Mass Effect 2

They're implementing a massive increase in the quantity and complexity of character animations in ME2, to make character movements more realistic and unique. One would assume that an improvement to that god-awful character creation system would be due as well.

I'm more hyped about the improvements they're making to the exploration side of the game. Apparently there'll be less predictable, boring planet wandering and more dynamic exploration of uncharted space.
 
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awesome interview guys, well worth the watch. I want this game now!! ahhhhh
 
Great interview, really excited about this game.
 
I'm still playing the first ME, and although I'm enjoying it, I have a small wishlist of improvements I'm hoping to see in ME2:

  • Tweak the RPG elements alittle more so that stats/level is less a deciding factor in battle than skill. It's really irritating having to headshot someone with no shields five/six times before they croak.
  • More detail in planetary exploration. More fauna and flora in more habitable planets as well as more detailed terrain textures. Planets in ME1 all look the same, the only difference is the skybox textures and a different terrain color.
  • More in-door variety among habitats and bases. In ME1, bases on random planets lack detail and variety that makes even Doom3 look more detailed and are mainly just corridor after corridor.
  • Less reliance on squad tactics and/or more reliable squad AI, which sometimes is buggy in ME1, leaving you to fend for yourself while your teammate is taking a break in some other room while your getting your ass shot off.
  • Not really an improvement, but I want to see a gas giant colony. I always wondered what it looks like inside the atmosphere of a gas giant.
 
Good to hear that the PC version of ME2 will be made in-house(not to mention released at the same time as the X360 version). I know ME1's PC version could have been a lot worse, but things like the low-res textures(apparently caused by the developers releasing the game with certain textures missing) are glaring errors I'd rather not see happen in the sequel.

I was actually impressed by the character creation the first time I used it, although I quickly gave up trying to make my own character and instead found a preset and edited it to my preferences.

So far the most informative piece on the game I've found is the E3 Developer's Diary, despite how old it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOiWhFh19AE

Like TheOneFreeman I'm really excited about how exploration will work here.
 
I personally kind of wish they stuck to just talking about the enhancements to the game and actually stayed away from spoiling their own game by revealing huge plot twists. It would be nice to experience the game without knowing at some point, X, Y, Z are going to happen. If I recall correctly they did the same 'this and this' stuff happened in the build up to ME1 as well (making it abundantly clear that Nilius was going to die before release). Its framing the experience for the player in terms of the events before they've even opened the packaging, like a bad movie trailer.
 
Kadayi said:
I personally kind of wish they stuck to just talking about the enhancements to the game and actually stayed away from spoiling their own game by revealing huge plot twists. It would be nice to experience the game without knowing at some point, X, Y, Z are going to happen. If I recall correctly they did the same 'this and this' stuff happened in the build up to ME1 as well (making it abundantly clear that Nilius was going to die before release). Its framing the experience for the player in terms of the events before they've even opened the packaging, like a bad movie trailer.
Click to expand...
In a way, I agree ... but then as we know, those things they revealed about ME1's plot only scratched the surface of what happened in the game. When you actually play the game, the things we saw in the trailers were only minor in the long run.

So yeah, they spoilt a major part of their game. But I'm not annoyed by that because I trust that they've got some epic stuff under wraps that we don't know about. It hasn't made me want to play less at all.
 
Release date

Mass Effect 2 will be released at the end of January next year. The North American launch is on the 26th, and us Euros will get the game three days later.

This means Bioware can now fully concentrate on SW:TOR.
 
January should be a busy month for me. This, Dark Void, and Darksiders all come out that month and are some of my most anticipated games.
 
I'm happy the PC version should be released at the same time this time.
 
Any idea if it will be on steam for launch?
 
Shakermaker said:
Mass Effect 2 will be released at the end of January next year. The North American launch is on the 26th, and us Euros will get the game three days later.

This means Bioware can now fully concentrate on SW:TOR.
Click to expand...
Well, not quite ... considering we know ME3 is a definite, I wouldn't be surprised if they started work on that right away, tbh.

But anyways ... w00t for this.
 
January 26th for Americans and 29th in Europe. I am surprised at the early release of the game. I expected late February, Early march time line.
 
Kadayi said:
I expect the PC version sold more than the 360 version in the long term, so no surprise.
Click to expand...

I got interested in this now that you mentioned it, but been unable to find numbers to prove it.

Personally I reckon it might very well be the other way around.
 
I'm I the only one that's worried that ME2 is too action/combat focused?
 
Gargantou said:
I got interested in this now that you mentioned it, but been unable to find numbers to prove it.

Personally I reckon it might very well be the other way around.
Click to expand...

Its at 2.08 million for the 360 as of june, so it could pretty easily have been passed by the PC now. Assuming the copy protection didnt royally screw them over in sales, which it may very well have.
 
I think there is a good chance the PC version sold more. Quite a few people who bought the 360 version also got the PC version and there was alot of Bioware fans waiting for this who didn't own a 360.
 
Shakermaker said:
This means Bioware can now fully concentrate on SW:TOR.
Click to expand...

FTS, they can get their asses onto making ME 3. ;)


Krynn72 said:
Any idea if it will be on steam for launch?
Click to expand...

For sure now that EA have started putting up their old triple AAA titles as well as Dragon Age


PimpinPenguin said:
I think there is a good chance the PC version sold more. Quite a few people who bought the 360 version also got the PC version and there was alot of Bioware fans waiting for this who didn't own a 360.
Click to expand...

@Gargantou

This. Also its only really a case of doing the math. The Witcher sold over a million units on PC and that had nowhere near the exposure and coverage that Mass Effect did. ME was bound to have done more. I'd say they probably sold as many units as Fallout 3 did, and that did great guns on the PC.
 
Infiltrator, or whatever the sniper rifle using class is. They were horribly unbalanced in the PC version because the mouse turned it into the ultra weapon of doom.

Anyway, whats with the guns having magazines? I thought a key part of ME's fluff was that they'd done away with pesky problems such as ammunition and magazines and that standard issue assault rifles came with a block of metal in them that lasted for several days worth of firefight before you even needed to start thinking about reloading...
 
Wondering about the same as well. Seems sort of inconsistent with the codex information from the first game.
 
You don't have magazines - instead you can choose to eject and replace heatsinks which instantly cool your weapon IIRC.
 
jondy said:
You don't have magazines - instead you can choose to eject and replace heatsinks which instantly cool your weapon IIRC.
Click to expand...


That's kinda cool actually.

I just started playing ME1 again as a Vanguard.
its a lil late but thank god I dont have work til 6 tomorrow so I can play all after noon :)

are there any mods or tweaks I should know about?
 
unozero said:
I'm I the only one that's worried that ME2 is too action/combat focused?
Click to expand...

Action events will be the same as the first I think, I don't think its going to be full of gun battles. I just think they have spiced the actually gun battles up a bit which I think is a good move, since the combat in the first was rather tame at times.
 
jondy said:
You don't have magazines - instead you can choose to eject and replace heatsinks which instantly cool your weapon IIRC.
Click to expand...

They've gotten rid of passive cooling on weapons, so essentially there's ammo now. Your weapon will overheat after X amount of shots, and will stay that way until you swap out the 'thermal clip' - which you collect from dead guys and weapons lockers. Some weapons like the sniper rifle produce more heat and therefore use up the thermal clips faster. It's basically a shitty Invisible War-style universal ammo system. Although thankfully heavy weapons have their own separate ammo pool.
 
So I spent the last week or so playing through Mass Effect 1 that I got from Steam a while ago and I bought 2 recently on sale on Steam recently and figured I would import my character. Man, having just used the controls and interface so much for the first, moving directly to the second is seriously jarring. Plus the Citadel is totally different so getting around is taking a lot of getting used to. I didn't really get the decryption of anything at first either. I still don't get the code parts. I am not sure about doing away with inventory almost entirely too. Such a load of differences making my first couple of hours with it a little difficult. I will probably love it in the end...I already totally love the story and graphics and such, but the changes have been tough to get used to. Anyone else have the same issues?
 
VictimOfScience said:
So I spent the last week or so playing through Mass Effect 1 that I got from Steam a while ago and I bought 2 recently on sale on Steam recently and figured I would import my character. Man, having just used the controls and interface so much for the first, moving directly to the second is seriously jarring. Plus the Citadel is totally different so getting around is taking a lot of getting used to. I didn't really get the decryption of anything at first either. I still don't get the code parts. I am not sure about doing away with inventory almost entirely too. Such a load of differences making my first couple of hours with it a little difficult. I will probably love it in the end...I already totally love the story and graphics and such, but the changes have been tough to get used to. Anyone else have the same issues?
Click to expand...

Yeah the controls are quite different but it works out nicely after a while. The Citidel is about as pointless as any random location in the galaxy though. They took away the epic scale of it. There are better places that you'll go to. The code thing is good if you can see but you really have to look closely to figure it out. Hacking is best if you just look for the color scheme of the code and look for those.

After playing it to completion, I liked the way the game played and everything, but it seemed like there wasn't a lot of main story. Seemed like the majority of the game is side quests. You can practically skip 80% of the game if you just do the main quests and get the people. They sure made it a comfy transition to Mass Effect 3 though. I think this might have a multi-ending kind of thing considering all of the harsh consequences to choices you make in ME2. I do hope they have a few more RPG elements and inventory to go with the action though.
 
I was sorely disappointed in the lack of an inventory system and loot as well. ME2 wasn't much of an RPG.

StarBob said:
After playing it to completion, I liked the way the
game played and everything, but it seemed like there wasn't a lot of main story. Seemed like the majority of the game is side quests. You can practically skip 80% of the game if you just do the main quests and get the people.
Click to expand...

Majora's Mask was like this. Most of the game was side quests with helping people out, which I realize now is something I really like about these games.
 
Almost finished with Mass Effect 1 and plan to import my character to ME2.

Opinions pending.


I really hope the hype about improved exploration is true too. I'm also glad that in ME2 you are no longer shoehorned into using weapons specifically tied to your class. Kind of annoying that my Vanguard Shepard couldn't at least zoom in with assault rifles, but they've added SMGs to these light weapon classes so I'm glad either way really.
 
Well I just finished Mass Effect 1. What an epic finale too. :D One of the best endings I've seen in a game in a long while no doubt.

So, I just hope that Mass Effect 2's story is just as good.

Now then, let's just see what happens after I import my character from Mass Effect 1.
 
The ending to ME1 felt a bit silly to me at the end.

Personally I felt they shouldn't have shown Shepard surviving the incident in ME1, left the players guessing. And the looks on the faces and the music when they see Shepard come out of the rubble is just loltastic.
 
Gargantou said:
The ending to ME1 felt a bit silly to me at the end.

Personally I felt they shouldn't have shown Shepard surviving the incident in ME1, left the players guessing. And the looks on the faces and the music when they see Shepard come out of the rubble is just loltastic.
Click to expand...

Well...

If they killed him in at the end, killing him at the beginning of the sequel would have been kind of strange... or just really bad luck
 
Or they could have just, you know...

Left him dead, making the ending of 1 an actual cliffhanger and the start of 2 an actual revelation (relatively speaking). Instead they had two ineffectual fake-outs one after the other. :p
 
Bad^Hat said:
Or they could have just, you know...

Left him dead, making the ending of 1 an actual cliffhanger and the start of 2 an actual revelation (relatively speaking). Instead they had two ineffectual fake-outs one after the other. :p
Click to expand...

Yeah but what's a 20 second fakeout? Was it even that long? Doesn't stuff like that happen in every movie? You ever watch 2012? That movie is just a big series of "omg terrible thing is happening... oh wait it's all good." The one in ME2 was more a part of the story than anything.
 
Holy shit ME2 is epic. My character from ME 1 looks alot like Bruce Willis and now even more so in ME2 because the civilian outfit you get reminds me of the one he wears Fifth Element. :3

I liked the prologue too except for the whole explosive decompression thing on the Normandy. Shepard probably would've died instantly. Funny too that there's an entry in the codex in part 1 that mentions explosive decompression is a fallacy.
 
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