So, I'm going to talk about weapons and stuff here, to start things out, but as long as the thread stays rolling, I'm sure we wont provoke the Mod Squad.

Now, I personally preferred using my Battle Rifle and Sniper rifle as a Soldier the entire game, I only ever switched to the pistol if my Ammo on the other two was out, as it's a kind of mini version of the two combined. I did bust out my shotgun a few times when I had like 4-5 husks groping for my throat, but I found the BR so much more effective with some Incendiary Ammo.

I'm playing a Soldier again on Insanity, because I just don't think the other classes can stand up against the damage output of the NPCs on this difficulty, as it stands I'm using Barrier, then Adrenaline rush to minimize damage and actually get a decent amount of damage out before I have to use cover again.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

THIS GAME IS SO GOOD.

Definitely in my top 5. BioWare has made such an incredible game. This is probably one of my favorite Science Fiction RPGs in recent time. It's absolutely perfect. Brilliant game. My only complaints about the game are small.

- Lack of side quests. There were only about 25, I didn't think their were enough.
- Lack of RPG elements. It's still very much an RPG game, but they stripped large RPG mechanics from the game. It works MUCH better now, but some of them are missed. (Like an inventory system.)

Did you guys play it? Did you like it?

Okay, I just started this game (FINALLY AFTER HOW MANY GOSH DARN MONTHS) and it's really good so far. I'm loving the new weapons system. I'm still getting used to the slight differences, but that's not too bad.

Downside is that the harddrive with all my saves is not with me, so I have to start with nothing Boohoo. Oh well. I'll probably play it another time when I get my saves back.

Photon, pay a little more attention to see if a topic already exists before creating it, . Topics merged.

Mass Effect's still sitting on my shelf waiting to be played. However, I just finished KotOR II, which means I'm a step closer to getting around to it. (I'll probably play Dragon Age first, however.)

In terms of development, the path is as follows:

Mass Effect > Dragon Age > Mass Effect 2

Therefore, Red urges you to play Mass Effect first so that you don't go and play Dragon Age and then end up a bit dissapointed in Mass Effect.

(I've heard stories of such happening.)

How could that happen? Dragon age was good, what i've played [stupid sisters boyfriend] but it didn't feel any better then Mass effect one to me. Don't get me wrong, both rank really high in my book, but i don't think you can go wrong playing those in any particular order.

Mass effect two, the only problem i have with it is the complete tediousness of mineral gathering. Which i understand, but don't like haha. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do for your 7/7 sniper rifle.

@Shatter: My bad, I actually made sure to look for a Mass Effect topic before posting mine but I must've missed it..

@Red: I don't know man, I really enjoyed the original Mass Effect, but the sequel is miles ahead of it.

Oh yeah, minerals gathering is really "egh". Apparently mining Uranus awards you a bit of funny dialogue from EDI. Hah.

Dragon Age is still on my list of games to play.

"Probing Uranus".

Yup.

There are some other funny things in the game, like try standing around Joker for a while and certain things will come up =) Then during Joker's mission, EDI tells him at one point "I like the sight of humans on their knees".

::.Avoids reading any posts whatsoever in this thread.::

So, semi-random question: in the first game, when I'm in the Mako (or whatever the vehicle is called), do I have to explore, like, the entire surface of each planetoid to find resources (and possibly other hidden stuffs)? If so, that sucks.

Currently 12(?) hours in. Have visited N... N... the planet with the N name.

I'm a little curious about this game. I'm considering playing it, but it just somehow seems over-hyped.

I think ME2 is game of the year according to various medias... though the majority of the hardcore gamers still think SC2 is the best game ever.

I read a lot about why people think Mass Effect is a good game vs an RTS like starcraft. Most of it has to do with movie and storytelling techniques... which made it game of the year whereas games like SC2 lacks this. (The single player of SC2 is sort of bland). But then again, how can you compare RTS and RPG???

Anyways, I'm worried that Mass Effect is like SW:TFU2... Ugh.. that game was terribad... The movie-like effects were awesome but everything else was disappointing. Is ME another generic FPS? Can I just read the story somewhere? Or is there something more special about mass effect?

Just my thoughts... games are games... If I start playing I guess I'll play ME first...

Everyone I've spoken to seems to agree that Mass Effect 2 is amazing, while Zen and Red have both(?) told me that the first one is mediocre.

Sixteen hours in... honestly, the only thing this game has going for it is a great plot (and shiny graphics). Combat is absolute crap. There are rare times when I enjoy it, and then there are the times when I get pwned twelve times replaying the same battle over and over again. Not to mention that there's a needlessly complicated selection of weapons, armor, and mods. I don't care to super fine-tune my character's stats when I don't even know what half the stats do.

The dialogue selection is very poor. There's almost no consistency to where particular responses are. Right is usually yes, except when it's no. Upper-right is almost always positive affirmation, while lower-right is almost always negative degradation. Upper-left is sometimes a Charm, and lower-left is sometimes a Threat. Sometimes. Except when you have two Charms or two Threats available to you. ... why? Seriously, why? More than once, I've said the wrong thing without meaning to. I can only hope that what I say doesn't really matter. I don't mind too much as long as I don't screw myself out of something, but with how frequently this happens...

Oh, and you have this moon rover called the Mako, and a good fifth(?) of the game looks like it's going to be spent driving this piece of crap around.

Either way, I'm intrigued. I like the characters, and I like the plot. That's all a game needs to sell me, so long as it's playable (and now that I'm dying a bit less frequently, it is).


The gold seems to be Mass Effect 2: stuff you do in the first game (or choices you make?) affect things in the second game. It sounds pretty epic, except for the OCD part of my brain sounding the alarms and asking me how many playthroughs I'll need/want to do, provided I actually enjoy the second. (Not to say I'm not enjoying this one, but it's very mediocre so far.)

To note: the equipment system is extremely, extremely streamlined in the second game. Like, you'll barely ever spend time choosing your equipment except for a few times in the game. And even then, there are no confusing stats, one item is usually better the the one before it. Furthermore, there are no mako sequences in the second game. Instead, you can find resources by scanning planets or doing missions which can be used on a much expanded research system.

Basically, Mass Effect 2 drops alot of the mediocre parts and makes the good parts better.

I played through most of ME1 before getting Civ 5. It was ok, but not really good. The plot was interesting, but I agree that a lot of the other components we're kinda boring. The compleitionist in me wanted to at least do all the sidequests, but doing them honestly wasn't a ton of fun.

Good.


Basically, this. I'm bored out of my skull every time I drive the Mako around a planet, and, strangely, I'm extremely annoyed by the recolored, generic facilities on the random planets. I want to do everything this game has to offer, and I can at least find some motivation in the random quests, but dang, is it boring. I think I've gotten about half of the random planets done, now. Hopefully. I've done something like six, and I think I've explored about half of the available galaxy. Done two of the main story missions, too.

I hate that stupid Mako. I hated all the missions that required driving it. The Mako is what I dread when I think about replaying Mass Effect to get the perfectly paragon or renegade character I want to load into ME2.

Stupid fahsdkjashdkjsa. Driving it around forever is annoying, and shooting with it is annoying. All it does is suck up time ajsdhkasjhdak. >_>

Ahem.

But I'm playing ME2...again...for like the third time.

Also thinking about downloading Starcraft and Starcraft 2, 'cause I'm finding that I get bored on the internet, and I'll probably play Assassins Creed 2 / the Brotherhood one once I get some money.

I should probably be posting this in the Mass Effect thread instead, but does being perfectly Paragon/Renegade matter? I gained 2 Renegade points at the very end of the game for, in my opinion, agreeing with something "bad" as being necessary (even though the character I was playing would always try to be as Lawful Good as he could).

I didn't mind the Mako on the hill planets (where I could actually get where I was going without it being a pain in the butt), and I actually enjoyed it on the story missions when it was just Point A to Point B. Yeah, the controls were poor, but shooting infantry with the cannon was fun.


Don't you already own StarCraft? I vaguely seem to recall you playing against Red a couple of summers ago while the rest of us lawled.

All the renegade/paragon thing does is allow you to open up options throughout the game using them. If you stick to one throughout the game it makes it easier.

Also there are achievement for it on the 360 for getting them to a certain level 0.o

Sadly, all I remember from ME2 was the extremely fun...mining! >_> Probably should play again at some point in time..

I haven't posted in THAT long, jeez... Anyways. Mass Effect 2 has only one thing that's boring that you have to do to get the perfect ending... scan planets. Boring, but not frustrating. I imported the wrong character from my original save twice, of which I didn't care too much (losing Wrex being the only difference in the two, was renegade but made the Paragon choice when it came to life and death matters). Rift made a good point in no one would ever chose Udina, even a renegade would chose a Anderson who was tough and military (derp?), over a politician that obviously corrupt.

I asked Rift if he felt that sense of awe and accomplishment at the end of the first game. I think that's what made it my favorite soon to be trilogy of games. I really felt like I saved the world of warcraft universe of warcraft. He spoke of it in the same regards I have, and Chloe. Best game story ever experienced.

We then moved on to a brief talk about Dragon Age and I mentioned though the story was solid and fun, the mechanics were more entertaining to a D&Der like myself. There was one area that Bioware did that was more epic then Mass Effect (but not the whole game through) and that was in the Dwarven Underworld, specifically once you get to the Deep Roads. I was a tad scared while down there, but more importantly I was actually kind of disturbed by the whispers and later the Broodmother and how they explained all that through maddening sounds, bravo Bioware.

So the games I'm currently playing are World of Warcrack: Cataclysm. I honestly was hoping for a letdown so I could put the game down once and for all... curse Blizzard for fixing everything I was annoyed about in the game and making the quests actually DO something... and make me laugh and think "OMG HARRISON JONES JUST CUT A DUDE IN HALF WITH A PLANE, EPIC!"

Note: any oddities in the last few posts were a result of moving them from "What Are You Playing?"

Warning (including minor spoilers): in the first Mass Effect, it is possible to mess up the love triangle and prevent yourself from being able to get together with one of the two characters through no fault of the player.



Now, meanwhile, I'm debating taking the save from just before this mistake (at 27 hours) and replaying about a third of the game (I ended at 42 hours). I think, realistically, that I could redo everything left in about 10 hours, but that's 10 hours I don't really feel like I have. I'm torn, and it's kind of funny: only a game like this, where the consequences matter in the sequel, could affect me this way.