Some things about Mass Effect I felt like mentioning...

[mysecondlife]

I agree with your opinion on the companions... at least in the first mass effect. The second got me alot more interested in them, mainly due to the loyalty missions. I felt some actual sympathy for Mordin as he explained how he agreed with the decision of creating the genophage while at the same time feeling the pressure of ruining in entire civilization for waht may or may not have been the greater good. The only really stupid thing about it all was that their 'loyalty' was directly connected to completing the loyalty missions 'the right way' and even after that I still lost Miranda because she got mad at me for defending Jack. Did she let herself get killed because of that?!?

Oh, I meant in gameplay. I loved them as characters, but in game I just picked whatever abilities went with what we were fighting.

I can't help but have massive expectations for ME3, and if it turns out to be bad, I will be starting a one-man riot.

I'll join. Honestly, there should be no way it can be bad. They've got the experience+skill to make a game, and enough fan feedback to trim away the crap and just improve on what's good.

lol. Dragon Age 2. Apparently.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I actually really loved the Mako. I didn't seem to have the problems with driving it and I enjoyed exploring pretty planets. I didn't like all the weapons in ME1, but I don't like the simplified version in ME2. I wish they would of done something where you could just modify an existing weapon.

The mining in ME2 was pretty boring, but I still did it and I did it a lot. (I ravaged the galaxy of resources). Also I laughed when I mined Uranus because it was apparently an easter egg. The computer voice comments on it.

All in all ME series is just amazing and I can forgive the little issues, because I enjoy the game immensely.

 

[Linkmeanie]

Played Mass Effect through on the xbox, loved it.

Now own one and two one Steam, and am in the process of playing them in preperation for three.

While I haven't played two yet, my biggest reservation comes from the ammo clips (from what I have heard they are scarce and irritating), and also just lack of micro managing (again, from what I have heard).

I think for the gun system, maybe have ammo clips to take heat, fine. But then if you run out, you can fire like in ME1, with overheat and such. Sounds like a good compromise to me. Or toggle between the two modes, control is always nice.

But I had a blast with ME1, the sheer depth of the universe just sucked me in. So many interesting races with cool backstories. That is what really brought me in.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Despite having strong, negative emotions for The Shep, i like the series and i look forward to ME3.

I am very happy with the way they changed micromanagement section in ME2 - it was (beside the Shep acting) the weakest part of ME1. I lost good amount of time while trying to find best weapon/ammo/armor/mods combos. Then, after a moment i left it alone and even after hours of intense gameplay i didn't feel any significant difference.

I'm also glad that sections like mining or driving/steering are optional - they always seem to break, ahem, immersion for me.

As for ME3 - i wish for characters of opposite gender that The Shep could simply talk to without risking sexual intercourse and all those tensions. Seriously, i feel that a scene or two depicting sex aren't worth it...

 

[Loop Stricken]

This should fit in here nicely: I finally got round to playing the first Mass Effect game when it went on sale recently. The game was alright, it had its problems as well as a few outstanding elements, but my problem is another.

I completed the game in 12 hours. Thats right. I was through with the story in just 12 fucking hours. What the fuck happened? Did I accidentally skip half the main story? 12 hours is fucking short. Like, seriously. Holy shit.

Eh, the original can be short if you ignore all the sidequests. But why would you do that?

 

[AD-Stu]

I actually didn't mind driving the Mako around in ME1 either - though I understand those of us that feel that way are definitely in the minority. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone who liked the planet probing minigame in ME2 so here's hoping they're going to ditch that.

Sticking with that theme, something I really didn't like from ME2 (or its DLC, at least) was the Hammerhead. Infinite auto-targeting, rapid-fire missiles + dodgy handling = bleh. I'm hoping Bioware don't make good on their threat of brining it back for ME3.

Anywho, looking forward to ME3. I've got it pre-ordered, which I've never done for any game before, and I envisage many sleepless nights between release and when I finally finish it.

I completed the game in 12 hours. Thats right. I was through with the story in just 12 fucking hours. What the fuck happened? Did I accidentally skip half the main story? 12 hours is fucking short. Like, seriously. Holy shit.

People have speed-run ME1 in an hour or two (been meaning to try it myself one day just for the lulz) but a typical playthrough, particularly a first one, should be more like 30 hours. Did you do any side missions at all, or just the main Feros-Noveria-Virmire stuff?

 

[everythingbeeps]

I think my last playthrough of ME2 was 59 hours. I'm working through it again because I lost that save file, and I'm sure it'll come out to less than that, but it's still a very long game. If you finished in 30 hours, you missed a bunch of stuff.

My last playthrough of ME1, where I did plenty of sidequests by by no means all of them, was well over 30 hours. Which is FINE. Games do not need to be longer than that.

 

[Kahunaburger]

- I recently saw a video that showed some new mass effect 3 footage and they showed the vanguard's new ability: punching the floor. How did the vanguard go from teleport/charging into your enemies, to punching the fucking floor?!? The vanguards entire gameplay style is about not giving a fuck, thats what made charging so perfect and awesome, there wasn't any need to cover or ask for your teammates help, all you had to do was charge into the mo-fo and shoot them in the face with a shotgun, but now with this new retarded power you'll have to go up to the guy who has a gun and is shooting you just to make this power effective! There are so many other options for a new ability for the vanguard. For example: Why not give them a biotic field that returns bullets and sends anyone standing too close flying into the walls and roof and the vanguard has to be sprinting while doing this, how much more awesome would that be!?

Keep in mind that the nova ability is in addition to charge, not replacing charge. Vanguard is all about shield management and risk/reward, and IMO an ability that burns your shield (and doesn't use the cooldown bar) to AOE enemies is (in theory) a great complement to charge. You're essentially getting the option to take on additional risk by burning your shield in order to give yourself a combat advantage.

 

[DustyDrB]

- I recently saw a video that showed some new mass effect 3 footage and they showed the vanguard's new ability: punching the floor. How did the vanguard go from teleport/charging into your enemies, to punching the fucking floor?!? The vanguards entire gameplay style is about not giving a fuck, thats what made charging so perfect and awesome, there wasn't any need to cover or ask for your teammates help, all you had to do was charge into the mo-fo and shoot them in the face with a shotgun, but now with this new retarded power you'll have to go up to the guy who has a gun and is shooting you just to make this power effective! There are so many other options for a new ability for the vanguard. For example: Why not give them a biotic field that returns bullets and sends anyone standing too close flying into the walls and roof and the vanguard has to be sprinting while doing this, how much more awesome would that be!?

Keep in mind that the nova ability is in addition to charge, not replacing charge. Vanguard is all about shield management and risk/reward, and IMO an ability that burns your shield (and doesn't use the cooldown bar) to AOE enemies is (in theory) a great complement to charge. You're essentially getting the option to take on additional risk by burning your shield in order to give yourself a combat advantage.

Mmmm...being a Vanguard is gonna be more fun than ever. With Geth Shield Boost as the extra power, you're just a highly mobile and heavy hitting human tank.

 

[michiehoward]

I adore the series, drooling for 3.

Dear Bioware,

Don't take my Geth Shotgun...I love that gun.

And I beat ME2 on Insanity as an Adept, it can be done. It is also awesome.

 

[jollybarracuda]

I also put Mass Effect 2 up as one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the only games that as soon as i finished it, i made a mew character and played through it again. Though after having now played through it about three times, one thing has really bothered me about it; a lack of any real branching in the story. Sure, at the end those decisions will no doubt affect ME3, but any other time, all my conversation options felt very...contained. Such as, i could be a renegade and i would still feel like im getting all the same information and outcomes as i did on my paragon playthrough, except that when i talk to people they just get a little bit sad.

I'm thinking this is only because ME2 suffers from being a middle child in a franchise. It has to start the same way for everyone and it has to end the same way for everyone, so it can lead in to ME3. And with hearing that ME3 will have many different endings, i'm definitely hoping for a lot more branching out in the story (though maybe that was already announced somewhere, i haven't looked up a thing on ME3 except hearing about the endings. I want to go in knowing absolutely nothing).

 

[jollybarracuda]

I also put Mass Effect 2 up as one of my favorite games of all time. It's one of the only games that as soon as i finished it, i made a mew character and played through it again. Though after having now played through it about three times, one thing has really bothered me about it; a lack of any real branching in the story. Sure, at the end those decisions will no doubt affect ME3, but any other time, all my conversation options felt very...contained. Such as, i could be a renegade and i would still feel like im getting all the same information and outcomes as i did on my paragon playthrough, except that when i talk to people they just get a little bit sad.

I'm thinking this is only because ME2 suffers from being a middle child in a franchise. It has to start the same way for everyone and it has to end the same way for everyone, so it can lead in to ME3. And with hearing that ME3 will have many different endings, i'm definitely hoping for a lot more branching out in the story (though maybe that was already announced somewhere, i haven't looked up a thing on ME3 except hearing about the endings. I want to go in knowing absolutely nothing).

 

[Smeggs]

I could have sworn they said that Charge would be in ME3..._>...

It goddamn well better be. That was the greatest power of just about any class imo.

 

[Smeggs]

-snip-

I've also never played such a long game again in the space of a week before. ME2 was much better than the first in my own opinion, which seemed to drag its feet in more areas. After crushing that embryonic Reaper I started up again my Vanguard to maximum. Then I played through the story again when I got all the DLC so I had the save I wanted to carry over into ME3.

DAMNIT DOUBLE POST!

 

[huser]

That's the thing isn't it? Even your most favorite games have issues. Personally I found that while ME2 had less things to do than ME1, I felt like I was faffing about less. How come no one in ME1 ever said "Uh commander, Saren could open the conduit at any time, why are we on a random planet looking for a scroll?", at least when you walked away from the main story in ME2 I actually felt like I was doing something worth while. Still, from what I've heard ME3 promises to have a nice balance, lots of side quests that are actually important and significant to the plot. I can't wait.

P.S. You know now that I think about it, I never pay attention to things once they die...unless it's in Halo multiplayer...but that's a tale for another time.

Given the comments about hundreds if not thousands of variables being carried over to ME3...I'd LOVE it if all the people that messed around collecting things (and getting massive amounts of loot and experience) got screwed over somewhere for wasting time.

For example, I think it's a pretty legit complaint that Brad Shoemaker of Giant Bomb made about the ending of ME2. You've told the entire time you are on a clock, and you get a certain mission relatively early that railroads you into the endgame if you want a "perfect" ending. Only a person that is thinking this is a game and is NOT actually roleplaying as a guy that cares that thousands if not millions of humans are being kidnapped and murdered and the whole galaxy is in danger would ignore the shiny red button of a main story mission (especially that particular one that I mentioned) to go help people s/he just met deal with whatever crippling psychological issue they might have (in several cases, ACTUAL Daddy issues).

Now sure, complaining that roleplaying leads to the loss of a "perfect" ending that only a metagamer would know and care about seems disingenuous, but remember that there IS A PERFECT ENDING that involves gaming the game. That seems a little unfair if choice matters, but you get dinged for making what should be the more obvious choice given what Shep is and the stakes at play especially since doing all those side missions probably will end up HELPING in ME3 as well. So for NOT acting like someone genuinely interested in the well being of others, or heck in just taking out a threat to humanity (covering both Para/gades), by taking care of what your main mission is, you lose squadmates AND probably come off worse in ME3.

Now if those people that crisscrossed the galaxy doing side/loyalty/OCD mining missions pay the price in ME3 because say the Collectors gathered WAY more data about humans because they had extra weeks to do so as this version of Shep was buying everything from every shop...that'd be something and would make ME2's meta game that much more interesting.

 

[Sharp Blue]

How the hell did I mess up the interupts? Eazy! Right-clicking seems so much more edgy than left clicking. Sorry guys.

 

[Fredvdp]

I could have sworn they said that Charge would be in ME3..._>...

It goddamn well better be. That was the greatest power of just about any class imo.

It is. ME3 starts with the same level you had at the end of ME2, which is usually level 30. You can then distribute your skill points (so you can comfortably switch classes) and I believe all powers from ME2 are back. The new powers don't replace existing powers and I assume they are there to bridge the additional 30 levels you can achieve in the sequel.