Mass Effect 2

Gunmonkey

Played through Overlord and the Shadow Broker DLC in time for Arrival. Both very good, Shadow Broker was worth it purely for

"Remember the good old days when you could just slap Omni-Gel on everything" and Legions bio and his scores on the online games

Jim

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Completed everything in the game about a month back. Shadow Broker DLC left to last as well (made the most sense to me plotwise to leave it last).

Now with the Arrival DLC coming this week, I'm torn as to what to do. My playthrough didn't go great. Here's why:

I got Kelly Chambers and half the crew killed by mistake. Did just one mission over the allowed timeframe between the ship attack and going after the collectors. Had one too many loyalty missions to wrap up.

So do I go back and get it done properly for a perfect playthrough going into the DLC, or just re-do it before ME3?

Personally when I play games like this I always just stick with what I did the first time. That's what's so great about them. You made mistakes and you have to live with the consequences. You'll maybe know better in the next game

Pointless going back and making it the "perfect" playthrough. Defeats the purpose of having choices with consequences in the game imo.

Sisko

Yeah in fact I really wish there was MORE consequences. Currently unless you go out of your way, pretty much every choice you make has no effect on you 'winning the game'. Shep can generally do no wrong, even if shep makes the 'wrong' choice the game's story will shift around that to make it right.

If there actually was a risk that you could just get wtf pwned by the reapers in the 3rd game I imagine less people would automatically pick the 'paragon' option for the ending of ME2 because it says paragon beside the choice and instead actually think about it for a sec.

And if the player still has moral issues with keeping that base, and would rather die then 'be like the enemy' have that reflected in ME3 as their galaxy burns around them.

But still bioware does push it more then other games, when it comes to crew members. I was almost convinced when playing the last part of me2, whoever I picked for squad leader was automatically going to get killed at one stage ME1 style. So for a second I thought about putting a character I didnt like in that role, but no, I get more enjoyment from 'keeping it real' and choosing what shepard would do rather then treating it like a video game story.

So even though garrus was my main squad buddy, I picked him, as thats who shep would go for imo. And if he died, so be it, I'd be sad to see the character go but I wouldn't choose it another way.

I thought wrex was a great character in ME1 and I could easily have talked him into not freaking out in ME1 but I killed him instead as it fit with the story better and made it all that much more raw. If the ME story was a TV series or movie, shep would definitely shoot wrex thats for sure.

Jim

Sisko wrote: »

I thought wrex was a great character in ME1 and I could easily have talked him into not freaking out in ME1 but I killed him instead as it fit with the story better and made it all that much more raw. If the ME story was a TV series or movie, shep would definitely shoot wrex thats for sure.

My Shep would disagree.

KerranJast

Sisko wrote: »

I thought wrex was a great character in ME1 and I could easily have talked him into not freaking out in ME1 but I killed him instead as it fit with the story better and made it all that much more raw. If the ME story was a TV series or movie, shep would definitely shoot wrex thats for sure.

From a pure paragon point of view, all your squad make sacrifices for the greater good of the galaxy e.g. humanity (through Shepards paragon actions) loses a huge number of ships saving the Council).
As a true paragon action you convince Wrex to sacrifice the chance of Krogan fertility for the greater good of the galaxy.

It's all from different PoVs anyway. There's a multitude of different Shepard characters players have played.

Jim

KerranJast wrote: »

From a pure paragon point of view, all your squad make sacrifices for the greater good of the galaxy e.g. humanity (through Shepards paragon actions) loses a huge number of ships saving the Council).
As a true paragon action you convince Wrex to sacrifice the chance of Krogan fertility for the greater good of the galaxy.

It's all from different PoVs anyway. There's a multitude of different Shepard characters players have played.

Was that the Paragon option? Huh. I would have thought using those ships to save civilians rather than the council would be the Paragon option.

Kiith

Jim wrote: »

Was that the Paragon option? Huh. I would have thought using those ships to save civilians rather than the council would be the Paragon option.

There weren't any civilians to save. It was save the Council, or sit back and wait for an opportunity to attack.

Jim

Kiith wrote: »

There weren't any civilians to save. It was save the Council, or sit back and wait for an opportunity to attack.

Really? Hmm...I thought you saved the council or bought time for people trying to evacuate the Citidel or something. Maybe I just made that up in my head cause I'm racist against space aliens :pac:

Harps

The choice was to save the council by diverting other ships to protect the Asari ship or to focus all firepower on the reaper. Both have their merits, I chose to let the council die for various reasons.

Never bothered playing as a pure paragon or renegade so I just weighed up each decision and decided on whatever sounded like the best/most interesting choice

Zillah

Harps wrote: »

Never bothered playing as a pure paragon or renegade so I just weighed up each decision and decided on whatever sounded like the best/most interesting choice

This is something that has been really annoying me about Mass Effect. You basically need to swing wildly to one extreme to get the most interesting dialogue options, whereas if you play a character who picks and chooses for other reasons (whether I like a certain character or if I don't trust someone etc) you get punished for not being comically paragon/renegade.

Gunmonkey

Launch vid for "Arrival" from IGN (cant find a Youtube of it yet).

One word for it

FFFFAAAAAAPPPPPPPP

super_furry

God I hope it's better than the 'bridging' DLC from Dragon Age. That Witch-Hunt crap was the biggest let down in years.

Kiith

That trailer looks pretty damn awesome.

Sisko

Jim wrote: »

My Shep would disagree.

I wasn't talking about peoples preceptions of what their shepards would do using their own imaginations. I was talking about what the writers would do if it was a another medium and shep just stood through to the baseline character. That dark twist is great, I dunno the terms for such events but they are very common when going for such storylines where things get gritty, build up a likeable character and have that character killed off tragically or by some other means.

They have may copped out in this hypothetical scenario and have Ash do the shooting, but wrex is getting killed and no one is meant to be happy about it either.

KerranJast wrote: »

From a pure paragon point of view, all your squad make sacrifices for the greater good of the galaxy e.g. humanity (through Shepards paragon actions) loses a huge number of ships saving the Council).
As a true paragon action you convince Wrex to sacrifice the chance of Krogan fertility for the greater good of the galaxy.

It's all from different PoVs anyway. There's a multitude of different Shepard characters players have played.

Far as I remember you can convince him to come to your way of thinking as pure renegade also. In fact I might be wrong but I don't think shooting him is either the paragon or renegade option as both those options during that scene are different bits of dialogue that convince him to stfu. Just different ways of saying it.

I don't play full renegade or paragon as both of those playthroughs make shepard out to be retarded and it kinda damages the core story and makes it far less interesting. I do try them out on second playthroughs though. I like seeing all dialogue options.

Harps wrote: »

The choice was to save the council by diverting other ships to protect the Asari ship or to focus all firepower on the reaper. Both have their merits, I chose to let the council die for various reasons.

Never bothered playing as a pure paragon or renegade so I just weighed up each decision and decided on whatever sounded like the best/most interesting choice

Exactly.

Also as far as I remember, the choice was divert the fleet to save the council and the thousands of other people on that big ship of theirs and risk giving sovereign enough time to turn the citadel into a mass relay that'll bring countless reapers into your galaxy

OR don't take such a big risk and allow the human fleet to continue attacking sovereign before its too late.

GTR63

Lads I read on N4G that the Arrival DLC is only 1 hour long so maybe wait for reviews before you buy.

Zero-Cool

lads when is it out? Is it only out in America Tuesday and Europe Thursday? No on the PSN yet anyway. I honestly don't care how long it is, still have to buy it. Damn Mass Effect and its epicness!

Healium

GTR63 wrote: »

Lads I read on N4G that the Arrival DLC is only 1 hour long so maybe wait for reviews before you buy.

No surprise there. ME2 DLCs were never long. Was Overlord longer than LoTSB?

Anyway, doesn't matter, people are gonna eat this up. (including me)

Jim

Sisko wrote: »

I wasn't talking about....

T'was a joke *sniff*

super_furry

GTR63 wrote: »

Lads I read on N4G that the Arrival DLC is only 1 hour long so maybe wait for reviews before you buy.

Sounds like another Witch-Hunt so, bet it's all recycled enviroments too. They're honestly not even trying anymore.

Kiith

It actually sounds interesting from a story point of view. Yes, it's way too short. But any Mass Effect is good in my book.

Healium

I've heard that it's between 30 mins-2 hours gameplay-wise

Jim

super_furry wrote: »

Sounds like another Witch-Hunt so, bet it's all recycled enviroments too. They're honestly not even trying anymore.

Don't know why you have this attitude. Witch Hunt was crap yes, but so was the other DA DLC, whereas all the Mass Effect DLC has been average to excellent. Two different studios make the games.

jamezy

Slightly underwhelmed by Arrival... I cant tell is this due to my hyping it up for myself or if its just a bit meh...

Dont get me wrong any Mass Effect is good Mass Effect but i just thought there would be more of an x-factor and frankly a better ending.

Still though im sure it will have a severe knock on effect for ME3 which is cool.

Zero-Cool

its available for xbox and pc now, psn later apparently. Anyone got it yet?

Adyx

sheehy83 wrote: »

its available for xbox and pc now, psn later apparently. Anyone got it yet?

Downloading it for PC now. 879MB :eek:
That points system for PC is ridiculous, I always seem to end up with 80 points left over. Why can't we just use money....

There seems to be a patch included that installs first - probably why the download was so large.

Zero-Cool

still not on psn, sony sucks ass!

Josey Wales

sheehy83 wrote: »

still not on psn, sony sucks ass!

Probably won't be up till tomorrow as Wednesday is the usual PSN update day. You can usually find stuff a few hours early by search for it by title.

Zero-Cool

complete horse bolllox! ME2 on facebook asking how people are finding it. I went to comment to find out when it will be on psn and saw the comments are riddled with spoilers s just quit it. searched by title, no joy. was mad to play it tonight an all. ah well, tomorrow it shall be mine!

pixelburp

Well according to my steam profile, Arrival last 1.6 hours, so there you go. Admittedly I died a couple of times thanks to some slightly unfair enemy placement, but that seems to be the average length going by other testimony.

As for the DLC itself - it seems to telegraph quite plainly that the events will play into Mass Effect 3. And I don't mean the linkage with the Reapers either:

You basically atomise an entire Batarian solar system, which suggests that in ME3 you'll be trying to patch up alliances as a result & avoiding a 2nd war starting.

You have no choice about this event either, which I thought a bit jarring considering what game we're talking about here. Your Shephard accepts this event without question.

Roll on Mass Effect 3, though if it's all based on a war with the Reapers, I hope that all the RPG stuff doesn't get even more sidelined for straight-out action.

Mr Freeze

pixelburp wrote: »

Roll on Mass Effect 3, though if it's all based on a war with the Reapers, I hope that all the RPG stuff doesn't get even more sidelined for straight-out action.

Couldn't agree more. But I think there is barely any RPG stuff left to sideline.

I hope they bring some of the RPG elements back from ME1.

When you already have your character maxed and all weapons found, these Add Ons play just like shooters, nothing else to do really, but blast through them to the choices and conversations.