I never played the first game (i know, i know), but i'm liking this a lot.
Spent all day today in it!
Spent all day today in it!
I know, butHint:Garrus makes an excellent leader with all that C-Sec experience.
As mentioned earlier, the GUIs are consolized. Double-clicking should work... I shouldn't have to highlight and option and then move the cursor somewhere else to hit OK. ALSO, Enter and Spacebar don't work to confirm choices... only the mouse. Dumb.
It would seem that my two biggest, most infuriating problems with ME is still in ME2.
1. Renegade doesn't mean "badass who gets the job done by being a badass", it means "fucking asshole who is an asshole for no good reason"
2. The dialogue wheel doesn't accurately reflect what Shephard is going to say, ESPECIALLY if you select Renegade options frequently. Example: Choose "I gave you an order to get off the ship. Do it!"... which is exactly the kind of badassedness it should be. BUT Shephard actually winds up saying "GODDAMIT I told you to get off, GODDAMIT, I'll drag Joker's sorry crippled ass off this ship!"
See? It's not badass, it's just fucking assholish.
IT IS SO INFURIATING.
Consolized clothing. It's a great touch that I can customize armor now... but the armor model choices are severely limited, and Bioware was too lazy to code no-helmets for DLC armor. They clearly coded for the lowest denominator: console users. ATTENTION BIOWARE: My computer has a terabyte of storage, it's OK to give me more than two armor choices, don't pretend I'm a console user who's limited to whatever the DVD disk can hold.
Having just completed ME2, I've reached two conclusions. 1) This is an outstandingly good game and 2) most of the people in this thread are completely crazy.
1) ME2 is a very deep RPG. Loot and squad equipment may be typical conventions of the genre but they do not define what an RPG is: role-playing does. To that end, your decisions in both ME1 and ME2 cause major differences in the plotline and I felt very much connected to each member of the Normandy. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting are all superb and they really made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi epic. In my opinion, the role playing elements were as strong here as they have been in any of Bioware's titles.
2) The scanning minigames are a big improvement over the Mako. You can upgrade it twice (once for scanning speed, once for probe storage) and I get the feeling that people are simply parroting reviews that need to look for things to list on the negative side. Unlike in ME1, in ME2 the map lists the percentage of planets you have visited in that system and the planet itself shows the remaining quality of minerals. This makes it much easier to figure out where you have already been and what is still open for exploration. More importantly, there are far more planets available to scan than necessary in order to afford every single upgrade and so you don't need to waste your time scanning mediocre quality planets. I can see why most reviewers wouldn't pick up on this in limited playtime, but I would think people on this forum would.
3) The combat system is massively upgraded. Storming into a slide behind cover is fantastic, as is the ensuing vault after you mass reave a group of enemies and storm-slide to the next cover point. Being able to control your squad members with Q and E was a great idea and it only takes a little practice to be efficiently flanking the enemies in real time. I also loved putting everybody's powers on my hotbar and removing the need for pausing via the shift screen to issue orders.
4) I loved the ammo addition. One of the things that I didn't like about ME1 was that unlimited ammo meant the guns needed to be weaker/less accurate to compensate (spray and pray). There's a reason that just about every action game ever has included ammo, and it's because it's a constraint that leads to more tactical combat when your shots matter. The real genius to this implementation, however, was in encouraging the use of multiple weapons. Using a single weapon means you may run out of heat coils for it, but alternating between a few gives you plenty of extra cushion. That leads to a lot more variety, and in some of the longer fights I found myself using every single weapon.
I liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 about the same and think they are both great RPGs. I appreciated the differences in both setting and gameplay and I hope that ME3 pushes the FPS/RPG envelope even further when it comes out.
Having just completed ME2, I've reached two conclusions. 1) This is an outstandingly good game and 2) most of the people in this thread are completely crazy.
1) ME2 is a very deep RPG. Loot and squad equipment may be typical conventions of the genre but they do not define what an RPG is: role-playing does. To that end, your decisions in both ME1 and ME2 cause major differences in the plotline and I felt very much connected to each member of the Normandy. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting are all superb and they really made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi epic. In my opinion, the role playing elements were as strong here as they have been in any of Bioware's titles. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting ARE superb, but think of how much better the game would be if they used this stuff for better sex scenes! GAWD. Wasted potential. Fail. Miranda is SO HOT. I don't want to go through all those amazing RPG elements just to get rewarded with afully clothed sex scene!
2) The scanning minigames are a big improvement over the Mako. You can upgrade it twice (once for scanning speed, once for probe storage) and I get the feeling that people are simply parroting reviews that need to look for things to list on the negative side. Unlike in ME1, in ME2 the map lists the percentage of planets you have visited in that system and the planet itself shows the remaining quality of minerals. This makes it much easier to figure out where you have already been and what is still open for exploration. More importantly, there are far more planets available to scan than necessary in order to afford every single upgrade and so you don't need to waste your time scanning mediocre quality planets. I can see why most reviewers wouldn't pick up on this in limited playtime, but I would think people on this forum would. The scanning minigames suck because they don't incorporate hot chicks.
3) The combat system is massively upgraded. Storming into a slide behind cover is fantastic, as is the ensuing vault after you mass reave a group of enemies and storm-slide to the next cover point. Being able to control your squad members with Q and E was a great idea and it only takes a little practice to be efficiently flanking the enemies in real time. I also loved putting everybody's powers on my hotbar and removing the need for pausing via the shift screen to issue orders. Shepard can't run worth crap. After a few feet he's winded.I wish they had a sex scene with Yoeman Kelly because she's hot.
4) I loved the ammo addition. One of the things that I didn't like about ME1 was that unlimited ammo meant the guns needed to be weaker/less accurate to compensate (spray and pray). There's a reason that just about every action game ever has included ammo, and it's because it's a constraint that leads to more tactical combat when your shots matter. The real genius to this implementation, however, was in encouraging the use of multiple weapons. Using a single weapon means you may run out of heat coils for it, but alternating between a few gives you plenty of extra cushion. That leads to a lot more variety, and in some of the longer fights I found myself using every single weapon. I HATE running out of ammo! The game's rationale for switching to thermal clips is garbage when you're playing on Insanity and find yourself plinking away at close range enemies with the sniper rifle because that's all you've got left for clips. If you're in the Mass Effect universe, why would the universe forsake guns with UNLIMITED ammo over ones that rely on thermal clips to keep running? And why do you have to go through the cycle of "lean backward," "lean forward," and finally "tip" just to see the front side of an ugly stripper for a couple seconds? And why can't Miranda dance with you in the clubs? I wanna see her bust out those Asari moves! GOD I HATE THIS GAME.
I liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 about the same and think they are both great RPGs. I appreciated the differences in both setting and gameplay and I hope that ME3 pushes the FPS/RPG envelope even further when it comes out.Yeah, ME3 better have real sex scenes. Right now the game is pretty pointless.All that time to build up a relationship with super hot Miranda only to seen barely anything.
I'm happy w/ how the game runs too.
As i hate jaggies, i applied the ATi hotfix to allow for forced AA.
So i'm running 4xAA 2560x1600 all maxed except for dynamic shadows; those i had to disable to keep fps decent.
If i daresay, i did a damn good job making my Shepard a cutie.