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[Dries]

Finished it. Goddamn this was one of the motherfucking best games I have ever. EVER. played. Just... FUCK.

Can't wait to start a renegade char in ME1, import that baby in ME2 and have my renegade save file ready for ME3, along with my paragon save right now.

 

[Revelations]

The whole game got real easy after learning to exploit the system.

I'll occasionally die with some sloppy play or get tripped up with the enemies spawn rushing you. however, even Praetorian go down easy once you learn how to rope them around the landscape.

See. Now that should be a testament to how good the actual combat is. When you actually have to think and manuever yourself around positions and placements within the battlefield instead of just staying in one spot or out in the open just to hold down the damn trigger.

 

[voltron]

Well that Horizon encounter is actually pretty easy now. Just takes some effort with moving form cover to cover at the right moments.

 

[soldat7]

The story comes in meeting and recruiting the characters, learning about their history, and shaping the events for various characters in the game. If you only look at the sequences and missions that relate to the suicide mission, then you're not paying attention.

Oh, I sure paid attention. 50 hours on my first playthrough, all missions and side-missions complete, complete codex read front to back. That's how I know ME2 is lacking when compared to ME1 regarding story. I applaud the recruiting and loyalty missions for being fun and full of great dialog, but the overall story of ME2 is nothing short of meh. I'm letting BioWare off on the 'this was just Act II' excuse, but I expect nothing less than to be blown away by the story of ME3.

 

[mujun]

Oh, I sure paid attention. 50 hours on my first playthrough, all missions and side-missions complete, complete codex read front to back. That's how I know ME2 is lacking when compared to ME1 regarding story. I applaud the recruiting and loyalty missions for being fun and full of great dialog, but the overall story of ME2 is nothing short of meh. I'm letting BioWare off on the 'this was just Act II' excuse, but I expect nothing less than to be blown away by the story of ME3.

I agree with you, it lacks compared to ME1. I also don't want to give it a break just because it's a middle act but I still enjoyed it and thought overall it was a cool (game) story with lots of awesome parts.

Gotta say though I thought the

Spoiler

end boss was silly as hell.

Also why did the Cerberus facility get attacked in the start and who attacked it?

 

[dreamer3kx]

I'm a good 5 hours in and loving it, should I change the difficulty to hard, I'm finding the game a bit easy but I'm not sure if that's because I'm early in the game or what, hows hard, I don't want the game to be too easy but not too hard I guess.

 

[ChoklitReign]

I played on Veteran the first time and it felt just right.

 

[Revelations]

I agree with you, it lacks compared to ME1. I also don't want to give it a break just because it's a middle act but I still enjoyed it and thought overall it was a cool (game) story with lots of awesome parts.

Gotta say though I thought the

Spoiler

end boss was silly as hell.

Also why did the Cerberus facility get attacked in the start and who attacked it?

The doctor guy. The lead scientist who worked opposite of Miranda. He reprogrammed all the mechs in the facility to attack. He worked for the shadow broker.

 

[Sober]

Is there a method to skip the loading screens on PC? When I run the -nomoviestartup parameter, it runs fine unless I try to head to the Citadel, and plot-related movies don't play. Other than that, ME2 seems to load areas pretty fast and the loading screen almost always plays to completion (except on the Normandy and fast-travel on the Citadel) before putting you ingame -- it's super annoying if I died though, I have to watch a ~25sec loading screen when I could be back as soon as I hit "resume" after dying.

 

[mujun]

The doctor guy. The lead scientist who worked opposite of Miranda. He reprogrammed all the mechs in the facility to attack. He worked for the shadow broker.

That's right. Thanks for reminding me

Is 35 too early for alzheimers?

 

[soldat7]

I played on Veteran the first time and it felt just right.

I still think Veteran was a bit too easy. Then again, I was a Soldier and just tore through everything.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

I'm having a problem. So when I imported my ME1 character, I was able to use both extreme good/bad choices in conversations, I don't know what it's called lol.
But after playing like 25 hours, now the choices are grayed out, and I can't choose any of them :/. What happened? I hope it's not a glitch or something, cause I'll be so pissed.

 

[Uncle]

I'm having a problem. So when I imported my ME1 character, I was able to use both extreme good/bad choices in conversations, I don't know what it's called lol.
But after playing like 25 hours, now the choices are grayed out, and I can't choose any of them :/. What happened? I hope it's not a glitch or something, cause I'll be so pissed.

Charm and intimidate. They are based on your paragon and renegade points. Some situations need more than others. Not a glitch.

 

[∀ Narayan]

I'm having a problem. So when I imported my ME1 character, I was able to use both extreme good/bad choices in conversations, I don't know what it's called lol.
But after playing like 25 hours, now the choices are grayed out, and I can't choose any of them :/. What happened? I hope it's not a glitch or something, cause I'll be so pissed.

It isn't a glitch. Do you have more Paragon points than Renegade points or vice-versa? The amount of points you have determines what choices you can make.

 

[Cep]

I still think Veteran was a bit too easy. Then again, I was a Soldier and just tore through everything.

As long as you are a Soldier or an Infiltrator, everything is pretty easy. Sentinels have it light as well.

Things only become difficult when playing as the other 3(2, If you know how to use a vanguard).

 

[Dresden]

Burned through the collector ship, insanity, new game+, tonight with my Engineer. Drones are insane, I forgot how insane they were. Time to put it away while I try playing Arcanum, though.

A nice trick with them is to spawn them inside a doorway or something so the enemies stop respawning. Also, if you know there's a cutscene ahead, you can just spawn it in there and just bypass the entire battle.

You can continually respawn them on YMIR mechs to keep them occupied while you burn down their shields with your guns.

Scions are permanently taken out of the picture with a single drone.

SO. GOOD. I can't believe I thought my adept was powerful. Screw adepts, engineers are where's it at, can't believe I forgot how powerful they were. It's also awesome playing at level 30, the game is such a breeze with Heavy Incinerate and Overload combined with drones and Dominate. Ultimate battlefield control.

 

[Arde5643]

Burned through the collector ship, insanity, new game+, tonight with my Engineer. Drones are insane, I forgot how insane they were. Time to put it away while I try playing Arcanum, though.

A nice trick with them is to spawn them inside a doorway or something so the enemies stop respawning. Also, if you know there's a cutscene ahead, you can just spawn it in there and just bypass the entire battle.

You can continually respawn them on YMIR mechs to keep them occupied while you burn down their shields with your guns.

Scions are permanently taken out of the picture with a single drone.

SO. GOOD. I can't believe I thought my adept was powerful. Screw adepts, engineers are where's it at, can't believe I forgot how powerful they were. It's also awesome playing at level 30, the game is such a breeze with Heavy Incinerate and Overload combined with drones and Dominate. Ultimate battlefield control.

Wooo - drone powwa!!

It really is a testament to the depth of Mass Effect 2's combat system when until now people keep finding new tricks with the classes.

I'd have to say the most deep class in the game is the engineer since there are so many builds you can make out of it and still be viable compared to the other classes.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Is there a method to skip the loading screens on PC? When I run the -nomoviestartup parameter, it runs fine unless I try to head to the Citadel, and plot-related movies don't play. Other than that, ME2 seems to load areas pretty fast and the loading screen almost always plays to completion (except on the Normandy and fast-travel on the Citadel) before putting you ingame -- it's super annoying if I died though, I have to watch a ~25sec loading screen when I could be back as soon as I hit "resume" after dying.

I haven't found anything either, but you can change the extension of some of the movies from .bik to .bak (or whatever you want) to skip them entirely

examples
---logos--
ME_EAsig_720p_v2_raw
BWLogo
--intro movies for new game---

Spoiler

ME2_006_ON_AntiGlamour2
ME2_Opening_SunMid_INT
NumberReel
Opening_End_Seq
Opening_End_SeqFM
Opening_Seq_INT
ProNor_Pod2
ProNor_Shepard_Rebuilt
ProNorEscape
ProNorEscapeAsh
ProNorEscapeKaid

in \mass effect 2\BioGame\Movies

 

[Cep]

Wooo - drone powwa!!

It really is a testament to the depth of Mass Effect 2's combat system when until now people keep finding new tricks with the classes.

I'd have to say the most deep class in the game is the engineer since there are so many builds you can make out of it and still be viable compared to the other classes.

Yeah, it is much better than expected. If you want to be specific, you can definitely point out the most efficeint, but they all work.

Shame that the squaddies were not afforded the same consideration.

 

[Salsa]

Just finished it at 25 hours. Fun ride. I guess i like 1 better because of the story, but i dont get the amount of hate. I spend more time with this one, so i dunno. The story on this one was ok and wasnt really driving me until the end sequence, wich i found amazing and made you really feel for the characters

Spoiler

Human reaper = Terminator

I can tell by now that this is going to be the weak link in the story, im sure 3 will pick up and be a very story-driven game. Cant-fucking-wait.

 

[Gillian Seed]

Some guy posted this on Gamefaqs. He did a great job! IMHO

 

[Gattsu25]

Which number? I'm finding my 2nd run on insanity w/ an infiltrator to be much easier than i thought. I have had problems, but they haven't been different or worse than the ones i had using a soldier on hardcore my 1st time through.

My 1st Insanity run (using an imported ME1 character)

So are you gonna spill it? I don't think people are going to listen to a shitty podcast just to hear your complaints.

Post 14350 or Feb 23rd Ep of GiantBomb at 01:03:00


edit: I just finished Horizon on my Infiltrator/Insanity playthrough and I didn't find it hard at all, really. It played out pretty much as I expected with the difficulty tapering off significantly once I got my SniperDMG+ mods, Armor mods, second sniper rifles, and higher skills for my characters.

 

[Alucrid]

Burned through the collector ship, insanity, new game+, tonight with my Engineer. Drones are insane, I forgot how insane they were. Time to put it away while I try playing Arcanum, though.

A nice trick with them is to spawn them inside a doorway or something so the enemies stop respawning. Also, if you know there's a cutscene ahead, you can just spawn it in there and just bypass the entire battle.

You can continually respawn them on YMIR mechs to keep them occupied while you burn down their shields with your guns.

Scions are permanently taken out of the picture with a single drone.

SO. GOOD. I can't believe I thought my adept was powerful. Screw adepts, engineers are where's it at, can't believe I forgot how powerful they were. It's also awesome playing at level 30, the game is such a breeze with Heavy Incinerate and Overload combined with drones and Dominate. Ultimate battlefield control.

Which drone? The attack one or the exploding one?

 

[bob_arctor]

Just wanted to say that Samara's loyalty mission was the most incredible gaming experience I've had in a while. Keep in mind I'm total Renegade and you can understand why I'm so blown away. Well, at least the bad guys amongst us can.

This game really is too good.

 

[theMrCravens]

Just wanted to say that Samara's loyalty mission was the most incredible gaming experience I've had in a while. Keep in mind I'm total Renegade and you can understand why I'm so blown away. Well, at least the bad guys amongst us can.

For me it was the Archangel mission.

One of the very first missions and it completely blew me away, even though it was a simple defend type scenario. I think the fact that I didn't know it was

Spoiler

Garrus

made it really special.

 

[Patryn]

Just wanted to say that Samara's loyalty mission was the most incredible gaming experience I've had in a while. Keep in mind I'm total Renegade and you can understand why I'm so blown away. Well, at least the bad guys amongst us can.

This game really is too good.

Fun fact: Paragons get the same choice. Weird, I know.

 

[bob_arctor]

Fun fact: Paragons get the same choice. Weird, I know.

huh. Friend of mine played as a Renegade like me and claims he was never given it--was his rank too low then?

 

[Patryn]

huh. Friend of mine played as a Renegade like me and claims he was never given it--was his rank too low then?

You have to have either a lot of renegade or a lot of paragon to be given the option (and use the respective options in the conversation leading up to the choice).

 

[thorin]

Wooo - drone powwa!!

*Shakes fist*

You guys are making me want to replay this again!

I'm also gonna repeat Alucrid's question: Which drone do you guys recommend?

 

[Prine]

Just wanted to say that Samara's loyalty mission was the most incredible gaming experience I've had in a while. Keep in mind I'm total Renegade and you can understand why I'm so blown away. Well, at least the bad guys amongst us can.

This game really is too good.

I got to agree. So refreshing not solving issues with a gun. Simple detective work and cunning. Again, i keep referring to KOTOR, but the game had many moments where you used your intellect to solve conflicts. I wish ME2 had more of these (Thane's quest was great also).

 

[Coverly]

Question on story advancement after getting the last member:

Spoiler

After you get Legion, what triggers the invasion of the normandie? A friend got legion(did not do the loyalty mission for him), and when she tried to go to illium through a mass relay, that caused the invasion.

Does that mean that going through any mass relay after getting legion causes the story to move forward. Is there a way to get legion and move around the galaxy to finish your loyalty quests without initiating the next part of the storyline?

Edit: Thanks Thorin for the answer!

 

[thorin]

Question on story advancement after getting the last member:

Spoiler

After you get Legion, what triggers the invasion of the normandie? A friend got legion(did not do the loyalty mission for him), and when she tried to go to illium through a mass relay, that caused the invasion.

Does that mean that going through any mass relay after getting legion causes the story to move forward. Is there a way to get legion and move around the galaxy to finish your loyalty quests without initiating the next part of the storyline?

Spoiler

Go activate and talk to Legion the first chance you get after getting him and the IFF. Legion's room is in the back of the medbay. Once you open up his loyalty quest you can travel without triggering the invasion. If you go to the galaxy map without activating him you will trigger the invasion. It's strange.

I'm not sure if opening up Legion's loyalty quest delays the invasion indefinitely though since I had wrapped up all my other missions beforehand.

 

[Dresden]

Which drone? The attack one or the exploding one?

I used the exploding drone my first playthrough and I'm using the attack drone this time around. I don't see much of a difference between the two, tbh. I think Explosive is probably more useful since it's 100 extra points of damage to everything around it whenever it gets blown up, but the attack drone probably deals more than that over its lifetime, but it's only to a single target and will deal less against YMIR mechs... hmm. Overall, I'd probably go with exploding drone.

 

[diztrukted]

Horizon is a bitch on insanity but try dying to the last Scion on the

Spoiler

Collector Base Ship

after defeating everything else :lol.

"You know you feel this"

:lol

:lol :lol

We are your genetic destiny

For ppl who played paragon the whole way through and did Miranda's loyalty mission, did any of you kill elnora or let her live

 

[Dresden]

:lol :lol

We are your genetic destiny

For ppl who played paragon the whole way through and did Miranda's loyalty mission, did any of you kill elnora or let her live

You mean Samara's recruitment?

And I always kill her ass, whether I'm paragon or not. Bitch pulled a gun on me, bitch is going down.

 

[Rubezh]

You mean Samara's recruitment?

And I always kill her ass, whether I'm paragon or not. Bitch pulled a gun on me, bitch is going down.

You chose your side Elnora, and you lost!

 

[Doodis]

So I'm debating which class to use for my insanity playthrough. I've already done a Vanguard and Adept.

I'm trying to decide between:

• Soldier
• Sentinel
• Infiltrator

I want to pick one for fun factor, maybe even speed since I'll want to blaze through it. Any suggestions?

 

[∀ Narayan]

Legion is one of the most interesting characters I've ever encountered.

 

[Samara]

It isn't a glitch. Do you have more Paragon points than Renegade points or vice-versa? The amount of points you have determines what choices you can make.

No, I have the same problem. I have 90% paragon, caressed varens, helped countless and still can't get Miranda to reconsider after her fight with Jack. Or get to "choose" in Samara's mission.

 

[GuardianE]

So I'm debating which class to use for my insanity playthrough. I've already done a Vanguard and Adept.

I'm trying to decide between:

• Soldier
• Sentinel
• Infiltrator

I want to pick one for fun factor, maybe even speed since I'll want to blaze through it. Any suggestions?

I'm rolling Infiltrator on Insanity right now, and it's pretty fun. Slowtime headshots are pretty addictive. I'm only at Horizon, so I may be singing a different tune a few hours further.

 

[Arjen]

FUCK horizon on Insanity, FUCK IT with a wrench
Was pretty "easy" until now, but those goddamn scions and husks are killing me

 

[Samara]

Yep. Those two are the worst. Someone suggested fire ammo. But the best shot is with the new shotgun since it removes armor in one hit or two. I usually just use barrier, and run away like hell :lol

Who knew those Scions could follow you: I almost fainted from my little corner!

 

[See]

FUCK horizon on Insanity, FUCK IT with a wrench
Was pretty "easy" until now, but those goddamn scions and husks are killing me

Set up your squad on the platform on the left as a distraction, also, I think that was some husks wont spawn because of that. Then you move up to the cover on the very far left of the map and take waves out. Hopefully most of the enemies will ignore you and focus on the squad.

But when the praetorian spawns, well, it moves slow so keep sprinting away from it.

Well, thats how I did it, can't guarantee for it to work though.

 

[MCD]

just keep running around like a madman.

my soldier skill helped me a lot here.

 

[Sai]

No, I have the same problem. I have 90% paragon, caressed varens, helped countless and still can't get Miranda to reconsider after her fight with Jack. Or get to "choose" in Samara's mission.

Is your class at Rank 4?

Set up your squad on the platform on the left as a distraction, also, I think that was some husks wont spawn because of that. Then you move up to the cover on the very far left of the map and take waves out. Hopefully most of the enemies will ignore you and focus on the squad.

That's what I did too, 'cept I usually stick a bit closer to my squad to keep them alive... I do it so I don't have to waste Medi-Gel. Those 100 Credits add up. >_>

It works out perfectly for me as long as the Scions focus all their attention on me. I usually take Jacob with me mow down the Husks when they close in.

 

[Samara]

Is your class at Rank 4?


That's what I did too, 'cept I usually stick a bit closer to my squad to keep them alive... I do it so I don't have to waste Medi-Gel. Those 100 Credits add up. >_>

It works out perfectly for me as long as the Scions focus all their attention on me. I usually take Jacob with me mow down the Husks when they close in.

This is what I get, Sai

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Infiltrater handun with cryo - 3 shots to kill husks.

 

[Schopenhauer]

No, I have the same problem. I have 90% paragon, caressed varens, helped countless and still can't get Miranda to reconsider after her fight with Jack. Or get to "choose" in Samara's mission.

Bioware has stated that there are a bunch of different factors that effect certain charm/intimidate conversation choices.

 

[Arde5643]

FUCK horizon on Insanity, FUCK IT with a wrench
Was pretty "easy" until now, but those goddamn scions and husks are killing me

If you're an adept, get Jacob and Grunt.

Jacob w/ 1 or 2 ranks in pull and squad incendiary ammo.
Grunt w/ heavy concussive shot.

Singularity, warp, pull, squad incendiary, and concussive shots lay waste to collectors/husks/scions.

Against husks: just shoot it a couple of times with heavy pistol with incendiary ammo and then just use pull or throw to instakill it.
If you have multiple swarms of husks, just use singularity to stun or kill them all instantly.

Against collectors: concussive shot to remove barrier, pull with Jacob, and then warp detonation if they are congregated nearby or just shoot them till they die (enemies in pull field receives bonus damage - almost 2x more damage with incendiary ammo)

Against scions: just keep using singularity and then shoot it with heavy pistol and incendiary ammo till it dies. Singularity keeps it stunned for quite a bit.

Against praetorian: this one requires some strafing, however if you're an adept, you might never need to use your weapon at all thanks to warp.
Stay behind cover but don't get into cover, just stay standing behind tall covers and strafe around so the praetorian's beam cannot get to you.
Just keep warping and concussive shotting him while you strafe around the tall covers.
Very easy.

 

[Jamesfrom818]

I wish there was an infinite ammo bug. I'd use the heavy pistol exclusively.