Mass Effect 2 Discussion

[liveinabin]

Which I might be getting sooner rather than later.

Just started Dragon Age this morning. How can Mass Effect 1 look so great but Dragon Age look so terrible. Besides, all the same old Fantasy cliches and fake British accents are pissing me off already.

[moycon]

Finished Mass Effect 2 today. Got all the achievements except for 2 of them.

I liked this game. It was really well done, and quite a ride.

I think I liked the first one better however. There was something I really enjoyed about landing on distant planets and having no clue what you might encounter. That was missing from the second game. I felt like the exploration was downplayed in this game, which I suppose was understandable since you were supposed to be in a hurry, but it was missed. The scanning and shooting of probes was a poor (and boring) substitute. Also the ending wasn't near as satisfying for me this time around maybe because if felt too much like a cliffhanger. Not sure. I also didn't get into the whole mysterious man thing either. Reminded me of something off a goofy prime time TV show that had been on for a few seasons and was grasping at show ideas! LOL

 

I did like this game a lot, and I'm glad I played through it, but in my book Mass Effect > Mass Effect 2

[+Random Terrain]

Why can't getting resources from planets be more like Star Control 2 for the 3DO:

 

(Both videos will jump to the place I'm talking about.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWQOflTezAc#t=5m42s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWQOflTezAc&start=343

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRVkJZK5HOM&start=451

 

 

It's 18 years later and they can't improve on that or at least rip it off? I loved collecting resources in Star Control 2. It was fun.

Edited February 17, 2010 by Random Terrain

[liveinabin]

@moycon. Yeah, it's a shame they ditched the exploration aspect. Some of the planetscapes in ME1 are stunning.

 

Slightly off topic, but I've persevered with Dragon Age and the Bioware quality is showing through, albeit only in the plot and audio. It still looks like a first gen Xbox 1 game.

 

Anybody read any of the Mass Effect books? Thinking of picking them up if I can find them in a digital format.

[Mendon]

Why can't getting resources from planets be more like Star Control 2 for the 3DO:

 

Maybe off topic and sorry if so..... I haven't tried Mass Effect 2 and never played Star Control 2 so I can't comment on the resource mining of those games. But one game I really liked that had you collecting resources for construction was Deuteros for the Atari ST. Sort of a "Risk" in outer space where you have to build ships, stations, weapons, scanners and more to colonize planets while fending off invading aliens. I loved building all the gadgets and figuring out how to obtain the minerals and resources necessary to do so.

 

 

Mendon

[+remowilliams]

One of the things I loved in ME2 was the humor. Speaking of which...

 

 

 

 

[+Random Terrain]

and never played Star Control 2 . . .

In case you don't know, you can play the 3DO version of Star Control 2 on your PC for free. Everyone with a computer should play it at least once. If Mass Effect 3 will be more like an updated version of Star Control 2, I'll dry hump my Xbox 360.

[liveinabin]

Sold Dragon Age as it very quickly fell back on the old Fantasy cliches and has the worst visuals (both from a tech and design standpoint) that I've seen in a game this generation (and that includes the Wii).

 

And I bought...Mass Effect 2!

 

My goodness, it looks like the first game remade as a movie! Astonishing. Some of the interface changes suck a bit (I liked the old inventory, changing armor was so much quicker) but the game overall is amazing. Best opening sequence ever.

[bloodreptile]

Finished Mass Effect 2 today. Got all the achievements except for 2 of them.

I liked this game. It was really well done, and quite a ride.

I think I liked the first one better however. There was something I really enjoyed about landing on distant planets and having no clue what you might encounter. That was missing from the second game. I felt like the exploration was downplayed in this game, which I suppose was understandable since you were supposed to be in a hurry, but it was missed. The scanning and shooting of probes was a poor (and boring) substitute. Also the ending wasn't near as satisfying for me this time around maybe because if felt too much like a cliffhanger. Not sure. I also didn't get into the whole mysterious man thing either. Reminded me of something off a goofy prime time TV show that had been on for a few seasons and was grasping at show ideas! LOL

 

I did like this game a lot, and I'm glad I played through it, but in my book Mass Effect > Mass Effect 2

I completely agree with the above.. I could not understand why they pinched the smoking man from the xfiles. Okay so the borrowed the plot of the first one from Babylon5 which borrowed the ideas from HP Lovecraft.

 

A good game to be sure but not as good as the first.

[+Random Terrain]

I rented GTA IV and Mass Effect 2 yesterday. So far I'm liking how if you die in Mass Effect 2, you continue very close to the place where you died. It's been a while since I played the first one, but if I remember correctly, it seemed like you had to go back farther after a death. I don't know why my ship has a talking vagina, but I guess it's better than a talking pecker.

 

So far I'm liking Mass Effect 2 more than Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA IV might look a little better than GTA: SA, but it seems like GTA: SA is more fun and has more things to do. Game rentals at Blockbuster are 9 dollars for 5 days, not 5 dollars for 6 days like I read online. I might change my mind, but it seems like GTA IV was a waste of 9 dollars. So far it's more of the same crap, it's not as fun as GTA: SA, and there are fewer cheats.

 

Mass Effect 2 seems like it might be worth the 9 bucks, but I'm still not spending this much on game rentals again. I get more enjoyment out of the independent games you can buy with a points card, so that's where my future game related money will go. I'm going to buy games like Miner Dig Deep and Shadow Complex.

Edited March 2, 2010 by Random Terrain

[Jess Ragan]

Don't you have any other rental options? Any at all? Like RedBox or GameFly or SOMETHING? I can't believe you're stuck with just that one rental store. You'd spend a lot less with GameFly for sure.

[+Random Terrain]

Don't you have any other rental options? Any at all? Like RedBox or GameFly or SOMETHING? I can't believe you're stuck with just that one rental store. You'd spend a lot less with GameFly for sure.

I heard a lot of bad things about GameFly. And I thought RedBox was just movies?

 

Anyway, I finished the game today. Did all of the little jobs, then the big one. They don't seem to give you enough little jobs so you can build up each person on your team.

 

I kind of like this game more than the first one, but I don't like how short it was. I also didn't like how you upgraded things in either game. Seems unnecessarily complicated and sometimes confusing. You might think you're adding something or upgrading and find out you've been wasting resources doing the same thing over and over again. I must have wasted over 20,000 resources before I realized what was happening.

 

Scanning a planet wasn't as bad as the reviews were saying. Even before you upgrade, you can scan and plop down probes in about 3 or 4 minutes. I just pressed the left trigger and scanned for a second, let go and moved down the distance of the size of the circle and repeated that until I hit the bottom, moved over and did the same going up, then back down, back up, and so on until finished (moving up, down, left and right a little when the controller vibrates to find the perfect spot to send down a probe). You can zip through every planet in a system in no time and get 100 percent. I hope they'll get things right with their third game and do planet scanning the Star Control 2 way. Now that was fun.

 

I hope that made sense. I keep falling asleep as I type this.

[moycon]

I heard a lot of bad things about GameFly.

 

Huh? I think there is one thread on AA specifically devoted to Gamefly and with the exception of one person here are the bulk of the responses.....

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/146233-anyone-use-gamefly-should-i-do-it/page__p__1801869__hl__Gamefly__fromsearch__1#entry1801869

 

I had Gamefly for a few years and I liked it.

 

I joined last December and it's been awesome.

I'm not big on monthly subscriptions, but I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of GF.

 

I heart gamefly.

 

Wow I just sent Sacred 2 back yesterday and they have already received it and shipped another game from my queue!!

I'm liking Gamefly a lot

 

I've been a member of GameFly for over two years and swear by it!

 

i use it, i like it

 

Please don't try and convince us you converse with any other people outside of the Atari Age boards that would have told you otherwise. We all know better.

Maybe you are just confusing Gamefly with Gamestop.

 

Gamefly is awesome. For like $15 a month you can keep a game for as long as you wish. You could have gotten Mass Effect 2 for a week (Kept until you beat the game and did all the side quests), then GTA IV for 2 days (Returned quickly because you didn't like it), then another game of your choice for less cash then you spent at Blockbusters for 5 day rentals! What are you waiting for!!

 

Also 3 or 4 minutes of scanning is ok, 3 or 4+ hours of scanning (something that needs to be done if you want to upgrade everything like you said you wanted to do) gets very boring and sucky, don't care how easy it is or how soon in the game you can do it!

[+Random Terrain]

Ever hear of Google? There's an ocean of blog entries and forum posts about why GameFly supposedly sucks.

Edited March 5, 2010 by Random Terrain

[moycon]

Ever hear of Google? There's an ocean of blog entries and forum posts about why GameFly supposedly sucks.

 

Right, and there's two oceans and a pond of blogs, review sites and forum posts that say it's great and almost all your fellow AA peers say it's great.

Not sure I follow, do you only make decisions to try something (Keeping in mind you can try Gamefly for like $8.99 and cancel anytime) based on only negative reviews you find on Google?

 

Yes I've heard of Google, but usually use Yahoo. They are pretty similar IMO.

[+Random Terrain]

Ever hear of Google? There's an ocean of blog entries and forum posts about why GameFly supposedly sucks.

 

Right, and there's two oceans and a pond of blogs, review sites and forum posts that say it's great and almost all your fellow AA peers say it's great.

Not sure I follow, do you only make decisions to try something (Keeping in mind you can try Gamefly for like $8.99 and cancel anytime) based on only negative reviews you find on Google?

 

Yes I've heard of Google, but usually use Yahoo. They are pretty similar IMO.

I learned that from Amazon. If around two-thirds of reviews for a product are positive, you better not ignore the unhappy one-third, because that's usually where the truth is.

 

How many people at AtariAge have tried to quit GameFly? Was it as easy as quitting Netflix? Did GameFly ever lose a game and claim that the AtariAge member lost it? How long do the AtariAge members have to wait until GameFly sends them a new game?

[moycon]

How many people at AtariAge have tried to quit GameFly?

 

No clue. I quit after I got my 100k gamerscore. It took 2 seconds. I clicked the link that said I wanted to quit, and sent back the game I had.

Stop with the lame excuses. Spend the $8.99 and find out for yourself. Then you can argue about it if you want.

[+Random Terrain]

How many people at AtariAge have tried to quit GameFly?

No clue. I quit after I got my 100k gamerscore. It took 2 seconds. I clicked the link that said I wanted to quit, and sent back the game I had.

 

Stop with the lame excuses. Spend the $8.99 and find out for yourself. Then you can argue about it if you want.

I'll see if I can afford it. After seeing how much Blockbuster games really are, I'm never going back there. Instead of getting back on a Netflix-like treadmill, it might be smarter to get a points card one of these days and just buy independent games once in a while that I think are fun.

 

On another subject, are all games free or discounted greatly if you get a 100k gamerscore? If not, why quit?

[moycon]

On another subject, are all games free or discounted greatly if you get a 100k gamerscore? If not, why quit?

 

Nah, I wanted the ability to gets lots of games in at once to get gamerpoints because I was in a mini race with another guy on my friends list. Now that I think of it, I didn't quit right after i got the 100k, because I switched to PS3 games for a brief time. After awhile I decided I had enough un-played games that I owned and I didn't need to rent them. I was doing the 2 out at a time, so it was like $21 a month or something like that.

 

I agree, Blockbusters seems pretty high. Especially since you can find some games on Amazon or NewEgg for like $10 and you can keep them!! I recently bought 5 brand new games off NewEgg, The grand total was like $45.

[liveinabin]

In other news...I finished ME2 today. Very disappointed with one major aspect (which is kind of a spoiler but everyone really ought to know it in advance):

 

Between the penultimate and final missions, you are allowed to run around the galaxy, clearing up whatever loose ends you like (in anticipation for the big finale).

However, what you're not told is that the clock is ticking. Every little side quest you do between these two missions results in people dying!

 

See, usually in RPG's, you get to the point where some NPC is asking "Are your men ready? We are about to attack the big final bad thing", at which point you get to spend months finishing up side quests while they wait, because you won't get the chance later when the credits roll.

Not so here. When the baddies take what you prize and bugger off beyond the veil, you need to get after them ASAP.

And the side quests/ extra DLC? Turns out you get to carry on playing all that when the main quest is through. Thanks for not telling me Bioware.

 

Looks like I'm starting ME2 again!

[+remowilliams]

I didn't have any issues like that. I dawdled around and still saved all the Normandy's crew when I hit the final battle, as well as making it through with all companions. I didn't retrieve the Reaper IFF or visit the Omega 4 relay system at all until I was ready to advance the main plotline.

[moycon]

I did exactly what remo did.

[+Random Terrain]

In other news...I finished ME2 today. Very disappointed with one major aspect (which is kind of a spoiler but everyone really ought to know it in advance):

 

Between the penultimate and final missions, you are allowed to run around the galaxy, clearing up whatever loose ends you like (in anticipation for the big finale).

However, what you're not told is that the clock is ticking. Every little side quest you do between these two missions results in people dying!

 

See, usually in RPG's, you get to the point where some NPC is asking "Are your men ready? We are about to attack the big final bad thing", at which point you get to spend months finishing up side quests while they wait, because you won't get the chance later when the credits roll.

Not so here. When the baddies take what you prize and bugger off beyond the veil, you need to get after them ASAP.

And the side quests/ extra DLC? Turns out you get to carry on playing all that when the main quest is through. Thanks for not telling me Bioware.

 

Looks like I'm starting ME2 again!

Yep, I hate it when games change the rules on you. There don't seem to be any time limits in this game, unless there is a clock ticking down on some little mission. I thought the getting people back thing was on hold just like every other mission. By the time I did the big mission, I think only one person was left alive, and she ended up dying anyway.

[liveinabin]

I'm mad as he'll about it. I started another play through but it feels more like work than pleasure - and I'm sure it's more difficult second time through.

Unfortunately, it does mean that I'm almost certainly going to be playing ME3 with one eye on a walkthrough in case they pull this crap again.

[Jess Ragan]

Thanks for the warning. I'm playing the game right now and I'm pretty happy with it so far, but I wouldn't want it to become a chore later.

 

Man, this game is great. I don't know what you guys are talking about... I played a little of the first one and was stymied by the confusing interface. Everything in Mass Effect 2 is so much more streamlined and user-friendly. It's terrific! I can actually figure out where to go next! The new cover fire gameplay (although cliched after seven thousand Gears of War clones) is much more satisfying, too. Aim for an enemy's head and you'll actually hit it! Now that's the stuff!