they die (which is very fast due to the damage bonus especially with ammo powers), and then throw another cyro or incinerate on the other enemies.

Otherwise I keep having to stay in cover and waiting for incinerate to recharge without being able to advance.

The difference is that Overload and Incinerate do damage. Cryo, the time is just what it takes to freeze the enemy.

I'll take the damage over time instead of the time to fully incapacitate.

 

[Struct09]

Just finished it, and wow...what an ending. Haven't had a video game give me the goosebumps in a long time.

I'm a gameplay whore and normally don't care about stories in games (and I only mildly liked ME1), but BioWare knocked it out of the park with this one. Absolutely can not wait for ME3.