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Mass Effect 2 |OT2| The Den Of Xenophiles

M

Mxrz

Member
Oops, rushed my last post, and I see I came off as barely coherent.

I can't recall if i tried the ps3 demo or not, but I'll give it a go tonight. Didn't mean to sound like DA is horrible, exactly, but the game felt like it had a snails pace, and i never felt really engaged by it. I suppose I was trying to see if ME was a bit more exciting, and fun to actually play.

I wouldn't mind trying the first one, but it might be a bit more effort. The PS3 is conveniently right in front of the couch. I figured the interactive comic thing would handle the story bits, but I doubt it would compare to the real game.

Thanks for the tips.
 
R

REV 09

Member
Bisnic said:
Thanks, it does look incredibly better. The 12-15 minutes wait that the guy speak of if i take the Ultra textures kinda turn me off, so i'll go with the optimized one i guess.
Click to expand...
it's like 4 minutes for the ultra pack for me. not too bad. I'm not sure how much better they are than Optimized, but i don't mind waiting a few minutes on boot-up.
 
S

SamuraiX-

Member
Don't mean to bump this, but could anyone provide some insight to my previous question?

SamuraiX- said:
Good to know. :)

So are you only playing as Shepard throughout the entire game or is it possible to take control of your team members at all?

Is it possible to change your class after you've already chosen it? Do team members appear with pre-selected classes that cannot be changed?
Click to expand...

Thank you! :)

Also, I've been reading up on a lot of hate for ME2 compared to ME1. Has it really been as downgraded in terms of RPG/story elements as all the haters I'm hearing around here are claiming?
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
SamuraiX- said:
Don't mean to bump this, but could anyone provide some insight to my previous question?

Thank you! :)

Also, I've been reading up on a lot of hate for ME2 compared to ME1. Has it really been as downgraded in terms of RPG/story elements as all the haters I'm hearing around here are claiming?
Click to expand...
In answer to your questions:

You only directly control Shepard, but if you make liberal use of the command-pause "menu" you can order them to use their powers and set up waypoints for them to run to.

You can't change your class, and your class heavily dictates which powers you have access to.

Your allies are locked into their dedicated classes, but you get at least one or two of each archetype, so it never really feels like you're limited in options.
 
R

Replicant

Member
The_Inquisitor said:
Seems like PC DLC is never going on sale. What is essential for story stuff leading into ME3? Continuing my ME1 playthrough.
Click to expand...
Lair of Shadow Broker
The Arrival
Kasumi (if she ends up being in ME3)
 
S

SamuraiX-

Member
The_Technomancer said:
In answer to your questions:

You only directly control Shepard, but if you make liberal use of the command-pause "menu" you can order them to use their powers and set up waypoints for them to run to.

You can't change your class, and your class heavily dictates which powers you have access to.

Your allies are locked into their dedicated classes, but you get at least one or two of each archetype, so it never really feels like you're limited in options.
Click to expand...

Nice. That was very informative. Thanks very much. :)

Do you have an opinion about ME1 vs. ME2? I'm always usually hearing two extremes in terms of whether people love or hate the sequel compared to the original.
 
R

racemixing

Banned
So as I often do I couldn't help skimming through the achievements and spotted the achievement for
keeping your team alive through the suicide mission.
Now that I've seen it I was wondering if it was possible for someone to tell me how to go about doing this without spoilers? Or very minimal spoilers? Now that I know
I can prevent it, I really don't want anyone on my team to die. Except Zaeed. I could do without him.
 
R

Replicant

Member
racemixing said:
So as I often do I couldn't help skimming through the achievements and spotted the achievement for
keeping your team alive through the suicide mission.
Now that I've seen it I was wondering if it was possible for someone to tell me how to go about doing this without spoilers? Or very minimal spoilers? Now that I know
I can prevent it, I really don't want anyone on my team to die. Except Zaeed. I could do without him.
Click to expand...

I am not sure if this is considered spoiler or not but I'd spoiler-tagged it just in case:

1.
Upgrade your ship. Specifically asks Jacob, Tali, and I think either Garrus or Legion (can't remember which one) for their upgrades.
2. Keep your team loyal.
That means do their loyalty mission.
3. Keep your paragon OR renegade points high.
That means when there is conflict between 2 or more members, you can choose the paragon or renegade dialogue option.
4. When suicide mission starts, make sure you select the right person for the job.
Read/listen to the mission objective carefully and read the bio of each member to see if they are fit for the job.
5. Unfortunately
Zaeed is necessary in keeping your team alive, esp if you want most of them to be alive. Because he along with Garrus and Grunt have the largest amount of survival points and with them in your last defense party, the rest are guarantee to survive.
6. When the option to
escort your crew member comes, send Mordin Solus to accompany them.
 
R

racemixing

Banned
Replicant said:
I am not sure if this is considered spoiler or not but I'd spoiler-tagged it just in case:

1.
Upgrade your ship. Specifically asks Jacob, Tali, and I think either Garrus or Legion (can't remember which one) for their upgrades.
2. Keep your team loyal.
That means do their loyalty mission.
3. Keep your paragon OR renegade points high.
That means when there is conflict between 2 or more members, you can choose the paragon or renegade dialogue option.
4. When suicide mission starts, make sure you select the right person for the job.
Read/listen to the mission objective carefully and read the bio of each member to see if they are fit for the job.
5. Unfortunately
Zaeed is necessary in keeping your team alive, esp if you want most of them to be alive. Because he along with Garrus and Grunt have the largest amount of survival points and with them in your last defense party, the rest are guarantee to survive.
6. When the option to
escort your crew member comes, send Mordin Solus to accompany them.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.
Mother of christ, there's a lot of potential for death.
 
B

Blue Ninja

Member
SamuraiX- said:
Nice. That was very informative. Thanks very much. :)

Do you have an opinion about ME1 vs. ME2? I'm always usually hearing two extremes in terms of whether people love or hate the sequel compared to the original.
Click to expand...
The first is more RPG-y. There's a lot more stats to take into account. As a result, it's also a lot more clunky. The combat mechanics are pretty unweildy at times. The story's good, if you can get into it.

ME2 is a lot more streamlined. BioWare improved upon the camera angles and such in the dialogue system, so it feels a lot more 'organic'. There's still some RPG elements, but overall less than in ME1. The story isn't that good, sadly, with the main quest taking a back seat to several missions for your companion characters.

Honestly, I prefer ME1's story, but I prefer ME2's controls and combat. Except for the part where they basically force you to run everywhere.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
So, my fem Shepard is trying to romance with... Garrus. Their conversation is so awkward, lol.

I'm not going to see some naked Turian's ass soon now... am i?
 
M

MacBosse

Member
So Im playing trough some of the DLC now in anticipation of ME3. I finished ME2 the same week it released ...

So yeah, Firestarter is kinda cool. Text story is never my thing really, I need some more to get really engaged.

Kasumi was a cool DLC. I like the character and the mission somewhat got me thinking of the Hitman games.

Shadow Broker was awesome. A must buy for any ME fan.

The Arrival, better than the flak it has gotten here, sure not the best of the bunch with some parts that was unimaginative. The end was
cool but I would have liked to made the decision myself ...

Overlord, got that one left. Then we are all set for ME3!
 
P

pahamrick

Member
Oh man, those texture replacement shots look great. It's a shame texmod & ME2 hate my computer. Whenever I've tried to run texmod with ME2 I get sub-30fps everywhere no matter what settings I use in game. Issue with ATI cards from what I've read through different forums.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
pahamrick said:
Oh man, those texture replacement shots look great. It's a shame texmod & ME2 hate my computer. Whenever I've tried to run texmod with ME2 I get sub-30fps everywhere no matter what settings I use in game. Issue with ATI cards from what I've read through different forums.
Click to expand...

They're pretty great. It just sucks that squad characters are higher res than my own Shepard. But i guess whoever made that mod just couldn't make high res textures for all the possible custom Shepard models. Regular npcs still are low res too. Better than nothing at least!
 
C

criesofthepast

Member
Typographenia said:
That, and so much more!
No.
Click to expand...
Aww man so Shep and Garrus don't have sex? I left Jacob for Garrus lol

Wanted to see some cross-species sex.

Yeah I'm a sick fuck.

The conversations between Garrus and Shep are pretty funny though. Garrus talkin bout "doing some research on how we go about doing this" made me lol.

I'm currently just finishing up ME2. About to enter the final battle. Didn't expect to be wow'd as much as I have been so far. Such a beautiful looking game and love how many different environments there are.

P.s I hope Miranda dies. What a bitch. Never trusted her from the start. We shall see what happens!
 
T

Typographenia

Member
Bisnic said:
Well, that's one weird, very creepy, graphical bug i've found... i pressed alt+tab to browse the web a little and when i came back... i saw...this

Click for shocking face :
http://i.imgur.com/OoAVG.jpg

I literally said "Holy crap".


Edit : Oh my... something else now : http://i.imgur.com/5DPFx.jpg
Click to expand...
Maybe you should consider refraining from using alt+tab when playing, hahaha!
Does it fix itself after choosing a dialogue option or ending the conversations?

criesofthepast said:
Aww man so Shep and Garrus don't have sex? I left Jacob for Garrus lol
Click to expand...
Well, there's nothing explicit, but they can still hook up.
Don't worry, I'm certain Bioware will be paying close attention to making a proper scene for every romance option in ME3 to appease their fanbase.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Typographenia said:
Maybe you should consider refraining from using alt+tab when playing, hahaha!
Does it fix itself after choosing a dialogue option or ending the conversations?
Click to expand...

It came back to normal after the 3rd alt+tab, it was just very surprising to see these fantastic bugs. It wasn't the first time i used alt+tab either while playing. Oh well lol.
 
R

Replicant

Member
criesofthepast said:
P.s I hope Miranda dies. What a bitch. Never trusted her from the start. We shall see what happens!
Click to expand...

Wait WAT? She's pretty harsh but I never encountered a scenario where she'd become a traitor or anything that your post implies.
 
M

MaximusNeo701

Member
just fired this game up again on the 360 because I have been wanting to for awhile. Its weird because I didn't continue from a ME1 save so I could have a different character and the default options are what I was hoping for but it looked at acheivements to reward me in the beginning of the game.

Though I am completely considering switching to the PC version for this play through cause I did for dragon age since I never finished it and the graphics are amazingly better when its a 46 inch 1080p lcd. Any thoughts on if its worth it?
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
Replicant said:
Wait WAT? She's pretty harsh but I never encountered a scenario where she'd become a traitor or anything that your post implies.
Click to expand...
She
shot the Bruce Willis-looking guy
at the very start of the game :(
 
F

Fimbulvetr

Member
Replicant said:
But
he was a bad guy, wasn't he?
Click to expand...

Yep.
He was trying to ruin the project and kill everyone inside the station, including you.

I think he was supposed to be a Shadow Broker agent that infiltrated Cerberus.
 
S

SamuraiX-

Member
Blue Ninja said:
The first is more RPG-y. There's a lot more stats to take into account. As a result, it's also a lot more clunky. The combat mechanics are pretty unweildy at times. The story's good, if you can get into it.

ME2 is a lot more streamlined. BioWare improved upon the camera angles and such in the dialogue system, so it feels a lot more 'organic'. There's still some RPG elements, but overall less than in ME1. The story isn't that good, sadly, with the main quest taking a back seat to several missions for your companion characters.

Honestly, I prefer ME1's story, but I prefer ME2's controls and combat. Except for the part where they basically force you to run everywhere.
Click to expand...

Wow.

Now I'm torn. Usually story and characters matter more to me, but if the gameplay isn't up to par then it makes it really difficult for me to get into a game.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
SamuraiX- said:
Wow.

Now I'm torn. Usually story and characters matter more to me, but if the gameplay isn't up to par then it makes it really difficult for me to get into a game.
Click to expand...

ME2 gameplay is pretty good though, so you shouldn't be scared of it. Story and characters are still as interesting to watch too. Story might not be as good as the first game, but its still decent and the characters are great!

ME1 gameplay isn't as bad as some people say... if you dont mind having to loot or sell hundreds of useless ammos, armors and weapons that is. And just ignore the sidequests requiring you to gather minerals and artifacts on barren planets.
 
M

Mr_Zombie

Member
Bisnic said:
Well, that's one weird, very creepy, graphical bug i've found... i pressed alt+tab to browse the web a little and when i came back... i saw...this

Click for shocking face :
http://i.imgur.com/OoAVG.jpg

I literally said "Holy crap".


Edit : Oh my... something else now : http://i.imgur.com/5DPFx.jpg
Click to expand...
That's the effect of using Texmod - sometimes it can simply switch a random texture with another random texture it has in memory. I suppose this time it replaced the vignette.
It happened to me a lot in RE4 ;)
 
T

The Antitype

Banned
I'm replaying the game from scratch cause I lost my save file.

I've seen these sites on the net, with people sharing their created Shepherds along with alphanumeric codes associated with them.

Is there anyway to enter these codes to get the same faces? Cause some of them are pretty badass.
 
A

AusQB

Member
The Antitype said:
I'm replaying the game from scratch cause I lost my save file.

I've seen these sites on the net, with people sharing their created Shepherds along with alphanumeric codes associated with them.

Is there anyway to enter these codes to get the same faces? Cause some of them are pretty badass.
Click to expand...
When you get to the customization screen, choose custom appearance and at the bottom there will be a field to input the code.
 
S

SpaceBridge

Member
The Antitype said:
I'm replaying the game from scratch cause I lost my save file.

I've seen these sites on the net, with people sharing their created Shepherds along with alphanumeric codes associated with them.

Is there anyway to enter these codes to get the same faces? Cause some of them are pretty badass.
Click to expand...

Can you share a link of this site with customer Shepard codes? Id be interested at looking at some of these.
 
L

lastplayed

Member
MaximusNeo701 said:
Though I am completely considering switching to the PC version for this play through cause I did for dragon age since I never finished it and the graphics are amazingly better when its a 46 inch 1080p lcd. Any thoughts on if its worth it?
Click to expand...

It's pretty good on both platforms but I prefer it on PC. Plus there's no disk swap!
 
R

Replicant

Member
SpaceBridge said:
Can you share a link of this site with customer Shepard codes? Id be interested at looking at some of these.
Click to expand...

Well, there is this site:

http://www.masseffect2faces.com/

Reikon said:
Man I feel like I'm the only one who likes Miranda.
Click to expand...

She's okay but not my fave.

On that note, who are everyone's top 5 fave companions in ME/ME2. Let's start a list:

1. Legion
2. Garrus
3. Kasumi
4. Kaidan
5. Tali
(6. Mordin)
 
M

Mindlog

Member
Zaeed Mordin Legion Ashley Wrex

in-game usefulness
ME1: Doesn't matter as long as you can hack/decrypt.
ME2: Miranda (overload and warp and passive bonuses) / Garrus (overload) or Thane (warp)
 
K

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Here's my list:

  1. Tali
  2. Garrus
  3. Legion
  4. Kasumi
  5. Ashley
  6. Mordin
  7. Wrex
  8. Zaeed
  9. Jack
  10. Liara
  11. Thane
  12. Jacob
  13. Samara/Morinth
  14. Grunt
  15. Miranda
  16. Kaidan/Carth 2.0
 
T

The Antitype

Banned
Here's my list:

  1. Garrus
  2. Miranda
  3. Mordin
  4. Tali
  5. Legion
  6. Thane
  7. Jacob
  8. Kasumi
  9. Wrex
  10. Grunt - I'm the only person in the world who likes him as much as Wrex. :(
  11. Jack - Annoying character, love the idea that she's a psychotic biotic savant though.
  12. Zaeed
  13. Samara
  14. Ashley - Racist, annoying, not particularly useful.
  15. Liara - Annoys the fucking hell out of me.
  16. Kaidan - Useless and annoying.
 
B

Blue Ninja

Member
1. Garrus
2. Zaeed
3. Miranda (dat assccent)
4. Wrex
5. Ashley
6. Thane
7. Legion
8. Mordin
9. Grunt
10. Liara
11. Tali
12. Kasumi
13. Jacob
14. Kaidan
15. Jack
16. Samara

Though a lot of these can get switched around every once in a while. Garrus is my main bro, though.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
1. Garrus - Shep's Protege. Easily the most interesting relationship that Shep has.
The fact that Lotsb mentions that the relationship may not be in the best interest of Garrus shows the Shep's influence isn't always positive and that is definitely an interesting development that will hopefully be developed.
2. Legion - One of Bioware's better characters. Use the console on the pc version to have him/it from the start.
3. Mordin - Not Exactly Clint Eastwood in Space, but still far more interesting than just about everyone else.
4. Kasumi - Probably the only female character that doesn't seem to need Shep at all.
5. Wrex - Shepard - Wrex...
6. Jack - A lot better than I imagined from all the marketing.
7. Ashley - At least seems to grow as a character over the game.
8. Zaeed - Another character that doesn't totally rely on Shep
9. Thane - A bit of a wasted opportunity in ME2, need more Hanhar in ME3
10. Morinth - At least she doesn't give a shit, at all.
11. Kaiden - Typical leading Bioware man, anemic might the best word for him
12. Miranda - Look at me, I'm perfect, but perfect is bad. Blah!
13. Tali - Shows some growth but still goes all mary sue over Shep.
14. Liara - See above
15. Samara - Boring Space Jedi
16. Grunt - Replacement wrex and about as interesting as broken down bus.
17. Jacob - See Kaiden, but even less interesting

Bioware seem to at their best when writing morally or ethically challenged/different characters and strong females who don't go weak at the knees over the sight of Shepard/Hawke/Mr. Warden/Revan etc.. and at their worst when it comes to leading male characters. I suspect Vega will turn into Kaiden 3.0 sadly.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Man, just how glitched is this game? My characters are walking like 20 feet above the ground in midair now and i need to restart the mission because of that... Not the first glitch i encountered too. Bioware just dont give a shit about fixing them huh?
 
R

REV 09

Member
i can't really rank the characters in order, but i feel categories may be more appropriate.

Love
Garrus, Mordin, Miranda, Thane, Legion, Kasumi,

Indifferent
Zaeed, Liara, Ashley, Tali, Wrex, Grunt

Dislike
Kaidan, Jacob, Samara, Jack
 
K

Kaper

Member
1. Garrus - He gets the done job.
2. Mordin - Fast talker.
3. Wrex - Doesn't afraid of anything.

I also enjoy Ashley and Kaidan when I play Renegade. It's fun being a dick to Ashley and I love hearing Carth 2.0 whine all day.
 
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