Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 2 is out, I havnt beaten my current playthrough for Mass Effect, my ME2 is in Kentucky on pre-order and I have to do a shit load of work this week.. Maybe I'll play ME2 this weekend?
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I've already logged a couple hours in ME2, and I love it so far. The combat has been improved upon, though it takes some time getting used to.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 When I start that game, I'll lose my life for a while.. xD Sad isnt it? Lol... Still gotta beat my playthrough on ME. Almost done though. Tomorrow it CAN be finished.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 Man, Mass Effect 2 is absolutely phenomenal. The voice acting, action, everything about is great. I can't get enough of it. Speaking of action, now that I'm getting used to it, it's wonderful. It's more streamlined than Mass Effect, so you don't need to be constantly pulling up menus to use Biotics or switch weapons (though, since I'm so accustomed to doing this, I still find myself doing it constantly). There's also A LOT of action, at least early in the game, moreso than the first (which I don't think is a bad thing).
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I was able to play through the first hour or so today. The game starts pretty fast. I'm sure it is going to be good. Opening safes is easy but decoding encrypted files (or w/e it is) is a little confusing for me at the moment.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I like the new hacking and stuff like that. More minigames for us. Im supposed to be doing Math homework, but Im here talking about Mass Effect 2.. Which I gave to my mom so I could do my Math... Look how that turned out.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I also really like the hacking mini-game, far better than the timed button presses of the first one.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I've played through a decent chunk of the game now... so far so good. Combat movement is a bit awkward but otherwise they seem to have improved the control scheme... missing grenades at the moment, dunno if they will show up later... difficulty levels seem balanced. Dragon's Age was very difficult and I kept having to lower it during major sequences (after dying 10-20 times) and I hated that... so far "veteran" is hard enough to make you patient but easy enough that you can get through big sections with only a few deaths... planet scanning is interesting if a bit dry, certainly better than the old system of dropping down onto the planet in your wonky shuttle which was almost impossible to steer, then climbing up nearly vertical mountains for way too long... the characters in this game are really fun, too.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 Planet scanning is oddly addicting if you ask me. I find it completely tedious, but when I start scanning one, I keep going just to see if I can find those rare elements. We'll see how quickly I get sick of it. I do like how a lot of the previous characters show up throughout the game, pays a nice homage to the first one, as does getting back some old crew members (not naming names for those who haven't picked it up). For me, it just gets better and better the further in you get. The story is great, the characters are excellent (in part due to phenomenal voice acting) and it's certainly shaping up to be a GOTY contender. Too bad it'll get lost in the shuffle since it came out so early.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 ^ Sounds like you're like me, can't leave a system until every planet is scanned. It takes a long time so I've decided once a planet is "poor" or "depleted", I don't send any more beacons (or whatever they are called). The pacing of the game is great. I love being able to take my time and comb through it. The choices are starting to get more difficult. Each time I wonder what different game experience it would be if I had gone the other way... want to remember which ones I made so next time through I will make the opposite.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I'm not quite like that, because a lot of times I won't have enough beacons to get through a galaxy of planets. I've been launching 15-20 beacons in each planet, and right now I only have 30, so I can usually only do one at a time. I agree, it's a very well paced game. It's not too slow or too fast, and I love that it's only really MADE me do one mission so far (2 if you include the opening of the game). Otherwise, I love that I still get to pick and choose when I want to do missions and sidequests. I also must say, I wasn't initially a fan of the leveling, but I've grown to like it. It really involves more strategy in character building than the first one when you have to allot a certain amount of points to get to a certain thing, so sometimes you have to bank skill points to get to the next level that you want instead of just using them on other things. It's a nice touch if you ask me. It's also an interesting touch that you have to do missions to earn the loyalty of your crew members. I haven't done one of these missions yet, but based on my talking with Miranda to get hers, it sounds like it's going to open up a good amount of backstory on each particular character, which is awesome, especially in games like this when you sort of get attached to certain characters.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 You guys are making me want to get it. Although I have no idea what you're talking about with this planet shit.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 ME is set in a cluster of galaxies including our own. You have to travel between them to complete missions. Each system has a couple of planets that you need to visit to keep the game going. In addition to at there will be least one other planet (or up to five or so more). The other planets can be scanned for natural resources you can harvest to finance your tech & biomedical research--upgrades for weapons, your ship, your companions, etc.. When you "scan" a planet you move your cursor around the globe looking for feedback. When you get a spike in one of the resources (there are four) you send a beacon and it harvests it for you. Some planets are barren but others have 20-30+ places where you can extract resources. Because there are several galaxies all with several systems in it there are a lot of places to explore and collect resources. The process is a bit tedious, IMHO, but addicting once you get the hang of it.
Re: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I've done one and I think I've lost the loyalty of that person for good as a result of my choices during it... which kind of sucks but the game forces you to make hard decisions, which is cool.
