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[DownLikeBCPowder]

HEY! Is there like a "point of no return" at the end of the game, where you can go finish sidequests and stuff before beating it? Or can you continue after the game at all? If someone could let me know how that works, in spoiler tags probably, that would be very helpful!

You can continue the "side quests" after you beat the game.

 

[Tomasooie]

What is wrong with the lighting in this game? No matter what, the shadows are way too dark. I have had no problems with any other game, not even the first Mass Effect, and my TV is calibrated just fine. Most of the time shadow detail is close to nonexistent no matter how high the brightness is. I've done some searching and it seems this is just how the game is. PC users can somewhat alleviate this by editing a configuration file and turning off depth of field (which will make the game a bit washed out), but on 360 there's no solution.

It's a minor problem, the game still looks great, but I wonder if it's a stylistic choice they went with or a technical screw-up.

 

[witness]

What is wrong with the lighting in this game? No matter what, the shadows are way too dark. I have had no problems with any other game, not even the first Mass Effect, and my TV is calibrated just fine. Most of the time shadow detail is close to nonexistent no matter how high the brightness is. I've done some searching and it seems this is just how the game is. PC users can somewhat alleviate this by editing a configuration file and turning off depth of field (which will make the game a bit washed out), but on 360 there's no solution.

It's a minor problem, the game still looks great, but I wonder if it's a stylistic choice they went with or a technical screw-up.

Yeah I don't understand the artistic choice either, the corners especially dark giving it almost a "fish eye" look. For a while I thought there was a problem with my xbox or my tv, then after trying other games and saw that they look fine I came to the realization that its just this game.

 

[MirageDwarf]

Is there enough money to purchase every thing in single run?

Only missions I've left are, in main story - citadel and whatever is from IFF mission. There are couple of side missions on citadel which I'm gonna do. Right now, I have around 200,000 credits. Haven't bought most of the things at Citadel. Even on Illium, there are four upgrades at one store which costs around 300,000 credits. Unless last few missions give lots of credits, no way I can buy all of these.

Do I get to keep my upgrades and money in NG+? Don't see any other way to upgrade everything.

 

[Patryn]

Is there enough money to purchase every thing in single run?

Only missions I've left are, in main story - citadel and whatever is from IFF mission. There are couple of side missions on citadel which I'm gonna do. Right now, I have around 200,000 credits. Haven't bought most of the things at Citadel. Even on Illium, there are four upgrades at one store which costs around 300,000 credits. Unless last few missions give lots of credits, no way I can buy all of these.

Do I get to keep my upgrades and money in NG+? Don't see any other way to upgrade everything.

No, only heavy weapons and levels carry over to a NG+. But you get an extra 200,000 credits to start with (along with the 50,000 of every resource and experience bonus).

 

[OMGLOL A LLAMA]

how much paragon or renegade is needed to avert miranda/jack's argument?

 

[Community Forum]

You can continue the "side quests" after you beat the game.

Very nice! Thanks for the answer! I've had this game since it came out, but only really started playing it this weekend! Man, it is so awesome.

 

[sweetvar26]

Is there enough money to purchase every thing in single run?

Only missions I've left are, in main story - citadel and whatever is from IFF mission. There are couple of side missions on citadel which I'm gonna do. Right now, I have around 200,000 credits. Haven't bought most of the things at Citadel. Even on Illium, there are four upgrades at one store which costs around 300,000 credits. Unless last few missions give lots of credits, no way I can buy all of these.

Do I get to keep my upgrades and money in NG+? Don't see any other way to upgrade everything.

No, not on your first playthrough.

I had a level 50 character import from Mass Effect 1 and I did every single side quest in the game. I bought most of the upgrades except for couple while I bought no souvenir at all.

So even if you stick with the upgrades and stuff that you actually need, I still fell short for couple.

 

[Subitai]

HEY! Is there like a "point of no return" at the end of the game, where you can go finish sidequests and stuff before beating it? Or can you continue after the game at all? If someone could let me know how that works, in spoiler tags probably, that would be very helpful!

Spoiler

Before you decide to get the IFF, you should have finished all the loyalty and side quests you want to. You can still a lot of them after getting the IFF, but u reach a point where you'll definitely wish you had done them earlier. You can skip the IFF too by going straight into the omega-4 relay, and that is the true point of no return as far as starting the end of the game.

And, then like someone else posted, you can go back and do stuff you skipped after you beat the game.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

how much paragon or renegade is needed to avert miranda/jack's argument?

On my Paragon run I sided with Jack & then needed 100% Paragon to placate Miranda. On the Renegade run I was able to tell them both to STFU with a much lower Renegade level.

 

[Skilotonn]

Got my Mass Effect 2 shirt from Caspel last week! Dunno how long it's been here, since I was out of the city for a few days, but either way it was faster than I expected!

Will take pics whenever I can, I'm crazy busy right now...

Thanks again Caspel & GameZone!

 

[djtiesto]

Played some more this weekend, finished all the loyalty missions, and just doing a few N7 subquests before heading out for the IFF. I was looking at a faq, and apparently I missed some of the weapon damage upgrades on the missions... which means I am barred from the max upgrade achievement

Is there any way I can get the upgrades before the end of the game? Or will I have to replay if I want that 'cheev?

My biggest complaint about the game is that you can't go back and re-explore areas you've completed, to get back loot you may have missed.

 

[Subitai]

Played some more this weekend, finished all the loyalty missions, and just doing a few N7 subquests before heading out for the IFF. I was looking at a faq, and apparently I missed some of the weapon damage upgrades on the missions... which means I am barred from the max upgrade achievement

Is there any way I can get the upgrades before the end of the game? Or will I have to replay if I want that 'cheev?

My biggest complaint about the game is that you can't go back and re-explore areas you've completed, to get back loot you may have missed.

Yeah, I think you'll need to get this one on your next play through (on insanity like the rest of us ).

 

[Talon]

how much paragon or renegade is needed to avert miranda/jack's argument?

I believe it's max, but I may be wrong. Somebody correct me.

 

[djtiesto]

Yeah, I think you'll need to get this one on your next play through (on insanity like the rest of us ).

Sadly, doubt I am gonna replay it though... I rarely ever replay RPGs, and this month is busy with EoE and FF13.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Sadly, doubt I am gonna replay it though... I rarely ever replay RPGs, and this month is busy with EoE and FF13.

Do it before ME3 comes out. That way you get your level 30 and a refresher on everything that happened.

 

[simtmb]

Do it before ME3 comes out. That way you get your level 30 and a refresher on everything that happened.

I should of done that with ME1 now that i think about it. I finished that title once, on the 3rd day of its release and have never touched it again. Jumped straight into ME2 with my imported Shepard and many: OHHHH i remember this/that character moments. Luckily. :lol

EDIT: Just finished my one and only(for now) playthrough of ME2. Exactly 39hrs 0mins. Worth noting for me as i finished the first game in around 18, and ME2 didn't FEEL larger, i guess the missions just felt incorporated better and i done as most as i could, even getting about just under 80% of the achievements in my one playthrough. Definitely my favorite RPG alongside Demons Souls in this generation thus far.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

So I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be starting a third playthrough of ME as an engineer so I can carry her through to ME2 and play as an engineer there...BUT...

I was hoping for more unlockables from achievements etc like ME provided and there absolutely positively needs to be more gear for Sheppard to wear and more weapon choice for all the characters and with those weapons comes some quantitative way to see which weapon is better than the other (maybe i missed it?)

 

[funkmasterb]

What is wrong with the lighting in this game? No matter what, the shadows are way too dark. I have had no problems with any other game, not even the first Mass Effect, and my TV is calibrated just fine. Most of the time shadow detail is close to nonexistent no matter how high the brightness is. I've done some searching and it seems this is just how the game is. PC users can somewhat alleviate this by editing a configuration file and turning off depth of field (which will make the game a bit washed out), but on 360 there's no solution.

It's a minor problem, the game still looks great, but I wonder if it's a stylistic choice they went with or a technical screw-up.

Style. Core shadows help with dramatic lighting - conversations and cinematics - and if you look at the MEI E3 Flux Bar demo you'll see there are core shadows there as well, so this was part of understanding and reworking the lighting systems to give us what the initial art direction called for. Also, all of our lighting on MEII is dynamic, which lets us have areas of almost pure black and better looking levels.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Style. Core shadows help with dramatic lighting - conversations and cinematics - and if you look at the MEI E3 Flux Bar demo you'll see there are core shadows there as well, so this was part of understanding and reworking the lighting systems to give us what the initial art direction called for. Also, all of our lighting on MEII is dynamic, which lets us have areas of almost pure black and better looking levels.

You work for BioWare?

 

[funkmasterb]

You work for BioWare?

Ackbar.jpg

 

[∀ Narayan]

Ackbar.jpg

 

[OMGLOL A LLAMA]

I believe it's max, but I may be wrong. Somebody correct me.

I don't think it's too high because I could avert Legion/Tali's argument with a relatively low paragon/renegade, but i can't with Jack and Miranda, I would assume the two arguments have equal thresholds but meh :/
I really want that "everyone survives" achiecement mang

 

[Affeinvasion]

No you don't...some of those people NEED to die. Not just for dramatic purposes...but just so I never have to see them again...unless I'm allowed to dance on their grave in ME3.

 

[Azwethinkweiz]

No, not on your first playthrough.

I had a level 50 character import from Mass Effect 1 and I did every single side quest in the game. I bought most of the upgrades except for couple while I bought no souvenir at all.

So even if you stick with the upgrades and stuff that you actually need, I still fell short for couple.

I bought everything during my first run. Hell I still even had 50k leftover.

I imported a lvl 49 character by the way.

 

[HadesGigas]

No you don't...some of those people NEED to die. Not just for dramatic purposes...but just so I never have to see them again...unless I'm allowed to dance on their grave in ME3.

Well, Thane will probably have died by the time ME3 happens.

 

[dejan]

Exclusive Hammerhead Gameplay HD

Looks like extended Gametrailers TV footage. I really hope BioWare can deliver this one on time.

 

[Dresden]

Well, Thane will probably have died by the time ME3 happens.

The power of love will cure him.

 

[Tomasooie]

Style. Core shadows help with dramatic lighting - conversations and cinematics - and if you look at the MEI E3 Flux Bar demo you'll see there are core shadows there as well, so this was part of understanding and reworking the lighting systems to give us what the initial art direction called for. Also, all of our lighting on MEII is dynamic, which lets us have areas of almost pure black and better looking levels.

It looks great 90% of the time, but occasionally Shepard will be in some well-lit area (like the Normandy) and his back will be almost completely black, which doesn't make sense.

 

[∀ Narayan]

It looks great 90% of the time, but occasionally Shepard will be in some well-lit area (like the Normandy) and his back will be almost completely black, which doesn't make sense.

Which platform are you playing this on? I'm playing it on the PC and I've never seen anything like that.

 

[Ding]

Yay, I finally "beat" the game last night. Good times. I played as an Engineer class, paragon, (male) on whatever the second-to-highest difficulty level is. My play time was about 54 hours, if I recall correctly. Well, that was my logged time. I'm sure the actual time was closer to 60 hours. Ended at level 27.

I found the finale of the game to be surprisingly easy, compared to some of the earlier fights. A cakewalk, almost. I'm actually okay with that.

I went ahead and had some happy fun-time with Miranda, post-finale, just for the achievement, but then I reloaded my game and told her it wasn't gonna happen, after all. Paragon Shepard don't cheat. She hid her disappointment quite well.

Then I imported the same character into a new game, and replayed a couple early missions just to boost myself to level 30. (Again, for the achievement.) It seemed crazy easy since I was so over-leveled and equipped. I don't really see the appeal of that sort of new-game-plus, at least as far as going through the whole game that way. No challenge. However, it was amusing to be able to drive my enemies before me, and hear the lamentations of their women. Okay, I guess I do see the appeal.

Then, I started a fresh (female/renegade) character on Insanity. Infiltrator, this time, since I understand that's one of the "easier" classes? So far, I'm dying less than I did on my easier play through, but that's mostly because I know all the tricks now, and I'm playing super carefully. I feel so weak now. All in all, I'm actually liking "insane" level combat quite a bit. I miss my combat droid, though.

I'm not sure I'll have the patience to play through the whole game on Insanity. I dread the thought of doing all that mining again. (I ended up with lots of extra minerals though, so I can dial that back a bit.)

 

[Zen]

Mass Effect 2's side content was both FUN and VARIED. Furthermore, it was INTERESTING -- much unlike ME1's bullshit.

Varied? The side content to Mass Effect 2 was really inter changable compared to Mass Effect 1. I guess you didn't like the Mako, planet exploration, and the like, but it added another dimension to the side quests. ME2 is all "Land somewhere, talky talky, shoot, talk" The end.

Sure there were unique environments, but the actual content was far more homogeneous.

 

[Splash Wave]

Anyone want my copy for 42 shipped? It's complete and pristine.

 

[Niblet]

Just noticed PC version is on Amazon for $29.99. Is this a sale or a new adjusted price? Don't have a solid enough PC to play at the moment, but Im wondering if I should jump on this now or just pick it up in a few months when I build my PC.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Just noticed PC version is on Amazon for $29.99. Is this a sale or a new adjusted price? Don't have a solid enough PC to play at the moment, but Im wondering if I should jump on this now or just pick it up in a few months when I build my PC.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389581

 

[Najaf]

I'm calling it right now: The Shadow Broker is going to be Liara's "father"

No, no, no. The Shadow Broker is going to be Maranda's father.

 

[Mindlog]

Varied? The side content to Mass Effect 2 was really inter changable compared to Mass Effect 1. I guess you didn't like the Mako, planet exploration, and the like, but it added another dimension to the side quests. ME2 is all "Land somewhere, talky talky, shoot, talk" The end.

Sure there were unique environments, but the actual content was far more homogeneous.

You have to be a talirotica author.

The Shadow Broker is the Ploban Jupiter Brain.

 

[Skilotonn]

Exclusive Hammerhead Gameplay HD

Looks like extended Gametrailers TV footage. I really hope BioWare can deliver this one on time.

First time I've actually gotten to watch the Hammerhead in motion since Gametrsilers was acting up a few days ago - looks like a blast, but you probably won't be able to exit the Hammerhead like the Mako, oh well...

It's even better and faster than I expected though!

Oh, and:


http://twitter.com/masseffect2

All this Dragon Age: Origins news today. Feeling left out Mass Effect fans? Nevermind. Something cool coming tomorrow. Stay tuned.

 

[SilentProtagonist]

Hm, I just noticed how many designs they used in ME2 that were cut from ME1. If you watch the bonus dvd with commentary that came with the platinum version, you can see the Shepard Vest outfit, those.. big creatures that spit out the smaller creatures, outfits that characters wear, etc. I wonder if any of the cut stuff is gonna show up in ME3...?

 

[SuperSonic1305]

The Shadow Broker is Jacob

LOST

 

[MirageDwarf]

Just finished it. WOW!!! EPIC Ending. Total play time 60 hrs. I spent lots of time in conversations and always exhausted all options.

Played through normal difficulty and end boss was easy than I expected. BUT I'm not complaining. After long and amazing time with it, I was ready for frustration free ending.

BioWare has done incredible job with story and made me super excited about ME3. ME universe is THE BEST sci-fi universe ever. This will be GOTY for me for sure. GoW 3 may come close but crown will go to ME2 for its epic story and characters.

Oh and whoever from dev team came up with idea of planet scanning can go to fucking hell.

BioWare doctors or Casey Hudson, if you are reading this, I know you won't accept it right now, but down the line, I fully expect a statement from you guys that you fucked up big time with planet scanning. How can in the fucking hell a team with such a long long experience of AAA games come up with this stupid idea?

 

[HadesGigas]

BioWare doctors or Casey Hudson, if you are reading this, I know you won't accept it right now, but down the line, I fully expect a statement from you guys that you fucked up big time with planet scanning. How can in the fucking hell a team with such a long long experience of AAA games come up with this stupid idea?

It was all worth it for the "Probing Uranus" line.

 

[Rubezh]

Is there really any point to the ME2 new game +? There's no new weapons on the Collector ship, all the ME1 decisions are the same and all ship and weapon upgrades are erased. The only real reason I can think of is to get level 30 character for the achievement. I see more utility from importing a ME1 save than an ME2 save.

 

[Sai]

The only real reason I can think of is to get level 30 character for the achievement.

I don't think that's necessary either. With the 25% XP bonus, I was able to hit Lv30 by completing a few assignments after finishing the game.

Importing your ME1 career is definitely the way to go.

 

[Arjen]

Is there really any point to the ME2 new game +? There's no new weapons on the Collector ship, all the ME1 decisions are the same and all ship and weapon upgrades are erased. The only real reason I can think of is to get level 30 character for the achievement. I see more utility from importing a ME1 save than an ME2 save.

Well the only thing i did like from new game+ is that you get to keep your weapons.
So my sentinel had a sniper and a decent SMG from the start.

 

[Dan Yo]

Well the only thing i did like from new game+ is that you get to keep your weapons.
So my sentinel had a sniper and a decent SMG from the start.

Do you get to keep all of your upgrades and armor pieces? Because otherwise, that would complete negate the the point of having a New Game +. Having to search every corner on each mission is something I'd want to be able to avoid on second playthroughs.

 

[Dead]

Gamestop guys were giving away a bunch of pre-order stuff during the FF13 midnight launch. Managed to get their last Terminus Armor code

 

[ZeroRay]

Gamestop guys were giving away a bunch of pre-order stuff during the FF13 midnight launch. Managed to get their last Terminus Armor code

Oh yeah, I managed to snag all the preorder bonuses due to Microsoft's mistake before release. So first person to ask gets my gamestop code.

Edit. FFFUUUU! Can't seem to find my code, sorry guys.

 

[SnakeXs]

Oh yeah, I managed to snag all the preorder bonuses due to Microsoft's mistake before release. So first person to ask gets my gamestop code.

*raises hand*

 

[ZeroRay]

*raises hand*

Found it! Check your PM.