Mass Effect 2 Catch All

2010...

2010... One part of me says "Damn, so far away..." another says "WTF? 2010 is next year!?!"

Hypatian wrote:

2010... One part of me says "Damn, so far away..." another says "WTF? 2010 is next year!?!"

Nine more months and we'll be living in the distant future!

2010 sounds good as a release date, though -- hopefully it'll be fairly early on. RPGs are perfect for that post-holiday lull, and in fact I didn't play Mass Effect until March-April '08, despite picking it up in December '07.

A few months ago, when I first saw that ME2 had a scheduled release date of Q4 2009, I thought that VERY optimistic considering how much BioWare has going on right now. So a slip to Q1 2010 is no suprise at all, even sort of expected.

With Dragon Age's full release being pushed to Fall 2009, did you guys really think Bioware would release ME2 at the same time? They'd be competing with themselves, as would EA.

Okay, now I sound all high and mighty, which I'm really not trying to be.

The pc version should be coming out with the 360 version. See, I can hope and dream too.

garion333 wrote:

With Dragon Age's full release being pushed to Fall 2009, did you guys really think Bioware would release ME2 at the same time? They'd be competing with themselves, as would EA.

Okay, now I sound all high and mighty, which I'm really not trying to be.

The pc version should be coming out with the 360 version. See, I can hope and dream too. ;)

This is one we'll probably double-dip on. Mass Effect is a PC game, for me. But, for the rest of the gamers here (Mom and St.Hillary), they're console gamers.

Kannon wrote:
garion333 wrote:

With Dragon Age's full release being pushed to Fall 2009, did you guys really think Bioware would release ME2 at the same time? They'd be competing with themselves, as would EA.

Okay, now I sound all high and mighty, which I'm really not trying to be.

The pc version should be coming out with the 360 version. See, I can hope and dream too. ;)

This is one we'll probably double-dip on. Mass Effect is a PC game, for me. But, for the rest of the gamers here (Mom and St.Hillary), they're console gamers.

I have an interesting problem. I own Mass Effect and Fallout 3 on the PC but my laptop kicked the bucket and my new one can't run them. At the same time I was given a 360 for Christmas. Now I can either re-purchase the games for the 360 or wait until I get a new PC. I have no idea when I'll be able to get a proper gaming desktop. I'm also flat broke. What should I do?

garion333 wrote:

With Dragon Age's full release being pushed to Fall 2009, did you guys really think Bioware would release ME2 at the same time? They'd be competing with themselves, as would EA.

I think you're right. With Dragon Age being held over to the holiday season I don't see them competing with themselves. And to an extent ME is a sure thing, so it is less of a risk to launch in the off season.

Vector wrote:

I have an interesting problem. I own Mass Effect and Fallout 3 on the PC but my laptop kicked the bucket and my new one can't run them. At the same time I was given a 360 for Christmas. Now I can either re-purchase the games for the 360 or wait until I get a new PC. I have no idea when I'll be able to get a proper gaming desktop. I'm also flat broke. What should I do?

It depends what stage you are at with the games and when it is likely you will get a new PC. If you've played the games enough to put them on the back burner and the prospect of a new PC isn't too far off I'd probably wait. If you really want to play them and can find them cheap I'd get one or both of them on the 360.

I have a set up at home where I do work on my Mac and play games, almost exclusively, on the 360. It means I play all the games I want to and I don't feel any pressure to upgrade my Mac in order to play the latest games (not that the latest games actually come out on the Mac :P.) It means I can delay the purchase of a new computer for as long as I want.

Obviously the PC versions are considered to be the better versions (and I'm sure that is right) but I think their 360 counterparts are excellent. I've played the hell out of both games on the console (I've played through Mass Effect 5 times and have over 200 hrs play time logged on Fallout 3 :)) and I never once felt I'd be having more fun if I was playing on a PC.

I was forced into this way of doing things because of the dearth of Mac games (I don't want to get into emulation) but I do find it is better for my gaming to have it based downstairs and better for my work to have gaming disassociated from my Mac. It isn't the optimal set up if you are into mods or certain multiplayer games but I thought I'd mention it so you could see that it was a viable option.

pneuman wrote:

2010 sounds good as a release date, though -- hopefully it'll be fairly early on. RPGs are perfect for that post-holiday lull, and in fact I didn't play Mass Effect until March-April '08, despite picking it up in December '07.

I totally agree. This is not the kind of title people pick up as a holiday gift, so I think it's good to keep it out of competing for the limited dollars at that time of year.

Vector wrote:

I have an interesting problem. I own Mass Effect and Fallout 3 on the PC but my laptop kicked the bucket and my new one can't run them. At the same time I was given a 360 for Christmas. Now I can either re-purchase the games for the 360 or wait until I get a new PC. I have no idea when I'll be able to get a proper gaming desktop. I'm also flat broke. What should I do?

Play something else. Since you're broke, go splurge on some cheap 360 games.

Oh, and if you played ME on the pc, I wouldn't recommend it on the 360 just because of annoying interface issues they "fixed" in the pc version. As far as F3 is concerned, well, there isn't that much of a difference outside of antialiasing/resolution and mods.

Well I guess I'm not marketed to buy this by Bioware,(completed the first one and the add etc) for my year of birth is not available. Guess I've finally been marketed out games due to age. Oh well, moving on...

garion333 wrote:
Vector wrote:

I have an interesting problem. I own Mass Effect and Fallout 3 on the PC but my laptop kicked the bucket and my new one can't run them. At the same time I was given a 360 for Christmas. Now I can either re-purchase the games for the 360 or wait until I get a new PC. I have no idea when I'll be able to get a proper gaming desktop. I'm also flat broke. What should I do?

Play something else. Since you're broke, go splurge on some cheap 360 games.

Oh, and if you played ME on the pc, I wouldn't recommend it on the 360 just because of annoying interface issues they "fixed" in the pc version. As far as F3 is concerned, well, there isn't that much of a difference outside of antialiasing/resolution and mods.

This is what I'm thinking. Currently playing Drakensang on my laptop because I refuse to believe it can barely run games. I'll wait until I have some disposable income. Maybe repurchase Mass Effect and play through so I can go through Mass Effect 2 with the same character.

[quote=Vector]

garion333 wrote:
Vector wrote:

words

This is what I'm thinking. Currently playing Drakensang on my laptop because I refuse to believe it can barely run games. I'll wait until I have some disposable income. Maybe repurchase Mass Effect and play through so I can go through Mass Effect 2 with the same character.

So, you aren't expecting to have a pc that can play ME by 2010? By all means get the 360 version then, but keep in mind time is on your side, so watch out for fire sales where you can get it for $10 or something. Cheap Ass Gamer is your friend.

garion333 wrote:
Vector wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Vector wrote:

words

This is what I'm thinking. Currently playing Drakensang on my laptop because I refuse to believe it can barely run games. I'll wait until I have some disposable income. Maybe repurchase Mass Effect and play through so I can go through Mass Effect 2 with the same character.

So, you aren't expecting to have a pc that can play ME by 2010? By all means get the 360 version then, but keep in mind time is on your side, so watch out for fire sales where you can get it for $10 or something. Cheap Ass Gamer is your friend. ;)

Does Cheap Ass Gamer ship to Canada? No I don't expect to own a new PC by 2010. Life of a student for a long time and I get work sporadically.

Haha, no, Cheap Ass Gamer is just a site that links to the best deals.

Bioware at the GDC has leaked a bit more about Mass Effect 2. One of the big things they are saying is that it will be "more of a shooter" than the original and less of an RPG.

Now I know some people will be happy with this but I, for one, am not. I'll admit, a lot of that is because I suck at shooters. I'm older than Rabbit, people; I don't have the reflexes of a Red-Bull fueled 19 year old anymore. I had lots of trouble with parts of Half-Life 2 (for example) even on the easiest setting.

With a shooter how well I do depends on the skill and reflexes of me, the player. With an RPG, how well I do depends on the skill and reflexes of my character.

Why does everything have to be a shooter these days?

tanstaafl wrote:

Bioware at the GDC has leaked a bit more about Mass Effect 2. One of the big things they are saying is that it will be "more of a shooter" than the original and less of an RPG.

Now I know some people will be happy with this but I, for one, am not. I'll admit, a lot of that is because I suck at shooters.

Right there with ya. Hopefully if they mean this literally (your personal aim having more effect than invisible dice in the background) they stick this on the Soldier classes and the Adept/Engineering classes offer an alternative playstyle.

Perhaps they just mean as far as "tone," with more emphasis on combat (but with unchanged mechanics) and less on conversations. Although I don't know if that would make me any happier. I don't feel like they need to significantly innovate as far as gameplay; I'd prefer they just concentrate on cleaning up the shortcomings of the first game. (Load times, unexplored planet variety, inventory management...)

I completely agree that I don't want them to focus on more on tweaking the shooting aspect of gameplay but would like them to just fix what were seen as the shortcomings of the original game. Also I would like to be able to play the different characters besides just Sheppard (like in KoTOR).

tanstaafl wrote:

Bioware at the GDC has leaked a bit more about Mass Effect 2. One of the big things they are saying is that it will be "more of a shooter" than the original and less of an RPG.

Now I know some people will be happy with this but I, for one, am not. I'll admit, a lot of that is because I suck at shooters. I'm older than Rabbit, people; I don't have the reflexes of a Red-Bull fueled 19 year old anymore. I had lots of trouble with parts of Half-Life 2 (for example) even on the easiest setting.

With a shooter how well I do depends on the skill and reflexes of me, the player. With an RPG, how well I do depends on the skill and reflexes of my character.

Why does everything have to be a shooter these days?

I'm not really happy about that but I think that is more to do with market reality. Shooters are this generations game and since Mass Effect is a console franchise, they need to meet that market first.

Combat wise I was very happy with the set up in the first Mass Effect. I had a great time combining powers and shooting and being able to pause the action to consider my next move. As you say beeporama, they may just mean shooting will be manual aim and everything else stays the same.

As others have said I hope they fix elements in the game that were weak, or not fully realised, and don't alter things that worked well. We'll see.

beeporama wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

Bioware at the GDC has leaked a bit more about Mass Effect 2. One of the big things they are saying is that it will be "more of a shooter" than the original and less of an RPG.

Now I know some people will be happy with this but I, for one, am not. I'll admit, a lot of that is because I suck at shooters.

Right there with ya. Hopefully if they mean this literally (your personal aim having more effect than invisible dice in the background) they stick this on the Soldier classes and the Adept/Engineering classes offer an alternative playstyle.

Perhaps they just mean as far as "tone," with more emphasis on combat (but with unchanged mechanics) and less on conversations. Although I don't know if that would make me any happier. I don't feel like they need to significantly innovate as far as gameplay; I'd prefer they just concentrate on cleaning up the shortcomings of the first game. (Load times, unexplored planet variety, inventory management...)

Yeah, I don't really see any "Less of an RPG" in that interview. The original Mass Effect was a Shooter/RPG so I don't see anything wrong with tightening up the Shooter aspect since I felt that was the weakest part of the original. I played soldier for my first time through and there was definitely room for improvement.

Yeah, that's the problem isn't it?

People who are good at manual aim are going to be upset with a "shooter" where they can always line up a headshot but miss when their character has low skill. On the other hand, people who are more into the RPG aspect are going to be upset when their character is maxed out in firearms but they're less accurate than Imperial Stormtroopers when they actually try to hit anything.

I've never seen a good compromise that works. Maybe if you had manual targeting as a default but could bring up something like VATS that would switch to character skill instead, but this would probably make the game easier (you could offset low character skill at the beginning by using your own skill but offset difficult fights at the end by using the character's skill).

About the only thing I could see that would really work would be to have an option set at the beginning for "Shooter Mode" vs "RPG Mode" that would control the enemy difficulty progression through the game but I don't know if that would be more effort than the developers would want to expend.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
JohnnyBarnstorm wrote:

(And that Ashley... she so stayed behind.)

I played my female Shepard as a hard-nosed Renegade, except with the other female crew with whom she could let down her guard.

So she left Kaidan behind. And boned Liara. :)

I got sick of Ashley insulting everyone else. Besides, she was pretty religious so she had something to do while waiting for death. Kaidan would just sit there and cry and feel betrayed.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
JohnnyBarnstorm wrote:

(And that Ashley... she so stayed behind.)

I played my female Shepard as a hard-nosed Renegade, except with the other female crew with whom she could let down her guard.

So she left Kaidan behind. And boned Liara. :)

I got sick of Ashley insulting everyone else. Besides, she was pretty religious so she had something to do while waiting for death. Kaidan would just sit there and cry and feel betrayed. :(

Kaiden would just sit around and cry about his tortured past anyway, the big sissy.

Higgledy wrote:

As you say beeporama, they may just mean shooting will be manual aim and everything else stays the same.

If you take the quote literally, that's how I interpret it. They're just pointing out that they're working on the dice-rolling weirdness these RPG-hybrids (like Mass Effect and Fallout 3) currently have. I would be shocked if BioWare wasn't as dialogue-crazy as usual.

That stuff is hard, though, and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. Trying to come up with a shooting mechanic that feels realistic and tactical, like headshots that actually work properly, while still maintaining an RPG levelling system that's meaningful must be like walking on a thin rope between rabid fans with pitchforks. You have people demanding the RPG mechanics be more pronounced and less trigger-happy and less "dumbed down" on one side and people complaining about how awkward and disconnected the action feels compared to their on-screen actions on the other.

Yeah, Kaiden did his share of whining, didn't he?

The thing that bothered me is that on oen playthrough I played as a Sentinel and Kaiden still felt the need to explain to me about biotics and the like. Dude, I've got biotic implants just like you, don't you think I know that? Yeah, I know they needed to explain it to the player, but I always felt his dialog should have been different talking to another biotic.

Going back to the "more of a shooter" concept, I'm still fairly young so I can hold my own with twitch gameplay, but I don't really think Bioware is quite going the route of a TF2/CoD game. They make rpgs. They like rpgs. They've just been tweaking their combat systems with subsequent releases and that's what this will be. You should still have a squad, which means it's still fairly tactical, which removes a lot of the twitch.

That said, if they only thing they did with ME2 was give it more interesting environments, I'd be a happy man.

I'm not too worried about them tightening the shooter aspects of the game either. The one thing that annoyed me about the original was the inventory management (me and everyone else one the planet who played it...). The sidequests were kinda boring, but they didn't bother me too much, given how fantastic the main quest was. If they fix that one (maybe two) thing(s) I'd be more than satisfied.

There were a few issues with the game mechanics that could be tightened up (perhaps with the "tighten up shooting" stuff.) A properly configured soldier + I forget the advanced class could keep Immunity up pretty much 100% of the time, if I recall right. Which was... kind of abusive.