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[GilloD]

Just finished up. Virmire was the highlight for me:

Spoiler

It was the only part of the game that had serious consequences for Shepard and his crew. It felt "bigger" than the rest of the game, which is weird for a story of galactic struggle. I liked the last boss if only because it was the first fight in 10 hours that wasn't over in 30 seconds. If you save the Council, do you still get to pick someone to head it up? And if let Ashley go, is Shepard all BOO HOO about it? Because we got the HAVE SEX AND IT WAS AWESOME.

 

[JayDubya]

Just finished Noveria, L48. Just got "Completionist." Don't know if I'll be getting "Soldier Ally" or not, but I'm gonna try.

Noveria was fucking awesome. Liara's dig was just a quick little dungeon crawl with some reasonably good overland battles beforehand, but Feros and Noveria really brought it.

I had hoped to unlock more side quests on Noveria or afterwards, but none have come up. I may have already done everything besides the penultimate story planet. Which is , but then again, I'm L48, and the cap is L50, so it stands to reason I've done almost everything.

I'm having no luck getting the ridiculously good (Colossus?) armor for anyone other than Garrus, but boy I sure get a bazillion weapon upgrades and vendor trash shotguns. >_>

Random aside - can someone clue me in on how to make high explosive ammo worth anything? :lol

 

[Superblatt]

Unreal Engine games read quite a bit off of the DVD drive, or so I've heard. Sounds like yours is starting to go.

My 360 gave me a ton of DRE's in Assassin's Creed, but I didn't get a single one during Mass Effect. I thought my 360 was dying too, but I dunno.

Oh, lovely. I'm on the Matriach Benesia fight, and the audio drops out during the cutscene and then I get the DRE. I've had it happen at least 4 times on this one scene alone. Guess I might need to call and get coffin for it.

 

[Bulla564]

I couldn't find it in the thread, but does anybody know where I could get the medium Colossus armor?

I'm exploring everything in my second playthrough, and I want to know if I should look out for it somewhere specific.

 

[shifty100]

Just finished the game, excellent GOTY definitely.

 

[maus]

Has anyone had a bug where the codex entries are no longer read to you? The only significant thing I think I could have done to trigger it was turning the dialog volume down to 80%. Put it back to 100 and still no codex voice.

Kind of lame, only a few hours in.

:::Oh okay I fixed it while typing this post with the Restore to Default option in options. Which also restored everything in the options menu to its default setting... bugs like this are no fun. Awesome game apart, too bad I can only play for a day.

 

[Uncle]

Just finished
I had hoped to unlock more side quests on Noveria or afterwards, but none have come up. I may have already done everything besides the penultimate story planet. Which is , but then again, I'm L48, and the cap is L50, so it stands to reason I've done almost everything.

You can find at least one sidequest there, but I'm pretty sure that you can find it by just going to the system in question (can't remember now which one, the quest is about a doctor in trouble IIRC).

 

[Tiktaalik]

Am I supposed to have any money in this game? I'm about 3 hours in and I'm now

Spoiler

officially a spectre

and I've been told to go to the requisition guy in C spec, and I look at the items and 90% of it is waaay too expensive and the rest is not really that much better than what I have right now.

Am I doing something wrong here?

 

[Uncle]

Am I supposed to have any money in this game? I'm about 3 hours in and I'm now

Spoiler

officially a spectre

and I've been told to go to the requisition guy in C spec, and I look at the items and 90% of it is waaay too expensive and the rest is not really that much better than what I have right now.

Am I doing something wrong here?

It just takes time. By the time you finish, you'll have more money and omni-gel than you can use.

 

[MaizeRage25]

Am I supposed to have any money in this game? I'm about 3 hours in and I'm now

Spoiler

officially a spectre

and I've been told to go to the requisition guy in C spec, and I look at the items and 90% of it is waaay too expensive and the rest is not really that much better than what I have right now.

Am I doing something wrong here?

You shouldn't have that much at that point in the game. As you level up and do sidequests the money will come rolling in.

The only thing worth buying is the Spectre weapons once you reach 1 mil credits. My advice: sell everything you find that you don't need. It's the easiest way to make it to 1 million.

 

[arhra]

Am I supposed to have any money in this game? I'm about 3 hours in and I'm now

Spoiler

officially a spectre

and I've been told to go to the requisition guy in C spec, and I look at the items and 90% of it is waaay too expensive and the rest is not really that much better than what I have right now.

Am I doing something wrong here?

No. The economy of the game is kind of screwy. You spend ages having no money at all, then suddenly at higher levels you end up with more than you know what to do with.

 

[mood]

Ill admit I went into this game with mild enthusiasm but this game has grabbed me like no other this year. I started Friday and I already have over 20 hours and have only completed Feros and Noveria at level 40. 4 So Awesomes out of 4.

 

[Ten-Song]

So I just now finished my second run through the game with my vanguard paragon. Very rarely does a game pull me in like this one… Most of the time when I beat something I'll put it back on the shelf and forget about it for awhile (BioShock), however, once I finished the game, I dived right back in with my old character and started all over. I absolutely consider this one of the best games I've played in recent memory, technical flaws and all.

Loved the soundtrack, story, characters, mix of gunplay and biotics/tech. Item management was pretty flawed, but not too big an issue. Also, exploring planets became a bit tedious, as I was always trying to remember which system/cluster/whatever I had already been to, and what I was looking for, what side mission I was trying to complete, all that noise. Was real easy to just follow along the main plot considering they mark everything for you, but once I went to try and get the completionist achievement, it felt really annoying.

Another thing, I went through two runs of the game with Liara in my party at ALL TIMES, and didn't get the Asari ally achievement, what the hell? Both times I started, I went straight after her, added her into the group, and didn't look back. Something's weird with those achievements, because I used Ash fewer times than Liara, but I DID get the Soldier ally achievement.

Still, regardless of all the flaws, I easily consider this my GOTY so far.

 

[Zzoram]

This is my GOTY because it's the first game in a VERY long time that I wanted to replay as soon as it ended (single player).

Bioshock's ending kinda killed it for me, I started to feel like I was going through the motions just so I could say I beat it.

 

[KillJade]

Just completed it. What an amazing game. Jesus man. The only sad thing about it is that I missed a lot of content. Didn't get a few achievements or a love connection with anyone. But it's not really a problem because I just started over again! This is the first game in YEARS that I have played twice. This time on my second playthrough I will do my best to get everything

 

[Mindlog]

This is my GOTY because it's the first game in a VERY long time that I wanted to replay as soon as it ended (single player).

Bioshock's ending kinda killed it for me, I started to feel like I was going through the motions just so I could say I beat it.

I liked Bioshock's ending, but I agree completely with the 1st half of that. I just finished it as well and we clocked in 30+ hours I believe™. I'll check that again some time to be sure.

Cons: Repetitive base layouts

Pros: How utterly insignificant that felt by the end.

I know I will play through the whole thing at least one more time at a higher difficulty setting. I'll stick more to the core missions, but I plan on experimenting with different builds. TBQFH this format is very reminiscent of the addictiveness Diablo had. Finally, the universe was pretty great and I look forward to learning more. Mass Effect II can't possibly come soon enough.

 

[Blackace]

I liked Bioshock's ending, but I agree completely with the 1st half of that. I just finished it as well and we clocked in 30+ hours I believe™. I'll check that again some time to be sure.

Cons: Repetitive base layouts

Pros: How utterly insignificant that felt by the end.

I know I will play through the whole thing at least one more time at a higher difficulty setting. I'll stick more to the core missions, but I plan on experimenting with different builds. TBQFH this format is very reminiscent of the addictiveness Diablo had. Finally, the universe was pretty great and I look forward to learning more. Mass Effect II can't possibly come soon enough.

I started a new game as soon as the credits finished and I have already played a completely different opening than I did on my first run through

 

[Mindlog]

Random aside - can someone clue me in on how to make high explosive ammo worth anything? :lol

I stuck it in my (Infiltrator/Commando) sniper rifle. I could kill through walls.

** I plan on playing through as a Vanguard/Douchebag my second time around

 

[qcf x2]

I bought this game about a week ago, and I am in awe. I've played only a few hours but I already know the game will rank as one of my favorites of all time. The attention to detail is seriously impressive. The water, the lighting, the voice acting, the buildings, etc...I haven't really done shit in the game yet, as I find myself wanting to just walk around and look at things. WTF? I've never done that in a game. Well, maybe in Shenmue, but this is much more advanced.

Hopefully part two releases in '08 so I won't have to wait too long after I finish this one. Some melee weapons

Spoiler

(sword/lightsaber)

and co-op in ME2 would be sweet.

Oh, and after reading about the technical issues in the game, I haven't really encountered any (yet). The framerate could be smoother, but honestly it isn't any thing that I notice until I tell myself to.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

The water

You know, I don't know how long I've stared at the water in the Citadel. I know it's basically just a surface map and there's no real physics behind it but I'll be damned if it isn't some of the most impressive looking water I've seen in a game. Of course all of my amazement vanishes as soon as you hit some of the planets with water and you see your character walking or driving in it. There's no displacement or any movement whatsoever.

Still, standing on a bridge at the Citadel (or staring off into the distance on Virmire) the water surface in this game is really something to see.

 

[MaizeRage25]

Question: If they can put boosters on the bottom of the Mako, what the hell is preventing them from putting them on the back?

That fucking thing is slow.

 

[Revengeance]

Just finished Virmire. Wow. The story just went from merely interesting to 'OHMYGOD I NEED MORE' in about 5 minutes. How long before Mass Effect 2??? '09, please.

 

[bigswords]

Am I supposed to have any money in this game? I'm about 3 hours in and I'm now

Spoiler

officially a spectre

and I've been told to go to the requisition guy in C spec, and I look at the items and 90% of it is waaay too expensive and the rest is not really that much better than what I have right now.

Am I doing something wrong here?

Nope you are fine, you don't need to buy anything actually, just do most of the sidequest, tons of good equipment.

 

[Kodiak]

Man I just watched the 1up show from two weeks ago where they talked about ME, and it kinda pissed me off. They talked about how much the sidequests sucked, how the Conversations where kind of a let down compared to their expectations and I was like WHAT?

I loved the sidequests, driving around in the mako was fun, hunting down points of interest was fun, and it was amazing how all the planets were all beautiful and different looking.

Then they talked about how conversations didn't live up to their expectations... jesus. Full of shit. I tried typing out all the ways the convos evolve story-telling in RPGs but it would have taken forever, not to mention all the oh-shit moments like with Wrex and the entire ending.

The only valid complaint they had was the menu shit, but that was a tiny problem. Really my biggest problem with the game was the "texture popping" and to a much smaller extent the elevators.

Its the most engaging, replayable, fun RPG I've ever played. And I'm absolutely in love with the universe. Bugger you 1up.

/vent

 

[firehawk12]

They were saying that the conversations became static because they used the same camera angles during each conversation.

Anyhoo, Colossus Armor is the "rare drop" of the game. Sure fire way to get it is to save before you talk to a shop keeper and hope the random generator gives you the armor... but you might wait until you hit 50 to get Colossus X.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I can't think of another game that has a worse inventory system than Mass Effect. I really can't see how this system got out of the alpha testing stages.

Other areas of the interface are stupidly extra complex as well. In the galaxy map screen for example, why on earth did they add a third button (x) to zoom out instead of the obvious back button (b)? I guess you're saving the player 2 button presses if he's looking at a planet and then wants to leave the map screen, but the reality is is that you end up breaking the A=ok, B=cancel scheme that so many gamers are used to, and I keep accidentally canceling out of the map screen entirely. Gah!

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Hooray! Finished Insanity. It wasn't too tough, but it did take ages to kill anything.

 

[firehawk12]

Hahaha, yeah, I did the "B" instead of "X" thing so many times. And it's annoying because it had to reload the bridge every time you went out.

Also, the only way I got through insanity without swearing was because I manged to keep some of my +40% against Organics ammo. I don't understand why the ammo at higher levels is crap, but it is. Those damn Krogan with TWO life bars AND immunity are so freaking annoying.

Oh yeah, the Mako is broken at high levels too, since it doesn't scale with you... so the shields and the cannon are useless when you're level 60 playing Insanity. Blarg.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Maybe I'm weird or something, I don't normally care about maintaining narrative purity in most games, but it became a big thing for me in Mass Effect with my character. To the point where I don't even really want to replay the game with a new character. Well... I do... but you understand what I mean, I think, even if my slant on playing Mass Effect is probably out there compared to everyone else.

THis is sort of why I'm desperate for Bioware to release some DLC content, or open up an endgame feature, to go around the galaxy and complete the stuff I you never got around to doing. :lol:

I'm kind of the same way. I've yet to do anything extensive with a new character. To me, I've already had this incredible adventure and have established these relationships or whatever and carved out my story. Going through the game again making all of these decisions that I would never make seems to be an injustice to my personal cannon so to speak. But i've pretty much shed that skin as of late and selected a default Shepard and have been having a blast just running through as a renegade. I know that when the time comes, my true Shepard will be the one continuing the adventure, which is all that matters.

 

[Chrange]

Random aside - can someone clue me in on how to make high explosive ammo worth anything? :lol

Frictionless in the first two slots will help

 

[Gary Whitta]

Hahaha, yeah, I did the "B" instead of "X" thing so many times. And it's annoying because it had to reload the bridge every time you went out.

Ugh I got dropped out of the galactic map so many fucking times doing that... made me hate the game many times.

 

[Edwood]

I hope the Mako is upgradeable in ME2.

Loved the game, but the side quests map-wise, really meh, nearly identical in layout, blah blah. Stories are interesting, but the repetitive, barren planets, and dungeon crawls get old really really fast.

I would also like more weapon variety as to the look of the weapons fire and sounds. Too many weapons that are identical looking, just different color pattern. I managed to get a Geth Pulse Rifle late in the game, which is pointless when you have the Specter weapons, but it's way more different than other weapons.

And yeah, High Explosive rounds, very disappointing. I don't see the point of them. Useless with Pistol, Shotgun, and AR. Overheats so damned quickly even with Frictionless in two slots.

I'm going to enjoy the second and third play through more because less of the boring side quests.

 

[Edwood]

Frictionless in the first two slots will help

Yeah, but Other configs do more damage. Incendiary rounds + any damage enhancement does the job faster. Not as neat looking, though. I love the sound of the Explosive rounds when you shoot up close.

 

[acm2000]

i finished my first play through yesterday, clocking in at 27 hours, getting the "completionist" achievement in the process, what can i say, wha t a game, the entire last planet and set of missions for the end, was epic, wish the other planets had that much detail.

the games main let down is the engine, ue3.0 is just too half arsed, very few devs have been able to use it effectively, the framerate in ME makes no sense, most the time theres nothing much going on et it drops, and the final planet, is by far the most detailed, yet it holds its framerate better than the empty barren planets, epic should be shot for this versions of unreal engine.

 

[Chrange]

Yeah, but Other configs do more damage. Incendiary rounds + any damage enhancement does the job faster. Not as neat looking, though. I love the sound of the Explosive rounds when you shoot up close.

Incendiary really doesn't have the flair that HE does - especially when you cast Lift, then blast someone with a sniper rifle that has an HE load. BOOM...and they're OUTTA HERE!

 

[Johnkers]

Would I be able to hit level 50 by the end of the game?

I'm up to

Spoiler

llos, so far I've done every Citadel side mission as well as most (I think all but one, stupid fucking monkeys), UNC side mission that didn't involve search or find stuff by scanning/landing on planets and doing all that. I think I've done the rest of the side missions too. I'm level 43 at the moment, would like to hit 50 but don't know if it's worth it to do some of those search missions

 

[Naeblish]

Would I be able to hit level 50 by the end of the game?

I'm up to

Spoiler

llos, so far I've done every Citadel side mission as well as most (I think all but one, stupid fucking monkeys), UNC side mission that didn't involve search or find stuff by scanning/landing on planets and doing all that. I think I've done the rest of the side missions too. I'm level 43 at the moment, would like to hit 50 but don't know if it's worth it to do some of those search missions

You will probably end up lvl 49, like me and a lot of other people.

I was disappointed with the high explosive rounds too, i hoped to shoot grenades with my pistol . I could have lived with the fast overheat if the damage was insane, too bad it sucked.

 

[firehawk12]

I think the only way to hit 50 in one playthrough would be to never use the Mako to kill enemies. Even then, it'd be close.

 

[arhra]

Best way to use HE ammo is with a sniper rifle, with the mod slots filled with Rail Extension VIIs (i think it's VII, anyway - the +29% damage ones, whichever they actually are). You'll overheat in one shot, but who cares, you just turned a sniper rifle into a rocket launcher! (You use Rail Extensions rather than the higher tech-level mods (Scram Rails) as the later mods trade off lower damage modifiers for better heat management. Since you're overheating in one shot anyway, that doesn't really matter...)

edit:

I think the only way to hit 50 in one playthrough would be to never use the Mako to kill enemies. Even then, it'd be close.

I hit 50 on my first playthrough before even

Spoiler

going to Ilos

. You just have to be thorough in your sidequesting.

edit2: and having just checked my current game, i'm ~11k short of 49, and i've not even been to Virmire yet (still have the Armstrong Nebula sidequests to do, then i'll head off and finish the story). I've not even been going out of my way to find minerals this game, either (although just surveying all the planets and grabbing ones that popped on to my minimap when checking out anomalies on sidequest planets has got me 17 Light Metals, 22 Heavy Metals, 18 Rare Earths, and 10 gasses; also 14 Turian Emblems, 9 Prothean Artifacts, and 14 Asari Writings). 49 Assignments completed so far, and 16 Missions.

 

[Solo]

Fuck I love this game. Played another bunch of hours last night. I decided not to do Noveria first, but to get my final party member. So I went searching for Liara. Naturally, she ends up being in the final planet in the entire cluster that I visit :lol I think that planet, Therum, is the most visually impressive one yet (the one with all the lava and geth structures). Wow. Great boss fight after finding her too.

But the best thing that happened to me occurred just before I stopped playing for the night. After getting Liara, I decided to return to the Citadel to finish up some sidequests. Now, Im sure Im probably the billionth person to do this by this point, but whatever, it made me LOL. Upon leaving the Normandy and entering C-Sec, I was immediately approached by a reporter who had heard of my great deeds. She wanted an interview, so I obliged. Now, being that Im playing as a hardcore dick, AKA a renegade, I was an asshole to her. The interview ended with me getting the option "its time to shut you up". Now, I figured Shepard was going to curse her and move on, so I was caught totally off guard and just about died laughing when he hauled off and bitch slapped the reporter :lol "Im Spectre Shepard, bitch!" Oh, Mass Effect, how I love thee.

 

[NJ Shlice]

Is there somewhere that tells you how many Assignments you've completed and how many remaining?

 

[NJ Shlice]

Anyhoo, Colossus Armor is the "rare drop" of the game. Sure fire way to get it is to save before you talk to a shop keeper and hope the random generator gives you the armor... but you might wait until you hit 50 to get Colossus X.

I'm level 55 and about to leave for Ilos and I still cannot find this armor.

Can someone tell me where they bought it so I can save before the shop and keep going back?

 

[Belgorim]

I need to learn how to read.

 

[arhra]

Is there somewhere that tells you how many Assignments you've completed and how many remaining?

Just count the greyed-out ones in the Journal to see how many you've done

 

[NJ Shlice]

Just count the greyed-out ones in the Journal to see how many you've done

Blech.

How many total Assignments are there?

 

[arhra]

Blech.

How many total Assignments are there?

Not sure. I've got 52 listed atm (done the dig site/Feros/Noveria, still have the Armstrong Nebula one to do, plus any that open up on/after Virmire), and i'm pretty sure i've got all of them so far (although i thought the same in my first game, and already found another one that i missed last time, in addition to the different background-specific quest i got due to being a spacer rather than Earthborn...)

 

[NJ Shlice]

Not sure. I've got 52 listed atm (done the dig site/Feros/Noveria, still have the Armstrong Nebula one to do, plus any that open up on/after Virmire), and i'm pretty sure i've got all of them so far (although i thought the same in my first game, and already found another one that i missed last time, in addition to the different background-specific quest i got due to being a spacer rather than Earthborn...)

Where did you get your Colossus X armor? I can't find it anywhere. I'm on my second playthrough, level 55, about to leave for Ilos.

 

[revolverjgw]

Is it, like, technically possible to rip a music track from disc or something... because I LOVE the theme that plays when you're creating your character, and it's not on the OST... is there some way I can acquire this?

 

[Mojovonio]

Is it, like, technically possible to rip a music track from disc or something... because I LOVE the theme that plays when you're creating your character, and it's not on the OST... is there some way I can acquire this?

See PM.

So I hit level 50 last night and got the scholar achievement.

Oh yes.

 

[Bulla564]

Who is the genius behind the Mako?

For the next game, if you are going to put a mineral deposit at the top of Mt. Everest, you might want to give us a vehicle that can move faster than a fucking Yugo. I'm already dreaming in my head when in ME2, there is a cutscene where my renegade Shepard calls the Mako an utter piece of shit, and upgrades it to a vehicle that is actually fit to explore some of these ridiculous terrains.

On a side note, no other game has made me want to explore every inch, and do every side quest, like this game. HOWEVER, I think I am doing it because I am hoping that I will somehow encounter a side quest that will actually feel gratifying (or different), or an interesting station/planet. I'm doing it just to level up my character, and to increase my renegade points, and not because the uncharted planets are interesting (or even fun after a while).

This game has kept me busy for 30+ hours, but I feel that every dialog and every outcome of a quest (aside from main story) falls short of expectations. I am still completing every quest, hoping that they will somehow bring something new to the table. Moreover, I am hoping that ME2 can change this.