[lilman]

Chadruharazzeb, on Feb 5 2010, 09:23 AM, said:

What, that brief, accidental meeting with her on a mission is stopping my Shepard from nailing Miranda? Seriously? Just.... :)

:OMG:

As someone said, it must be Kelly!

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Ending spoiler call-and-response, so if you don't want to know the reasons lilman mentions then don't read:

Cosmic_Guru, on Feb 5 2010, 09:17 AM, said:

Spoiler

I sent Legion through the tunnels but he got hit at the final minute before the doors closed.
I chose Zaeed to lead the second team rather than either Miranda or Jack

Spoiler

Zaeed is a loner, not a leader. He's experienced but every mission he's led has generally ended in the death of everyone involved except him - he's not leadership material. There are three on the squad with leadership experience - Garrus, Miranda, and Jacob.

Quote

Spoiler

I discovered that half the crew had already been liquidised and fed to the Reaver because I had been too slow in arriving (wtf?).

Spoiler

You must have done SOMETHING after the crew's abduction. You have to go straight for the relay once they're abducted or you're too late to save at least some of them.

Quote

Spoiler

I lost my lover, Garrus, in the section where Miranda was providing biotic cover, just as we were getting towards the end - devastating this one.
I had left Zaeed to hold the gates and he died (not sure I saw how).
Thane stuck his head above cover in the same section to radio in and popped it, stupid boy.

Spoiler

Miranda isn't a good enough biotic to maintain the shield all the way - you need a pure biotic, either Jack or Samara. Zaeed, again, isn't leadership material - here it led to his death, and possibly contributed to Thane's (as well as him not being fully loyal).

It's pretty common-sense but a lot of people - me included - make the

Spoiler

Zaeed-leading

mistake at least once. I wised up to it by the second time I was asked to pick, though!

[RubberJohnny]

Again, spoilers for the finale and the reasons for death, often it's not a deficiency of the character that died, but the one they were relying on.

Cosmic_Guru, on Feb 5 2010, 09:17 AM, said:

Spoiler

I sent Legion through the tunnels but he got hit at the final minute before the doors closed.

Spoiler

Legion was a good choice but he died because of poor leadership, that's also why Zaaed dies later on.

Quote

Spoiler

I discovered that half the crew had already been liquidised and fed to the Reaver because I had been too slow in arriving (wtf?).

Spoiler

Did ou stop on any planets to shop or get research beforehand? An landing on planets is considered time out, not just missions.

Quote

Spoiler

I lost my lover, Garrus, in the section where Miranda was providing biotic cover, just as we were getting towards the end - devastating this one.

Spoiler

Not Garrus' fault, but Miranda's. Jack or Samara are better biotics.

[lilman]

Any tips for playing a vanguard? So far I feel much less safe than I did playing an infiltrator with all my lovely stealth/shield bonuses. I died the first time I used charge :)

[Vemsie]

lilman, on Feb 5 2010, 10:53 AM, said:

Any tips for playing a vanguard? So far I feel much less safe than I did playing an infiltrator with all my lovely stealth/shield bonuses. I died the first time I used charge :)

Use cover a lot and attack with Pull and Shockwave. The Charge is useful when there are not too many enemies left, at least until you upgrade it to the (awesome) super charge in which everything goes into slow mo when you hit an enemy. It's great fun to dash into enemies and follow the attack with shotgun blasts. :OMG:

[lilman]

Vemsie, on Feb 5 2010, 10:04 AM, said:

Use cover a lot and attack with Pull and Shockwave. The Charge is useful when there are not too many enemies left, at least until you upgrade it to the (awesome) super charge in which everything goes into slow mo when you hit an enemy. It's great fun to dash into enemies and follow the attack with shotgun blasts. :)

Ta for that. The last part of what you mentioned is what I attempted and got torched by those flamethrower wiedling Vorcha. Seems like a really cool skill but very situational.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

When the situationality is 'don't do it near flamethrowers', I think you're good. :)

[lilman]

Rudi von Starnberg, on Feb 5 2010, 10:10 AM, said:

When the situationality is 'don't do it near flamethrowers', I think you're good. :OMG:

Yup, unfortunately I learnt the hard way :)

[Mallet]

Just remember this when playing a vanguard. You can use charge as an escape tool as well if the enemies are all around you.

The nerd rage on the Bioware forums about this game are hilarious, always make me laugh.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I don't think you can actually use it to escape - the class video said so, but in the actual game the ability needs a target. You can't charge to an unoccupied spot.

[revlob]

I just lost a massive post I was going to make, now that I've completed the game *cries*

[Vemsie]

lilman, on Feb 5 2010, 11:11 AM, said:

Yup, unfortunately I learnt the hard way :OMG:

Heh. Same here, charge and flamethrowers don't get along well. :)

I find that Miranda is a good addition to a Vanguard with her Warp, Overload and Slam powers. Add a tank character like Jacob or Grunt and you're pretty damn strong.

[revlob]

Ahaha! No I didn't! Praise be to Firefox's "Recently closed windows"!

Completed!

Here's how it played out for me:

Spoiler

After scouring the galaxy for every last Paragon point once I realised I needed a bunch to secure Miranda's loyalty following me siding with Jack, I still didn't have enough. Luckily, I discovered I could get an extra boost by remapping my points and taking the "Agent" specialisation instead of my "Assassin" one. This gave me a higher multiplier, and the maximum Paragon score I needed, so I went into the final mission with everyone loyal, and all the upgrades made to the Normandy.

I sent Tali through some tubes, had Miranda lead the first distraction team, sent Samara back with the rescued crew, and used Jack's biotics to guide us past the swarms, but poor Zaeed died while leading the second strike team. Guess he wasn't that great of a soldier after all.

Tali, Garrus, and I took down the Reaper, and I chose to leave the base intact, despite telling the Illusive Man to go fuck himself.

Overall, a wholly satisfying end to things, and I'm left wanting for more.

Praise.

It's brilliant. Throughout the whole game, each story, recruitment, and loyalty mission was different. Even the randomly discovered side-quests and assignments, which used recycled environments and flat characters in ME1, all felt fresh and unique. A remarkable accomplishment, and one of the many signs that BW genuinely listened to and learned from the reactions of the players of the first game. ME2 is bigger, and better, in just about every possible way. The writing team deserve some kind of award, I've never been as entertained, for so long, by any other game, ever. I smiled, laughed, and nearly cried at several points. I was pumping my fists during the final mission. Sure it has its clangers, and occasionally the voice acting is sub-par, and every so often you notice some horrible clipping, or floating, or some other immersion-breaking 3D modelling blunder, but there is just so much greatness in the game, it would be petty to pick up on these rare occurrences. It's beautiful too, with superb surroundings and vibrant inhabitants. It may all be scripted, but Mass Effect 2 feels more alive than Oblivion, or Fallout 3, or any other game I've seen that attempts to simulate living worlds.

Remember the time before Bioshock came out? Remember the promises we were made, of the profound moral choices we'd have to make? Remember what a disappointment that was? ME2 lives up to those promises. One is forced to make some genuinely difficult decisions in ME2, decisions which would stump any normal person in real life. Mordin's loyalty quest I think is the best example of this. Having a planned trilogy has allowed a game (two now) where we won't learn of the outcomes of our actions, until years have passed. Much like things often are in real life, I find. There's no quick-saving and reloading just to see what would have happened had we decided not to help Liara, or to see what long-term outcome of our missions on Tuchanka. We'll just have to wait and see. Or play through the game multiple times, and keep multiple saves, I guess.

Now, criticism!

I appreciate the work BioWare have done in streamlining equipment and inventory, but it left very few customisation options. There seemed to be little point to the newer guns, which were for the most part existed only as "Upgrades the x". If they were superior weapons, then why let me choose an inferior one? Why not just roll them into the upgrade system? Maybe if they each had their own advantages and disadvantages, like a trade-off between fire rate and fire power, then the choice might make more sense. I'm just being picky though, as the combat was a vast improvement over the previous game's, and is comparable to other FPS games, but a little more choice would have been appreciated.

Oh, and while on the Citadel

Spoiler

I came across two Asari who were having a problem leaving the station, due to them being put on a no-fly list as suspected Geth spies. I spoke to the Customs officer and assured her that, you know, they couldn't be Geth, you'd have to be some kind of idiot to think that, and she should be on the lookout for the real threats, blah blah blah, all the while with Legion standing right next to me.

:)

But seriously, there's very little I can find to fault. Maybe once I've played through again I'll have some less-enamored words to say. One small upset is that if I want try playing as a woman, I've either got to play through ME1 again (not that I'd mind so much, but not right now), or go with the crappy default choices, but I understand how being able to simply override any of the decisions made might just lessen the significance in bringing in your old Shepherd. I highly suspect once the release of ME3 nears, I'll be running through both ME1 and ME2 again in preparation. Looking forward to it!

[Rudi von Starnberg]

revlob, on Feb 5 2010, 10:47 AM, said:

I appreciate the work BioWare have done in streamlining equipment and inventory, but it left very few customisation options. There seemed to be little point to the newer guns, which were for the most part existed only as "Upgrades the x". If they were superior weapons, then why let me choose an inferior one? Why not just roll them into the upgrade system? Maybe if they each had their own advantages and disadvantages, like a trade-off between fire rate and fire power, then the choice might make more sense. I'm just being picky though, as the combat was a vast improvement over the previous game's, and is comparable to other FPS games, but a little more choice would have been appreciated.

Oh, and while on the Citadel

Spoiler

I came across two Asari who were having a problem leaving the station, due to them being put on a no-fly list as suspected Geth spies. I spoke to the Customs officer and assured her that, you know, they couldn't be Geth, you'd have to be some kind of idiot to think that, and she should be on the lookout for the real threats, blah blah blah, all the while with Legion standing right next to me.

:)

They say the guns are upgrades but it's really not that simple, there are trade-offs to them. The Mantis sniper rifle is more powerful than the Viper, but the Viper is rapid-fire - you're not going to get single-headshot kills with it, though. The Vindicator AR is powerful and accurate but has hardly any ammo and is a liability at close quarters, whereas the weaker Avenger is full-auto and has lots of ammo. That kind of thing.

Regarding C-Sec there

Spoiler

if you ask her why security is so heavy while Legion is there, you get this: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=gaF_tmeiwn4

.

The only guy on the Citadel who knows what's up with

Spoiler

Legion is in fact Anderson.

[Miner Willy]

I got some Inferno Armour as a 'preorder bonus' from Amazon. Downloaded it last night, but when I went to change my outfit in the game it wasn't an option. I take it I'm just being thick... how do I get it then? Do I still have to discover it in the game?

Oh yeah: brilliant, brilliant game.

[cloutbasher]

10 hours in and loving it, but am so tempted to restart now I've got a feel for the game so that I can really take my time.

[Mallet]

Yep Rudi is right, there is definitely a difference between the guns. I prefer the weaker but greater ammo capacity handgun over the more powerful but you can only carry around 20 shots hand gun. There is differences between the shotguns as well, there's an auotmatic one that doesn't hit as hard etc

I like the new system, the one in ME 1 basically amounted to. Save all your money until you can buy spectre weapons then sell everything else you get, and there's no need to even look what they are as spectre >all, so you can afford the top 'X' spectre weapons later on.

Bloody typical, I took a week off work for this game and the last 2 days I've been dosed with a head cold and I'm finding it hard to enjoy the game through bouts of sneezing and blowing my nose whilst my head is all woolly. :)

The DLC armour should be under the top option, armour type or something like that?

[Miner Willy]

Mallet, on Feb 5 2010, 11:05 AM, said:

The DLC armour should be under the top option, armour type or something like that?

Yeah, there was no option to change from the default. I could change my casual clothes to various options, but no option to change the armour.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Thanks for clarifying things chaps. Seems I could replay this mission with this character and save all the loyal team mates for the next episode.

The key decisions are

Spoiler

choice of second squad leader and choice of biotic cover maker.

[Aimless]

Miner Willy, on Feb 5 2010, 10:58 AM, said:

I got some Inferno Armour as a 'preorder bonus' from Amazon. Downloaded it last night, but when I went to change my outfit in the game it wasn't an option. I take it I'm just being thick... how do I get it then? Do I still have to discover it in the game?

I think you have to restart the game before it's installed, as it were. Obviously you need to load the game up to access the Cerberus Network and set things to download, but once it's finished doing so the content hasn't appeared in my game until I've exited to the dash and loaded the game up again.

In other words it should be there the next time you play.