Volourn

"keep in mind that your party AI = Deekin from NWN. So you'll have to end up micromanaging their powers anyway..." Huh? They use their powers all the time. In fact, they can pratically win most fights by themselves with me hiding in a corner. L0L

"Don't make that assumption about Jack before you find out more about her past..." I know enough to know that she is one of the most emoist characters ever. She should just cut herself, and get it over with. I should have allowed her to die in that prison (if you are able to). Miranda may be a biatch but at least she iemo. Plus, she's super hot so that takes the sting off.

"I find it weird none of these people already have a relationship." At least two of them did... P.S. Plus, some of these characters are too weird to be in any kind of relationship outside of the sxual physical kind. Seriosuly, can you see 'JACK' in a relationship? The doctor? Etc., etc.

Firefly: Just starting to watch my box set of this that I bought many moons ago. Much better than I gave it credit for. Fillion, and the rest of the actors did a darn good job. That said, it does seem to heavily 'borrow' from other places largely ST most noteably with the borg like ship and the 'reapers' or whatever they are. Still, very nice fun.

"could someone give any feedback about the squad AI?" Here's my most effective strategy for ME2 combat: Let the AI take the lead. They seems to last a lot longer than me. They can stand basically in the open for minutes without dying; but if I show myself for more than a few seconds, reload time. L0L "I find your lack of consistency disturbing." I find I'm not. I was quoting somebody else who thinks combat is 'much improved'. It isn't.

"Hold your horses people, the definitive review is yet to come. That would be mine. " Already know what your review will read like. L0L

From what I gather, you can do what you want. I went to Omega as suggested then to Citedal.; but I guess it is up to you. p.s. I must say I really love how you travel on the galaxy map now. Fun 'flying' the little spaceship. Heh.

"ME2 is still far beyond Jade Empire's RPG system" Nope. Not even close.

"Mass Effect 2 is far superior to Mass Effect in regards to gameplay, story-telling, and squadmates." Nah. Game play is worse. Seriously, mission areas are closed off? Come on. The only place you are allowed on the Citedal area where the humans have their base is the office. It's early, but that's pathetic. Combat is weird. You want to know my strategy for combat? Let me allies take the brunt of it while I hide in a corner as they kick butt and can stand in the open while laughing. I stand out in the open, I die in seconds. So, basically I can either pop up kill one eneny and hide if not die. My allies just stand there and laugh. Medi gel is only useful for raising unconcious companions. Is omnigel even in the game? It be nice to at least have a way - even if costs money - to bypass it though I do like the idea of these mini games then ME1's. More logical. ME's inventory may have been poorly done but ME2's way is worse and also jarring changing mid series like that. People complaion about the poorness of the inventory does not mean get rid of it. That's dumb. The two dialogue talents are basically solely paragon or renegade making it less skill wise. At least ME1, you had to conciously improve your dialogue skills (thoguh most did); but at least the choice was there. Haven't done any side mission planets yet so i cna't talk about those. I do like the new xp system. Characters are overall better done but their dialogue on missions or walking around is dumb how they set up. You click on somehting and they talk and the game even tells you who will be talking. ie. Garrus will comment if you click on the doors out of the Citedal bay. That's silly. If he's gonna comment he should do so right away. L A M E Otherwise, characters are soldly done but not exactly wow. Still early, but I do like them all though Miranda is asking for her throat to be cut. And, I'm playing a paragon. Heh. My biggest problem with ME2 is it has HUGE potential to be best agme ever but dumb decisions ruin it. Omega is an example of this. Omega is a great setting but it's mightly hampered by the 'mission set up'. I know I'm being hevaily negative here but most of the positive stuff are spoily outside of the fact that Nrmandy 2.0 is sweet. "So blowing through it, around 22 hours or so. I can take a look at my final save when I get home." Wow. I've just done Omega, and arrived on Citedal and am at around 8 hours at level 5 (starting level 2). "ok MAN that opening was fracking AWESOME! <3 " Yes, yes it is. "Pros: - Combat is much improved." Nope. "- Pace. It's good, and varies a bit. As a whole it feels a lot more like KOTOR than ME, and that's good. " Nah. More like ME1. And, that's a good thing as KOITOR is vastly overrated and it's insult to compare ME2 to that wannabe space game. Then again, KOTOR and ME2 do share one thing in common - they love to dumb down what comes before them. LOL "Characters are all pretty well done," Absolutely agreed. "My playing time for almost total completion of ME was barely above 20 hours." Yet, it took you 160 hours to beat BG2 which is a game that should be done under 100 hours. And, it took me 40 hours to finish ME1. L0LZ Anyways, ME2 is a very good game but it has flaws, and thanks to the weaker combat it may have a hard time being better than ME1.

No, he answered his own. He wrote at the start of his post :"I really don't get why everybody gets their panties in a bunch over sports hall of fame selections" It may not have any actual ? at the end but he's obviously asking.

"i dont think of mass effect as an rpg, i never have. its a shooter with stats and dialogue" It's an Action RPG with shooter elements. Sadly, ME2 is really pushing the lmits, though. Still, more rpg than shooter. Anyways, played ME2 until Im got full control of the ship. From what looks at the post above, I got screwed, as my Shep was level 48 and I got stuck as a level 2. Anyways, some quick non spoiler stuff... - graphis, music, sound, and voice overs are as awesome as ever - the open sequence is fantastic - the stat/talent is very streamlined - lack of inventory - even the crappy ME1 version - is very crap - the new Normandy is absolutely fantastically done. Upgrade indeed. - i love the way you navigate space.. very cute the way you actually move your spaceship - the characters are nice... miranda is the biggest bitch ever lol she makes ashley or Morrigan seem like child's play - i overall dislike the new mini games. It's not that their horirble - in fact, I find them creative and more challenging than the old ones - but god, they're annoying.. really wish you could use omni gel to pass them - if you can i haven't figured out how

"Then why are you arguing?" Why did you state the obvious? "Yeah, it's fun" You answered your own question.

"Ever try explaining THAC0 to one of the un-initiated?" yes, and they elarned it pretty quickly. Thaco, is not a difficult concept to grasp. OMGZ The number goes down. Like golf. Like subtraction. OMG The horror! Sorry, I don't get where this cocnept that thaco is so some ubscure, complicated thing to master. In fact, the only time I ever hear that nonsense from is hardcore interent d&d nerds. Certainly, not anyone in the real world. Even random people who played D&D once learn it rather quick. The only thing that makes D&D or other games 'complicated' to learn is the sheer AMOUNT of rules to absorb. P.S. I gotz mez tha gamez!

Yeah, but you stated the obvious. I *know* that longevity is not easy in the NFL which is why I mentioned it as the thing he truly needs to qualify for HOF 'cause his statsa re more than enough as is - espicially the last 4 seasons - and, now with a SB appearance in his pocket - win or looss he gots what he needs. On top ofm that, depsite the huge sloppiness for both teams in the game on Sunday, Brees is the one guy who played well throughout.

"two 20 hours average games" ME1 was nearly 40 hours. Unless you are a speed gamer. Which is cool.

Oh, give it up.

"Why are you so hung up on the football ad? It's not like they spent all their money on that." Why are you? That's what prompted your spam about the awesome perfection of advterising when nobody was disputing that. L0L

"If you put enough experts on something the chance that they will all make a mistake will be pretty low. And this was actually about ME2 selling more than ME. As for why we're discussing this, Boo, I'm arguing against Volo's ridiculous claims that completely ignore reality." Talking about facts and ignoring reality? Who cvlaimed that ME2 wouldn't sell more than ME1? I surely didn't. Are you on crack, and reading things that aren't there? This wasn't about advterising never working, it's about a specific advterisment not having the desired effect. You know.. *gasp* advertisers are not always perfect. Nothing has been shown that the footballtv advertisment will have a significant impact on ME2's sales to make then money spent worthwhile. However, others have pointed out different things that will likely lead ME2 to selling more than ME1. Tsk, tsk. You seem to be arguing against something I was never arguing. L0LZ

Touche.

Who claimed advertising didn't work? I certainly didn't. I know how advertising works, and yes, it can be effective. But, it isn't always so. I'm basing my assumptions ion my opinion. JUST LIKE YOU. Your opinion is that advertising 'experts' NEVER make mistakes, are always correct in how to approach marketing something, and they always had a billion more sales to every thiung they hype. This is blatantely false. If what you thoguht is true many projects of all different stuff that were hyped/advertised big time would NOT have bombed. If advertising 'experts' are perfect as you seem to claim they are, why does this occur? L0LZ

"I think EA is still turning a profit, actually. Can anyone explain all this stuff?" I did with this: It's (supposedly) common knowledge that EA - like most major game publishers - tend to rely on a handful ofm huge sellers. For EA, this is Madden and The Sims to make their money. "And if they didn't market those games they would sell less, which is why they do." Proof please. Also, we're not talking about just any advertsiing but a specific one of two lame football games. That particiualr type of advertising is not gonna make much of a difference to ME2's sales. I seriously doubt more than a handful of people watching them saw that commerical and went 'OMFG I GOTZ TO BUY ME2 THAT GAME ROX MY SOX MUST BUY MUST BUY MUST BUY MUST BUY 8slobber* slobber* Forget football, ME2 is where it is at! OOOOOOO YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

"If they got things wrong so often they would either be unemployed or the company would be under by now." How many games did EA release last year? How many were successful? How many had subpar sales/ How many outright bombed? It's (supposedly) common knowledge that EA - like most major game publishers - tend tor ely on a handful ofm huge sellers. For EA, this is Madden and The Sims to make their money. Just ask Bethsoft. Sure, they release FO3 which sells millions. But, they release other games that are literally DEAD ON ARRIVAL! Just ask the devs of their ST game.

"I'm going to guess at least 1.5x more than ME. It seems ME sold somewhere around 2.5 million on the PC and 360, which is good, but not all that great for a AAA game." It's perfect for a BIO game, and I bet it sold more than 2.5 copies. It solid I believe 1.7 copies for the 360 alone in the first 2 months or less. You cna't expect every game - even so called AAA games (which BIO isn't though they wish they were) - to sell Mario or Madden numbers. "Also nice to know that our Volo is smarter than a whole department of professionals. If marketing had little to no effect on sales, you'd think that they might want to keep the money." Yup. Are these the same 'whole department of professionals' who often get things wrong? L0LZ "Same as the first one, or a little more." Boo wins.

So, how many sales will ME2 have then?

What's this thread trying to prove? The difference between the two countries is minimal at best. Seriously, is there some major thing I'm missing that being ranked 8th instead of 7th is some sort of major sin? WOW.