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Mass Effect 2 |OT|
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kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Mine hasn't shown up yet, oh well. But here's the question, wait a month and download the new costumes and character and do a proper playthrough or just plow through the Firewalker DLC on a level 30 Shepard? Hmm...
ChoklitReign
Member
Isn't it ironic that the best DLC is free?
Joel Was Right
Gold Member
Is the new DLC only the costume pack?
MrTroubleMaker
Member
PC? it's not up yetRhino said:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/129/index/1803142/27
should be up in an hour or so, I can't wait to give the tank a tryChris Priestly said:
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Neither the Firewalker nor Costume Pack are up for me, so I guess they went live for others a bit too early.
Finished! I thought it was pretty cool, but it's more about the potential awesome missions than what it's actually there. Now, that's not to say it's bad or anything, just a bit too basic in terms of missions. To sum up:
- The navigation is great, really fun to jump around. The "platforming" sections are pretty good, and in fact
. It would be great to integrate it in the main story in the future, some sections could be pretty intense.
- Combat is a bit wonky, to be honest. It's functional and fun when you do it right, but it takes some getting used to to aim correctly, and the game is completely unforgiving: one death (and it blows up pretty soon) equals going back to the "select character" screen, there aren't checkpoints. Fortunately there is not much combat at all.
All in all, pretty good content, especially for free :lol Possible sequel hook at the end too!
- The navigation is great, really fun to jump around. The "platforming" sections are pretty good, and in fact
the exploration mission is probably the highlight of the pack. I really, really hope they create 7/8 big worlds like this for ME3, where you can explore on you own and reach an abandoned factory after a series of platforms. It would be a great middle ground between tons of identical worlds and... eh, scanning :lol
- Combat is a bit wonky, to be honest. It's functional and fun when you do it right, but it takes some getting used to to aim correctly, and the game is completely unforgiving: one death (and it blows up pretty soon) equals going back to the "select character" screen, there aren't checkpoints. Fortunately there is not much combat at all.
All in all, pretty good content, especially for free :lol Possible sequel hook at the end too!
AnimatorZombie
Neo Member
Xbox Live is borked right now for some reason.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
DLC is up. There's also a countdown on both the ME2 and DA:O websites.
McBradders
NeoGAF: my new HOME
EatChildren said:
I sense a stirring in my pants
sublime085
Member
I'm on PC and every time I click New Content Available I get sent to a Bioware checkout screen with the costume pack. It used to send me to a list of all the Cerberus Network/Collector's Edition stuff I could download. Weird.
Has anyone on PC managed to download the Hammerhead successfully? Where did you find the download link?
Has anyone on PC managed to download the Hammerhead successfully? Where did you find the download link?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
sublime085
Member
Ah yes, that's the page I was looking for. Thanks.EatChildren said:
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Nab said:
5 and a half days. I assume a new game announcement.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
or possibly expansion?EatChildren said:
Masaki_ said:
Not likely, we know everything about her already and it's official info. On the other hand, it could easily be some new thing for the website or other unimportant thing.
EDIT: ^^^Yep, but that's the only mission with mandatory combat. You can just stay far away from the enemy and kill them without them being able to fire back.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Masaki_ said:
I thought she was already confirmed for the 6th of April. Wouldnt really be worth counting down to a DLC release on both Dragon Age and Mass Effect websites.
ExtraKr1spy
Banned
firewalker = letdown.
1.See enemy in the distance.
2.Jump and spam homing missles
3.Turbo to jump to next area
4. See lava and try to float over in your hovering tank
5. Burn and star over
:/
1.See enemy in the distance.
2.Jump and spam homing missles
3.Turbo to jump to next area
4. See lava and try to float over in your hovering tank
5. Burn and star over
:/
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
This little content patch made me realise the biggest flaw in Mass Effect 2's design. There's simply too much faffing about and very little plot to tie it all together. It might be argued that the first one is this aswell but due to the nature of the plot it differs alot.
ME1:
-- Introduction -- < 4 Main Quests + faffing about > -- Ending
ME2:
-- Introduction -- < Recruit 4 Members + some faffing about > -- Freedom's Progress -- < Recruit 4 more members and complete 10 loyalty quests + some more faffing about > -- Ending
The second half of ME2 plays like a checklist of tasks to complete not as an action game. Sure, there's lots of action but there's always 5 or more things that you "urgently" need to complete. Where ME1's structure was far easier to build DLC into ME2 just feels like making the checklist on the second half even longer for us completionists. That's not a fun way to play a game.
(For the record Steam has recorded over 120 hours played for each game.)
ME1:
-- Introduction -- < 4 Main Quests + faffing about > -- Ending
ME2:
-- Introduction -- < Recruit 4 Members + some faffing about > -- Freedom's Progress -- < Recruit 4 more members and complete 10 loyalty quests + some more faffing about > -- Ending
The second half of ME2 plays like a checklist of tasks to complete not as an action game. Sure, there's lots of action but there's always 5 or more things that you "urgently" need to complete. Where ME1's structure was far easier to build DLC into ME2 just feels like making the checklist on the second half even longer for us completionists. That's not a fun way to play a game.
(For the record Steam has recorded over 120 hours played for each game.)
wind_steaker
Member
Done with the Firewalker already... eh, I think the most jarring thing was the lack of any speach from your characters, I wish they had said SOMETHING at the end
The gameplay is ok, but I can see why they left it out of the main game, not that different to the ME1 vehicle levels.
what was that thing? could this be the start of ME3 hints?
The gameplay is ok, but I can see why they left it out of the main game, not that different to the ME1 vehicle levels.
Started ME2 last night. I played through ME1 once as a rental and remembered very little of it (I didn't remember Cerberus at all, which based on the start of ME2 was apparently a big deal?).
Anyway, I rolled an Engineer against my better judgement. I was a Soldier in ME1 which is a little vanilla, but at least it insured I had HP and stopping power. Engineer I knew would be a little more fiddly.
I bring this up because I'm playing on Normal, and dying quite a bit. I just got done doing the ArchAngel stuff on Omega, and it was pretty awful - I died about 7 times during one of the sections where you have to close the shutters (the 2nd one - in the open room).
Is that room supposed to intentionally be a difficulty spike, or am I just terrible? The doors open, and IMMEDIATELY ~6 guys are shooting at me. If I run to cover the moment the door opens, by the time I make it there I'm already mostly dead. Doesn't seem right.
Maybe it was only so tough because I left one squad member with Archangel.
Even though I'm only a few hours in, I'm too lazy to re-roll as a Soldier so I'm stuck wit Engineer. Anything I need to know about the class?
Anyway, I rolled an Engineer against my better judgement. I was a Soldier in ME1 which is a little vanilla, but at least it insured I had HP and stopping power. Engineer I knew would be a little more fiddly.
I bring this up because I'm playing on Normal, and dying quite a bit. I just got done doing the ArchAngel stuff on Omega, and it was pretty awful - I died about 7 times during one of the sections where you have to close the shutters (the 2nd one - in the open room).
Is that room supposed to intentionally be a difficulty spike, or am I just terrible? The doors open, and IMMEDIATELY ~6 guys are shooting at me. If I run to cover the moment the door opens, by the time I make it there I'm already mostly dead. Doesn't seem right.
Maybe it was only so tough because I left one squad member with Archangel.
Even though I'm only a few hours in, I'm too lazy to re-roll as a Soldier so I'm stuck wit Engineer. Anything I need to know about the class?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
kinoki said:
Yeah yeah yeah. Its not a science, ME2's plot just isnt as good. The ideas are fine but the story telling is fundamentally flawed thanks to focusing far too much on aspects that have nothing to do with the Collectors/Reapers plot, as well as not presenting the overall flow in a manner as tight as ME1.
Anyway, I just finished the Firewalker. Its a bit meh really but its free so whatever. It has a story there but its very barebones and has no real information until the end. The graphics were great and I liked the location design. At least 3 of the missions were interesting visually.
The vehicles is cool. Controls really nicely, easy to shoot stuff. Combat is rubbish. Not because its hard to control but because there is absolutely no challange at all. Its so easy to exploit enemy weaknesses and the combat mechanics you wont even notice you're doing it. Only two of the five missions have any combat, and you'll be hard pressed to die once.
The actual missions are pretty eh. I like the ideas, I like the locations, but there's not enough meat in them story wise (as said above) to make them really interesting. Worst of all, theres no fucking reward. Seriously, fuck off with this shit BioWare. Its a broken gameplay mechanic. You changed the loot/RPG system in ME2 to focus on functional items over statistic changes. Fine. Whatever. I like that. But you cant change it and then offer nothing at all at the end of a series of missions. You should have saved the Arc Projector DLC and put it in this as a weapon you find at the end or something, because as it stands once you finish its totally empty.
Ultimately its worth a download because its free, its easy to play, and more ME2 is good. But dont expect anything special or particuarly memorable.
GDJustin said:
I think Engineer is kinda shitty against enemies with non-synthetic enemies or ones with no shield, which is the case in that part. Which squadmate did you bring with you? Also, you probably shouldn't try to close the shuttle until you killed all the enemies between you and it.
No you're right. I'm currently playing through Jade Empire, initially figuring I'd see it as outdated having just finished ME2, and instead I'm amazed at how much deeper the characters and the plot are. I can literally sit there and spend hours talking to people if I wish. I had forgotten what Bioware games used to be like. Barely felt any attachment to any characters beyond the ones that were in Mass Effect 1, and only because when adding in Mass Effect 1, they were the only characters that received proper screen time and fleshing out to feel any attachment to.kinoki said:
Literally spoke more to Dawn Star in the first hour of Jade Empire than with Miranda in the entirety of ME2. As a result, I'm finding Dawn Star much more interesting as a potential love interest.
AnimatorZombie
Neo Member
The vehicle's responsiveness was a pleasant surprise, as was the platforming. Both of which i didn't expect. Anyone else wish this was part of the original package as how you collected minerals instead of that planet scanner shit?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Masaki_ said:
But that doesnt make it good story telling. Its shit, because there's no consistancy or flow, no mystery, to the overall plot.
Yeah, the job is to build a team. Seek out the best of the best and recruit them for a suicide mission. All the characters are written and voiced wonderfully, superior to the first game, their stories are great, and its fantastic that we're seeking out followers that are not on the mission by association (like ME1) but instead skill.
But, as I said, that doesnt make it good story telling. The mystery of the Collectors, and the overarching plot involving the disappearing humans, involves nowhere near as many story missions as does simply recruiting characters. Throw in loyalty missions that, while optional, are practically essential to the plot, and the 'main plot' related missions are almost not there at all, comparitively.
And even then just in terms with keeping with themes and ideas ME2 is all over the place. Its a collective of fantastic writing and ideas that are poorly put together. I really, really hope BioWare successfully blend the two together for ME3.
Joel Was Right
Gold Member
ME2 is kinda shit to be honest
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
EatChildren said:
I like ME2's plot alot but alot of things toward the end felt like tacked on. I don't get why certain characters have loyalty quests however. Jacob, Garrus, Thane and Tali make no sense having loyalty missions for. These people wouldn't need some extra quest to make them loyal to you and their quests hardly bring more flesh to their characters. My other biggest gripe is that it's possible for everyone to survive at the end.
To cut down on the filler you could easily combine certain character's loyalty quests, like a Miranda vs. Jack quest and a Legion vs. Tali quest making the person you align yourself to more likely to survive. That would for certain enrich the game. I also would have loved (and hated) to have to send someone to their certain death at the end mission.
As it stands I loved the concept of collecting a team, it will always suffer for being the middle child in this trilogy and I feel it suffered more from not having an extra 20 hours of content where you had to use the various skills of the team. Like sending Thane on a mission to assassinate someone doing deals with the Collectors or using Grunt for some fist to fist diplomacy while on the Citadel.
So, to sum up: less formulatic structure, less faffing about, choices that have real consequences, and actually using your characters to their fullest would have improved the game greatly. Here's hoping for no. 3.
EatChildren said:
Also, this!
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Meus Renaissance said:
Nah. Overall I still think its better than ME1 and the franchise is like cocain to me, but BioWare are not god developers and the flaws present are painfully obvious. Stupid shit that should be obviously hindering the game.
I personally think that the game just needed another mission or two at the end where you were using your entire squad. It made such a big deal out of recruiting everyone and then once you did it was kind of over in no time. That said, the squad members are just awesome in ME2...their stories are the real story of the game.
ME2 and UC2 have a lot in common...overall arc isn't so great, but the character development and interactions are what makes the game, story, and characters memorable.
ME2 and UC2 have a lot in common...overall arc isn't so great, but the character development and interactions are what makes the game, story, and characters memorable.
HadesGigas said:The science of Mass Effect
So cloaking is really close to happening but the other stuff seems really far off
If aliens exists they better bring that shit. quick.
ME2 just skimmed too much on the important stuff. Like what happened to the protheans: it's just passed like nothing happened. Instead I have people asking for grocery shopping. The loyalty mission overtake way too much importance. Like way way too much. Jack/Grunt loyalty mission also made the least sense. I mean: who cares?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I purchased the alternate costume pack. I feel like a whore, though it only cost ~AU$2.00 so its not too bad.
The glasses on Jack and Thane are so bad though. So, so bad. They dont even look finished, like a dodgy shader glossed over a glitching texture. Another stupid shit move on BioWare's half, not letting us turn off the headware.
The glasses on Jack and Thane are so bad though. So, so bad. They dont even look finished, like a dodgy shader glossed over a glitching texture. Another stupid shit move on BioWare's half, not letting us turn off the headware.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Peff said:
Ironically, outside of the headgear alteration, his is just a reskin.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
EatChildren said:
I have a question about this. The only way to get this is by getting "BioWare Points", correct? And while the cost of the costume pack is 160 "BioWare Points" the smallest amount of "BioWare Points" you can get is 400 which is 3.49. Meaning I'll have 240 unused "BioWare Points" which will never be used, right? Because the next DLC will not be smart enough to cost like 640 "BioWare Points" or something that'll round it out to reduce money spill, right?
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