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[X26]

Theres nothing to spoil, really. That quest was a stinker. I finished it, but it ended up with me putting a gun to the fan's head and him running away.

Game defidentely needed a "kill them" option for everything

 

[Son of Godzilla]

That is indeed KOTOR 2.

He editted after I posted.

Anyways Ilos also has the least obtrusive elevators/loading in the game too, they really seemd to get their shit together for it.

Edit: One of my biggest complaints is that Shepard is too well defined. You are always playing a space hero, the badass savior of humanity. There's never any option to be blatantly evil, everything you are allowed to do can always be rationalized. It's a bit disappointing from all the rampaging evil you could cause in kotor.

 

[Ventrue]

Edit: One of my biggest complaints is that Shepard is too well defined. You are always playing a space hero, the badass savior of humanity. There's never any option to be blatantly evil, everything you are allowed to do can always be rationalized. It's a bit disappointing from all the rampaging evil you could cause in kotor.

They did that on purpose. It wouldn't make sense for the Council to support you if you were blatantly evil. I think it's a nice change from "I will kill everyone for no reason."

 

[Adam Blade]

D:

The Faunts song is awesome. I can't believe it's grown on me so much.

/repeat

 

[arhra]

Anyways Ilos also has the least obtrusive elevators/loading in the game too, they really seemd to get their shit together for it.

Interestingly, Ilos was actually one of the first areas they demoed - go back and watch the E3 '06 videos (or just look at the screenshots), and the area they use to show off combat with the Geth is the first, outdoor part of Ilos (although it was revised heavily between then and the final game, mostly in terms of lighting and general atmosphere).

Edit: One of my biggest complaints is that Shepard is too well defined. You are always playing a space hero, the badass savior of humanity. There's never any option to be blatantly evil, everything you are allowed to do can always be rationalized. It's a bit disappointing from all the rampaging evil you could cause in kotor.

Personally, i prefer it this way. You should be able to rationalize everything. A villain or anti-hero who's evil purely for the sake of being evil is completely, utterly uninteresting (to me, at least), and one of the main reasons i could never enjoy the dark side in KotOR (i mean, Darth Vader never ran around slaughtering puppies and laughing at their owners, or whatever, and that's more or less what going dark side in KotOR amounted to - you never felt like an evil Sith Lord, just a sociopathic asshole).

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Interestingly, Ilos was actually one of the first areas they demoed - go back and watch the E3 '06 videos (or just look at the screenshots), and the area they use to show off combat with the Geth is the first, outdoor part of Ilos (although it was revised heavily between then and the final game, mostly in terms of lighting and general atmosphere).

Hmm that was Ilos? I know E3 07 demoed Ilos, but I thought the original unveil was Eden Prime.

 

[Walshicus]

Hah, my first playthrough was spent searching for the bar scene from the demonstration. Shame it didn't make it.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Im on my 4th playthrough back to back. I never thought it would end up like this. I still havent finsihed galaxy...

 

[X26]

Hah, my first playthrough was spent searching for the bar scene from the demonstration. Shame it didn't make it.

I was wondering about that everytime I went into Flux

 

[arhra]

Hmm that was Ilos? I know E3 07 demoed Ilos, but I thought the original unveil was Eden Prime.

One of the initial screens they released back when it was first announced in '05 was what eventually became Eden Prime this one), but Ilos was definitely at E3 '06 (like i said, they made major changes to the lighting and overall atmosphere, but it's easily recognizable thanks to the overgrown Prothean architecture).

There's a whole section on the CE bonus disk with details of all the different (story) planets, and how they progressed from initial concepts to the final realisation, which occasionally talks about when they showed things off, etc. They show a bunch of different lighting setups they used for Ilos, before settling on the final one.

For the other planets: Apparently Virmire was originally concepted as some kind of tropical beach resort, until the designers came and told them it needed to be an evil enemy research base :lol.

Eden Prime was more or less finished in the same overall form it shipped in, but lit and detailed similarly to that first shot i linked earlier (very bright and green, blue sky, pollen particles floating in the air), until they got feedback that it just didn't feel apocalyptic enough - it altogether far too cheery for a colony that had just been attacked by Saren and the Geth, so they changed the lighting/background details/particle effects/etc to the fiery bombed out version we got in the shipping game.

Liara was originally meant to be on a planet called Caleston, which was a far more fleshed out place than Therum, with a full mining colony with quest hub, etc, like Feros and Noveria. They actually got quite a way along with concepting this, up to the point where they were building rough wireframe models, but they eventually cut it down to what we got on Therum as they wouldn't be able to finish it in the time they had left (they did mention that they'd kept all the early work on it though, and it might well be repurposed for DLC).

Noveria was originally planned to have the first half (Port Hanshan) as below the snow-line, in an Alpine type environment with lots of pine trees, etc, then Peak 15 would be up at the top of the mountains in the snow, but apparently playtesters found the idea of multiple environment types on one planet (even when they're as closely-related as an Alpine valley and a snowy glacier) to be confusing, so they just changed the entire planet to being enveloped in a permanent blizzard.

Nothing much changed about the Citadel, as far as i could tell, although they did have plans for more stuff in the C-Sec Academy (some kind of training facility, although i'm not sure how it would have worked in game), and lots of concepts for different parts of the Citadel, like deep inside the Ward arms, right next to the outer armour plating, etc. Oh, and they originally wanted to have the Presidium properly follow the curve of the ring, but had problems getting people to stand up straight in cinematics :lol

 

[Y2Kev]

Okay, I beat it again. I have a question...

Spoiler

when you go through the conduit with the mako, why don't you warp into space like the geth fleet

 

[firehawk12]

Spoiler

The conduit leads to the Mass Relay on the station. You see it when you walk to the Citadel Tower the first time you are on the Citadel. The fleets used the Citadel Mass Relay that you use on the Galactic Map. Besides, having the fleet warp onto the station would have been a bad thing...

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Okay, I beat it again. I have a question...

Spoiler

when you go through the conduit with the mako, why don't you warp into space like the geth fleet

Spoiler

The Geth fleet didn't use the Conduit. They used a regular relay to come into Citadel space and launch their attack. The Conduit is a smaller relay used only to sneak the invading force onto the Citadel itself.

 

[Y2Kev]

Spoiler

The conduit leads to the Mass Relay on the station. You see it when you walk to the Citadel Tower the first time you are on the Citadel. The fleets used the Citadel Mass Relay that you use on the Galactic Map. Besides, having the fleet warp onto the station would have been a bad thing...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but is the alternative that you can kind of "select" your destination after you use the relay? I mean, I know you can do that on the galaxy map, but I just didn't extend that intuition to the

Spoiler

conduit.

edit:

Spoiler

is the only one who used the conduit saren?

 

[firehawk12]

Yes to your edit.

 

[AgentOtaku]

...so the big question...is the CE worth it?

 

[Chinner]

I kind of regret not getting the CE now, considering that it's pretty much my GOTY. Still, I'm not going to buy the same game twice.

 

[BravoSuperStar]

...so the big question...is the CE worth it?

The artbook alone was worth the extra $10 for the CE edition, and the case is really cool. I hadn't planned on getting it, but they got some in at my local gamestop, they said because of so many pre-orders at their particular location and offered to trade me up to it. Glad I did.

 

[firehawk12]

Umm. I guess it depends. I went through the bonus disc and the videos are... well, they're okay, but it's all stuff you know if you followed the PR hype machine stuff. The art book is nice, but since I bought the Prima art book, it feels a bit redundant.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Umm. I guess it depends. I went through the bonus disc and the videos are... well, they're okay, but it's all stuff you know if you followed the PR hype machine stuff. The art book is nice, but since I bought the Prima art book, it feels a bit redundant.

aahh thats what I like to hear....I wanted to know if the "supplements" were just more PR-ish filler or actually in-depth docs....

 

[JdFoX187]

I bought the Limited Collector's Edition and I say it's worth it. The art book is really nice and I've looked at some of the features on the bonus disc. There's some good stuff there. For $10 more, I really don't see a problem with buying it.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, they're sort of good if you don't know anything about the game. To be honest, the only thing I was interested in was the writing documentary and that was sort of disappointing since it didn't really go in depth on how they settled on the system they used.

Oh, and gamer pics! Those might be worth it for someone...

I don't regret it though. The LCE was a last minute addition in Canada and there's only a few thousand copies up here, so it's actually limited.

 

[AgentOtaku]

I bought the Limited Collector's Edition and I say it's worth it. The art book is really nice and I've looked at some of the features on the bonus disc. There's some good stuff there. For $10 more, I really don't see a problem with buying it.

cool....looks like I'll be picking it up then...thanks guys!

 

[firehawk12]

Also, the discs are actually well packaged... it makes you wonder why they didn't use this for Halo 3 CE. The only problem is that it's annoying to get the disc holder out if you change games often.

 

[Ephemeris]

I kind of regret not getting the CE now, considering that it's pretty much my GOTY. Still, I'm not going to buy the same game twice.

Sadly, Likewise.

 

[arhra]

Well, they're sort of good if you don't know anything about the game. To be honest, the only thing I was interested in was the writing documentary and that was sort of disappointing since it didn't really go in depth on how they settled on the system they used.

Oh, and gamer pics! Those might be worth it for someone...

I don't regret it though. The LCE was a last minute addition in Canada and there's only a few thousand copies up here, so it's actually limited.

Have you checked out the art gallery yet? If you've got the art book, i guess you might have skipped them, and if so, you're missing out on some great stuff, as they've got a full commentary track from the artists for each picture.

 

[Thunderbear]

Thanks guys for advising me to upgrade my charm skills, that definitely gave me some more options to be "nicer" which was frustrating me before. I still think the game is a little bit too Rumsfeldy sometimes but man, is it a fantastic game. It's a contender for a GOTY for me, but Crysis still probably holds that spot for me. I'll wait till I finish ME though.

The texture-load in doesn't bother me as it doesn't effect gameplay. Yeah it would of been nice if it wasn't there as maybe it brings you out of the experience a little bit, but it's still one of the most stunning games released this gen.

It's definitely raised my expectations of what western RPGs can be like. We're getting closer to A grade movie type story telling though maybe not quite there yet. (Ico is probably still the only game that I feel is completely up there amongst the best of what cinematic story telling can offer).

 

[Quazar]

Just beat it. Kinda pissed I wasn't playing on hardcore, was on veteran. Thought I slid difficulty all the way up when I started game. Anyways great game, got 65hrs total with it. Going to go through it a couple more times. I guess I have to unlock insanity? Damn this sucks.

 

[MaizeRage25]

Just beat it. Kinda pissed I wasn't playing on hardcore, was on veteran. Thought I slid difficulty all the way up when I started game. Anyways great game, got 65hrs total with it. Going to go through it a couple more times. I guess I have to unlock insanity? Damn this sucks.

I think you only unlock hardcore difficulty once you beat the game.

 

[firehawk12]

^
Yeah, you need to beat the game once to get Hardcore, then beat the game on Hardcore to get Insanity. They make you play it at least 3 times.

Have you checked out the art gallery yet? If you've got the art book, i guess you might have skipped them, and if so, you're missing out on some great stuff, as they've got a full commentary track from the artists for each picture.

Hrm, yeah, I skipped that. That sounds cool actually.
I was hoping for some kind of commentary playthrough ala the Half Life games, but I thought that would be too much to expect.

 

[Quazar]

Oh ok guys, thanks. I thought I screwed up. Cant wait for ME2.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Just beat it. Kinda pissed I wasn't playing on hardcore, was on veteran. Thought I slid difficulty all the way up when I started game. Anyways great game, got 65hrs total with it. Going to go through it a couple more times. I guess I have to unlock insanity? Damn this sucks.

You got 65 hours in one playthrough? Jesus...

I got 72 or so with 3 playthroughs on my main account.

 

[Quazar]

You got 65 hours in one playthrough? Jesus...

I got 72 or so with 3 playthroughs on my main account.

Well..I searched every corner of every planet. Don't think I missed anything in the game at all.(Conversations, mining, crates etc etc)

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Well..I searched every corner of every planet. Don't think I missed anything in the game at all.(Conversations, mining, crates etc etc)

I didn't either, and it still took me ~28hrs my first time. I'm just kinda shocked.

 

[Quazar]

I didn't either, and it still took me ~28hrs my first time. I'm just kinda shocked.

You use a strategy guide? Or skip stuff not on radar/marked on map? I mean I do take a lot of breaks though while leaving game on, so it's not accurate really.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

You use a strategy guide? Or skip stuff not on radar/marked on map? I mean I do take a lot of breaks though while leaving game on, so it's not accurate really.

Don't insult me like that. :lol

But yeah, I combed over the planets entirely. I ended up with quite a bit more elements and such than I needed to complete the surveying quests.

 

[MaizeRage25]

I think I did nearly all of the assignments/missions/sidequests (verified with online walkthrough), and I clocked in at 32 hours. Although, I only had it only normal so only died a couple times at the beginning.

 

[Quazar]

Don't insult me like that. :lol

But yeah, I combed over the planets entirely. I ended up with quite a bit more elements and such than I needed to complete the surveying quests.

Well shit I don't know man. I'm not slow or anything. :lol Don't really know how others played it, but I found I wasn't in a rush. But I do take a lot of smoke breaks / work. So really it's not accurate at all, but have no clue how long it really took me.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

But I do take a lot of smoke breaks / work. So really it's not accurate at all, but have no clue how long it really took me.

That's probably why. I wasn't trying to insult you or anything; I was just genuinely intrigued. I wonder how many hours total you'll have by the time you finish Insanity. :lol

 

[Quazar]

That's probably why. I wasn't trying to insult you or anything; I was just genuinely intrigued. I wonder how many hours total you'll have by the time you finish Insanity. :lol

Or Fallout 3. Shit I'm still working on BG:ToB. :lol :lol

 

[plaidtopia]

Well shit I don't know man. I'm not slow or anything. :lol Don't really know how others played it, but I found I wasn't in a rush. But I do take a lot of smoke breaks / work. So really it's not accurate at all, but have no clue how long it really took me.

If you're slow, at least you've got company: I just finished Feros after 23 hours in.

@ Feros: OMG. Wow. I'd been doing side quests for so long, that perhaps I was destined to be blown away by the story actually moving forward, but that boss fight was incredible. Similarly, the

Spoiler

fight to return to the colony and keep the colonists alive

was some really gripping stuff. I still feel that the characters and conversations are somewhat stiff, but I'm totally identifying with these characters more than any game previous, which makes sections like this work quite well.

... Now I'm dying to do Noveria, but I think the completist in me will demand that I go back to side quests for the time being.

 

[Kadey]

This game and its damn glitches. Twice already I got stuck in invisble walls or whatever. One time I didn't save for an hour.

 

[Quazar]

If you're slow, at least you've got company: I just finished Feros after 23 hours in.

@ Feros: OMG. Wow. I'd been doing side quests for so long, that perhaps I was destined to be blown away by the story actually moving forward, but that boss fight was incredible. Similarly, the

Spoiler

fight to return to the colony and keep the colonists alive

was some really gripping stuff. I still feel that the characters and conversations are somewhat stiff, but I'm totally identifying with these characters more than any game previous, which makes sections like this work quite well.

... Now I'm dying to do Noveria, but I think the completist in me will demand that I go back to side quests for the time being.

"I'd been doing side quests for so long, that perhaps I was destined to be blown away by the story actually moving forward, but that boss fight was incredible"


I was wondering if this had an effect on me as well. :lol :lol

 

[Quagm1r3]

A small complaint:

Why am I forced to carry around all 4 types of weapons if I don't want to? The only situation I can think of where I'd want all 4 is as a soldier, and even then I usually end up only using 3 of the 4. Visually it just seems weird that your character carries around guns that it'll never use throughout the entire game. So why can't I just unequip the damn things?

 

[JPBrowncoat]

This game and its damn glitches. Twice already I got stuck in invisble walls or whatever. One time I didn't save for an hour.

I've gotten stuck hanging off crates in the air and usually everytime I pull out a weapon (or put it away) I get unstuck. Don't think I've gotten stuck inside a wall. But one time

Spoiler

Liara blasted that crazy Julia lady through a wall out into space with her bionics.

It's always amusing when it happens to the enemy.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

A small complaint:

Why am I forced to carry around all 4 types of weapons if I don't want to? The only situation I can think of where I'd want all 4 is as a soldier, and even then I usually end up only using 3 of the 4. Visually it just seems weird that your character carries around guns that it'll never use throughout the entire game. So why can't I just unequip the damn things?

The explanation I've heard for this is that in the cutscenes Shepard sometimes uses a specific weapon that is fixed for that cutscene. It would look strange if Shepard would use a weapon he doesn't have.

But I agree, it looks a bit silly that Shepard runs around with weapons he/she can not even use.

 

[Psychotext]

But I agree, it looks a bit silly that Shepard runs around with weapons he/she can not even use.

Well... you can use every wep. You just suck at using some of them.

 

[ILOVEASIANS]

Think I'm going to take a little break from Mass Effect. Played through 4 times with two of those on Insanity. I'm a little burnt out. Was planning on going back through to get my last few achievements, guess I'll just have to wait.

Still love the game though, in my top three for this year.

 

[PARANO1A]

I'm about to start my second run-through with a new Shepard. When do I choose my difficulty is I want to get the Hardcore achievement? Do I wait until I'm on my ship, or am I supposed to select it when rolling a new character?

 

[ILOVEASIANS]

I'm about to start my second run-through with a new Shepard. When do I choose my difficulty is I want to get the Hardcore achievement? Do I wait until I'm on my ship, or am I supposed to select it when rolling a new character?

You have until the end of Eden Prime to select the difficulty. If you switch it anytime after that though, you won't get the achievement.