Mass Effect 2 Launch Trailer - going all movie-like and epic. Also the music is kick-ass.

Will be getting Terminus Armor and Blackhole Gun.

I am still wondering how not having ME1 save game files will affect the story. And will I be able to change it like in KotOR II.

 

Looks pretty awesome, but some ingame action would be nice. Sounds like the story is going to be just as good as the last one, if not better. Can't wait for this. Sadly, can't really afford it at the moment, but never mind.

 

Heads up to those planning on buying this for xbox - looks like preorder items and stuff are up for free on xbox live, so you may wanna try to get some of the stuff that wouldn't be available to you. Dunno if this was planned or a mistake, so it might be a good idea to capitalize on this sooner rather than later.

link to the links here

Right now I only have them queued from the xbox live website, so I'm not sure if it'll actually download whenever I start up my xbox. It's also possible that all this will be available to everyone through Cerberus Network when the game drops.

 

So apparently you can romance Tali.

I WANT TO SEE WHAT'S UNDER THAT HELMET.

 

Was it confirmed or is it still potential?

The potential romances according to Mass Effect Wiki are:

Male Sheppard:
Subject Zero
Miranda Lawson
Yeoman Kelly Chambers
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya

Female Sheppard:
Jacob Taylor
Thane Krios
Yeoman Kelly Chambers
Garrus Vakarian

 

Rick Moranis is under that helmet.

Also, that whole internet piracy thing takes forever. D:

 

I'm going to make sure the downloads from xbox live work. If they do, then I'll have codes for inferno, Collectors armor & gun, and the Dr. Pepper code items that I could give away to others.

 

...

It's hearing shit like this that has annoyed me the most in the lead up to ME 2. Just because someone improves one part of a game does NOT mean that the other parts have to suffer. And if you have read any of the reviews of it the strongest part of the game has consistently been said to be its story.

 

I second this sentiment; in Mass Effect 1 you can sometimes see just enough of what's under her helmet to get hints of her actual appearance. Rather than being satisfying, this merely increases one's curiosity exponentially.

As for the game itself, after getting so many consistently awesome games from Bioware I pretty much ignore any reviews and proceed on the assumption that anything Bioware makes will be awesome. So far I haven't been disappointed.

 

I just picked up my copy and I've been playing it like crazy. I think I'm maybe 40% through, so I figured I'd post an initial reaction here:

The story is excellent, though it does seem a bit more rushed than ME1. The thermal clip thing isn't as annoying as I thought it would be, but I really wish they would have kept the weapon/upgrade system from the first game. The new one kinda sucks.

Graphically and thematically, ME2 is a nice upgrade, but it does seem to have come at the expense of gameplay to an extent. I've already made it to the part where

Spoiler

you first encounter the Collectors on Horizon

, and I can't help but feel that I've gotten way too far for the amount of time that I've been playing. I liked the fact that ME1 managed to stretch it out quite a bit with plenty of interesting side missions; in ME2 it seems that unless you dick around with the

Spoiler

scanning feature on every goddamn planet you come across

, you can't get anywhere near the same play time. The side missions, if they could even be called "missions" are few and far between on top of being pathetically short, leaving you not much to do but the story missions which are, themselves, usually shorter than the ones in ME1.

On the positive side, combat is definitely more interesting. The greater variety of weaponry at your (and your enemies') disposal, plus the need to pay attention to how many thermal clips you pick up makes combat much more chaotic and, well, fun. I've actually managed to get some use out of my sniper rifle a few times (compared to never touching the fucking thing in ME1).

Well, those are my thoughts so far. I'll have to come back in a couple of days when I'm done to give my final verdict, but so far, it gets a solid "B+" from me.

 

Just finished ME2 and I still don't know what Tali looks like despite sleeping with her.

The game itself is more like a 3rd-person action shooter rather than a rpg. It worked in ME1 but here it's a bit too much action. Kinda disappointing. I won't even mention the endless scannig of planets. I'd prefer Mako action any day over this shit. On the positive side I didn't notice any overt bugs or perfomance issues. Your companions are rather interesting but thats to be expected in a bioware game. Only Tali and Garrus can rejoin your team but the latter is very different from the one in ME1.

I was done in about 26h which leaves much to be desired. It's still an excellent game but I'm disappointed.

 

I don't mind the scanning - it takes 2-5 minutes to strip a planet from "rich" to "good"/"moderate". Scanning and the N7 missions are far superior to empty planets and two warehouses that were in ME1.

The game is still driven by characters and story, so the improved shooter aspect doesn't bother me.

 

Okay, having finished the game, I feel compelled to inform everyone not in the know that the M-920 "Cain" atomic blaster thing is beyond fucking awesome.

Spoiler

I took down three quarters of the Human Reaper's health with one shot.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

I must have done something right because I survived the ending. I lost Samara, Mordin and Miranda though, which kinda pisses me off considering all that time and effort I spent to get my character into Miranda's pants...

Anyway, the game did feel a bit more rushed than ME1 over all, but I thought the ending was cool enough to make up for that. Combat was awesomesauce, but it did tend to drag on a bit at times. A little more interpersonal stuff would have balanced it out, but as it was, towards the end it felt a little too much like playing Halo for my tastes.

TL;DR: Great game. Could be better, but still awesome.

 

Shit, sucks to live in the Erope when it comes to game releases. I don't know how it happens, but we always get bumfucked one way or another. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition on the 360 and it got delayed a week because of a printing error in the instruction booklet.

 

First off, watch This.

And now, longness.

Finished the game yesterday. 32 hours playtime with a whole bunch left to do.

Combat: The game requires a far more tactical approach to combat than in the first game (especially playing on difficulty above normal) Which is both great and highly annoying at times. If you took my ME1 character and threw him in these situations he would literally just walk up and annihilate these guys, here though... shields drop fast, health even faster. You need to pick up ammo now, it sucks.

Powers: The new power system is nice, out of 12 possible teamates there are only a few powers that repeat between them, which allows you to craft a really diverse party to suit your needs. Ammo types are now in the power wheel as well, letting you switch on the fly (disruptor ammo for shields, warp for barriers, etc.) Tech powers kind of suck in my opinion. Most synthetics have shields, which you have to disable in order to hack, and by the time you take down their shields you might as well just finish them off. Biotic powers are fun, my third runthrough will be as an adept.

Weapons and Armor: Didn't preorder the game because I figured "Hey, ME1 had a bajillion sets of armor, why should I give a shit about armor I get from gamestop?"...

Ya, mistake.

There are only around 18 armor pieces in game besides the preorder ones, 4 helmets, 5 chest pieces, leg armors and gauntlets. I spent most of the game wearing the same armor with just a different chest piece.

Weapons are the same. 2 assault rifles (3 if you play on insanity), 1 LMG, 3 sniper rifles, 2 pistols, 2 SMG's, 3 shotguns, 5 heavy weapons.

Squad mates: Everyone but the DLC character Zaeed and Jacob are interesting.

Romance: On your desk in the captains quarters is a picture of your love interest from ME1, if you decide to pursue a relationship with someone in ME2 then the picture is placed face down on the desk, implying that this will have consequences in ME3.

Spoiler

Yeoman Kelly is a whore and wants your dick from about 2 seconds into the game.
Miranda is actually rather boring, her backstory sucks and her emotions seem forced.
Tali is very sweet and by far the easiest to romance (2 conversations), no you don't get to see whats under the mask.
Jack is by far the most interesting character in the game. Of all the games I've played that involve a relationship, Jack's was probably the best. (Don't sleep with her right away, ends relationship and actually doesn't even get you the achievement)

Meh.

Got my junk runthrough out of the way like I normally do.

Playing as an Infiltrator now on Insanity... Archangel mission took me 2 hours.

Shit is hard.

This will probably be the character I import into ME3 so I'm not going to do any romance and see how it affects the Shepard/Liara relationship in the next game.

 

Hmm very interesting, I beat the game yesterday and Im currently playing through Mass Effect 1 to tailor a character for Mass Effect 2. I didn't know that about the picture though. Also

Spoiler

Am I the only one who was kinda surprised what they did with Liara? Her character change just seems really kind random to me, I'm hoping they'll explain it a little better in the comic, if you got the guide at the end it gives you a several page preview of the comic and it shows Liara on board a ship heading for Omega.

Also, is it just me or is pretty much every woman in the galaxy after your cock in this game? I seriously think I met mebbe three women in the game who didn't make a pass at me. I mean even the Asari chick who was enslaved by the Thorian made an out and out pass at me. Also I wouldn't know since I killed her but I'd bet money you could get Morinth if you took her with you as well.

 

Spoiler

You can in fact get Morinth, after you beat the game you can sleep with her and die. You get "Critical mission failure" and the game ends.

I'm rather stoked for ME3, my army against the Reapers should include the Rachni, the Geth, and the Genophageless Krogans on top of all the alliance races.

 

Spoiler

Nice, I figured you could, I killed her so I didn't get a chance to find out but I figured it was a safe bet, what about Samara? I saw an option to try and go for her as I recall.

Also nice, I saved the Rachni as well and had Legion rewrite the Geth but I didn't let the Krogan have the cure, I just encouraged them to come together.

 

Spoiler

You basically flirt with Samara for a while and eventually you both lean in to kiss, she stops and walks away, its kinda sad actually.

And with your name how could you NOT give them the cure?

I'm having a blast going back through the game, taking my time and finding out all the little things I missed. Some of the quotes in here (not even by the main cast) are beyond hilarious.

I might actually go back and beat ME1 again and tailor a character, thanks for that idea.

 

Spoiler

Change in Liara's character is somewhat explained in dialogue, but most of it is just an allusion to the events of Revelation (the 4 (?) part comic series). What I gathered is that she's pretty much just pissed at the Shadow Broker, who has killed/captured/done something to Feron (some drell from the comics). Feron was helping her locate Shepard's body. I assume it will be explained more in-depth in the comics and then mentioned again in ME3.

As for Samara, it's possible to get her to say she likes you, but then she says something like "in another time, another life"

Also, preorder armor isn't really any better than finding pieces for your N7 armor.