mr insomniac

Grey Wardens will recruit people who are good at what they do, not necessarily people who can be trusted. Daveth was a common pickpocket and I believe Duncan says they've taken criminals before. If you play as a Dwarf commoner then by all accounts you are barely recognizable as a person in dwarven society. You just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Whatever Loghain's motivations were, he was recognized across the land as very good military man, someone who could lead armies. He proved quite clearly that he can't be trusted.

That's one thing about ME2, many of the weapons/upgrades/etc are found rather than purchased. One thing to watch for during combat that may not be blatantly obvious; when your squadmates jump out of cover and come back to you it's generally safe to come out yourself and wander around and loot stuff. If they stay in cover then there are still bad guys around or another wave on the way. EDIT: @ I want teh kotor 3: thanks as well. I'll try that too.

Closing those shutter doors is a pain. I just went through that mission again this afternoon. Nice tip, Enoch, for pointing out that overload makes those flamethrower dudes explode. I did not know that. ~Di, I hope you picked up the vindicator assault rifle off Garrus' couch. It's much more accurate and deadly than the default assault rifle.

Don't really see how ME2 can be compared to shooters anyway. Yes ME2 is a little more combat-centric than ME, but I don't think anyone anywhere ever claimed it is a shooter. So comparisons to games that are shooters are irrelevant. ME2 is an RPG and, apart from the combat, there are some decent role-playing elements. And one thing to keep in mind is that Shepard and the gang are wandering around the Terminus systems now. C-Sec and the Alliance aren't present, aren't respected, aren't even welcomed there. Aria says it herself when Shepard tries to toot his own horn a little bit, "Omega doesn't care about you." Life is survival of the fittest, and you get tested on that alot, heh. I hope that anyone who finds the combat frustrating/boring/un-fun - has the patience enough to get through it and to get to Horizon and the different loyalty missions, and learning about the collectors, the geth, the quarians and the krogan. Lots more combat to follow, yeah, but you learn as you go and come up with tactics that work for you, and get to the interesting character development and choices to make as well.

I dunno, first time I play a game, I prefer the PC VO to be there. After playing a game once or twice I tend to spacebar through the majority of the dialogue anyway. Depends on who's talking. If the resources can be better spent elsewhere, then go for that instead.

~Di: I enjoy the infiltrator quite a bit. You'll notice when you line up a shot with the sniper rifle, time slows down allowing you to get more precise shots. Using the tactical cloak ability will allow you to run from one cover to another without being spotted; think stealth in a D&D game. And as you put ranks into the tactical cloak, you'll gain the ability to attack while cloaked too. As a trade off changing from soldier, you lose the adrenaline rush talent, the concussion blast, and incendiary ammo, and the assault rifle. The rifle is the only thing I really missed.

"Hide and snipe or die" pretty much describes my first time through the game. Second game the bullet-time ability for an infiltrator turned that into "Hide and Snipe and YOU die." Picking your targets with a sniper rifle, even with bullet time, sucks when you're getting flanked though.

Thanks for all the husk-killing tips everyone. Much appreciated. I've just played a soldier/infiltrator in my games so far, and shooting everything in sight is what i'd been doing. I've also tended to take along squadmates who do the same thing, like grunt and zaeed. Tali's little tech drone dealie seemed to help a fair bit to keep the husks distracted 'til i could shoot them. I'm thinking it may be time to play a sentinel and try out some different tactics, like those mentioned above.

Infiltrators are fun too. Tactical shield + Storm Speed helps quite a bit when you want to change cover, and sniping is very fun. I tried to play an adept, but yeah at early levels the power cooldown times make it no fun at all. Scions will hit you with a shockwave, and I dunno what the hell the harbinger-controlled collectors hit you with but it'll knock you back a step or two even if you are undercover... or maybe i'm just not lucky. Oh and i'd like to take this opportunity to say i really &%^ing hate husks in ME2. grumble grumble stupid flanking grumble dammit

Shepard's Shield/Barrier/health bars should appear in an arc over the crew portraits when you begin taking damage (i believe). Shield bar is blue. Barrier bar, if you have biotics, is purple. Health bar is red. Health bar is also hidden underneath the other two bars until those two are completely gone. Then you begin losing health. One thing about ME2, it doesn't take long for that to happen. Also when your health is declining you'll beging to hear a heartbeat sound, and red veins/arteries will begin to close over your field-of-view, from the edges to the center as you lose health. Best way to keep from dying is to get back behind cover. Your shields and health will regenerate after a few seconds. By 'heat management' are you referring to weapon cooldowns, like in ME? If so, that doesn't exist anymore. EDIT: Deraldin is a faster typer than I am, heh.

Case in point. Having ammo as a powah is just ridiculous. Even more so when all powah cooldown times are shared. As for why Bio decided to dumb this down from the modular intra-weapon customization system that worked so well in ME1, is beyond me. @ ~Di: One ammo type is supposed to automatically replace another when you choose it, or at least that's how it has worked so far in my games. I wouldn't say it's something you haven't figured out yet, it's just not supposed to happen. Dang, I've got the 1.01 patch installed too, why can't I get a bug like that? @jaguars: IIRC you couldn't change ammo types in ME during combat. That could be one reason why they changed it for ME2. I could be wrong though, once I acquired the polonium ammo I stayed with that through the whole game.

Sten was awesome. The way he comes around from the viewpoint of "You are a grey warden??" when you first meet him, to saying something like, at the end of the game, that, out of respect he won't lead the qu'nari against you in battle... it was very cool. Part of that was getting his sword back for him, because the whole time, as you went from place to place tracking it down, he believed that since a qu'n wouldn't bother, you wouldn't either. You showed him different and he respected that. He was far from a cardboard cutout character.

You're kidding me right? ME2 was all about urgency. And not only especially near the end. From building a team to stop the mass abductions, to chasing the of Horizon, to snatch and grabbing the IFF. That's pretty damn urgent. And as for the suicide mission, well, that's one of the most awesome and exigent rpgs quests of all time. The only time the sense of urgency is ruined is when you can put off retrieving the IFF for as long as you want, in order to finish up the loyalty missions and basically roam around the galaxy at your leisure. ME was no different, with being able to put off going to Ilos as long as you wanted as well. What's funny about that is Saren still only ended up there just ahead of you. Yes, but urgency should not be confused with linearity. Being able to "put off going to X as long as you wanted" until mission/quest Y is a crucial component in open-ended rpgs. Otherwise you're having your cake and eating it too. So many times players bitch about the game being more straightforward than Mr. Rogers wardrobe, and they yearn for open-ended freedom as George Costanza yearns for Marisa Tomei. Yet, when you give them that freedom they bitch about the lack of urgency. The compromise is or course to go the FO1 route and impose a penalty to the dilly-dallying of your exploration. Take too long to send water back to the vault? Your vault thirsts to death. Take too long to deal with the mutant threat? Villages get razed. ME2 incorporated the failure system to an extent, and for that they should get credit. If you took too long to rescue the crew, they got liquefied. Seems like a fair consequence to a fair choice to me. I agree with this. If Bio is gonna give you the chance to save your squad during the suicide mission, they have to give you the chance to meet all the requirements they put in place -- loyalty missions, upgrades, etc. As you pointed out in your previous post, the sense of urgency is there through building the team, going to Horizon, during the suicide mission, and even after you retrieve the IFF. It just seemed a bit jarring that you could go back and forth across the galaxy as often as you liked. Maybe they could have placed another "you must go here now" quest or two in the middle of that. That's definitely right on the money my sleepless friend. But why stop there? Bio should have (read: should in ME3) have used the Gromnir approach of paying-the-price/earning-the-reward-of-sacrifice during the suicide mission. That is, you shouldn't have been able to procure a perfect result/outcome with minimal causalities. In other words, say you want to snatch some valuable tech that would benefit the entire galaxy in the fight against the reapers. This should have been possible...but only if you're willing to sacrifice Tali/Legion to go fetch it. Or say you can safely get the crew back to the ship...only if someone is willing to bite the dust for the team. Or better yet (as Grom said) how about forcing a Kaiden/Ashely-esque choice between saving your own ass vs saving yours henchies. I think if that was the case, we'd be seeing a hell of a lot more dead Sheps floating around in space. As it stands, there really isn't any incentive to have your henchies die, let alone yourself. It's almost Nintendo-hard to kill off your own Shep during the suicide mission. You really have to work for it. So naturally, no one does, especially when there's no incentive to do so. Yeah that's an even better idea. I confess I didnt read Gromnir's posts where he mentioned sacrifice/reward, but a big deal is made throughout the game about how tough the final mission is gonna be. At some point Shep or one of the squad -- maybe Garrus? -- says something to the effect of, "we're going to lose some people, there's no way around that." That should happen no matter how well prepared you are. First time I played ME and I got to the consequences of the Virmire choice, I felt a little bit of 'well dammit!' when it was all done. In ME2, as long as you do everything you can to prepare, and pay attention to what everyone's strengths are, you're not going to get a 'well dammit!' moment. And that's the bad thing about the 'retrieve the IFF' intermission -- you have the chance to prepare. Thane makes no secret of the fact that he's dying. I think it would have been cool if he'd sacrificed himself at some point during the final mission, maybe to take a bullet for Shep, or hold off a group of collectors a la Dak'kon being overwhelmed by shadows in the Fortress of Regrets. Samara is another one ripe for a noble sacrifice. I gotta say that if it comes down to Tali vs Legion, as much as I like Legion and what is revelaed about the Geth through him... well, Tali is not going anywhere, heh.

You're kidding me right? ME2 was all about urgency. And not only especially near the end. From building a team to stop the mass abductions, to chasing the of Horizon, to snatch and grabbing the IFF. That's pretty damn urgent. And as for the suicide mission, well, that's one of the most awesome and exigent rpgs quests of all time. The only time the sense of urgency is ruined is when you can put off retrieving the IFF for as long as you want, in order to finish up the loyalty missions and basically roam around the galaxy at your leisure. ME was no different, with being able to put off going to Ilos as long as you wanted as well. What's funny about that is Saren still only ended up there just ahead of you. Yes, but urgency should not be confused with linearity. Being able to "put off going to X as long as you wanted" until mission/quest Y is a crucial component in open-ended rpgs. Otherwise you're having your cake and eating it too. So many times players bitch about the game being more straightforward than Mr. Rogers wardrobe, and they yearn for open-ended freedom as George Costanza yearns for Marisa Tomei. Yet, when you give them that freedom they bitch about the lack of urgency. The compromise is or course to go the FO1 route and impose a penalty to the dilly-dallying of your exploration. Take too long to send water back to the vault? Your vault thirsts to death. Take too long to deal with the mutant threat? Villages get razed. ME2 incorporated the failure system to an extent, and for that they should get credit. If you took too long to rescue the crew, they got liquefied. Seems like a fair consequence to a fair choice to me. I agree with this. If Bio is gonna give you the chance to save your squad during the suicide mission, they have to give you the chance to meet all the requirements they put in place -- loyalty missions, upgrades, etc. As you pointed out in your previous post, the sense of urgency is there through building the team, going to Horizon, during the suicide mission, and even after you retrieve the IFF. It just seemed a bit jarring that you could go back and forth across the galaxy as often as you liked. Maybe they could have placed another "you must go here now" quest or two in the middle of that.

You're kidding me right? ME2 was all about urgency. And not only especially near the end. From building a team to stop the mass abductions, to chasing the of Horizon, to snatch and grabbing the IFF. That's pretty damn urgent. And as for the suicide mission, well, that's one of the most awesome and exigent rpgs quests of all time. The only time the sense of urgency is ruined is when you can put off retrieving the IFF for as long as you want, in order to finish up the loyalty missions and basically roam around the galaxy at your leisure. ME was no different, with being able to put off going to Ilos as long as you wanted as well. What's funny about that is Saren still only ended up there just ahead of you.

According to imdb.com he plays the voice of a character named

I knew amazon.ca's release date of April 1st was just some kind of sick joke. Great news. Summer is gonna be sweet.

Said it yourself. Her warm greeting when you first meet her on Ilium pretty much confirms she still cares alot about you.

This. I set the squad power-usage in ME to defense only just to stop this from happening all the time.

After seeing how Liara's character evolved in ME2, I'm glad I imported an Ashley romance savegame. I get the feeling Tali will never know what hit her if Liara plays the 'woman scorned' bit.

The M98 Widow sniper rifle. Should be called widowmaker. I always call it that myself.

Your lack of Leliana love is disturbing. Leliana's fractured personality scares me. Elitist. Too bad you went into the DA experience already disliking it for not being able to topple BG2 from the pedestal you've put that game on. Kept you from enjoying the game for what it was, which was a pretty fun fantasy-based CRPG. Ah well, like you said, you didn't buy it. Indeed, thank you. I wouldn't know if it was going to be able to top it, until I tried it did I? It was advertised as a dark and gritty spiritual successor to BG, yadayadayada, so blame it on Bioware's marketing. If they said it was going to be Neverwinter Nights 3 I'd have been lenient. Oh it was fun! Apart from the unavoidable and frustrating parts, which amounted to about a third of the game overall - thereby making certain that I'd never replay it again. Its a good game. But its not for me, in the same way NWN2 wasn't for me. I dunno, I read through some of your posts as you were playing the game, and you had already beaten DA with the 'bg2 is awesome' stick before you even got through the origin part of the story. Maybe I missed something, I'm certainly not gonna go back and dig for quotes. But if i am misrepresenting you, I apologize. let me just say that your summary findings aren't much of a surprise.

Okay, yep, Wrex and Garrus, not much of a stretch for them to become what they are in ME2. Liara? Two years to an asari isn't going from early twenties to hitting the thirties. It's going from twenty to twenty and a half. I dunno, maybe all the stuff they went through in ME changed Liara's viewpoint on the galaxy. Maybe Shepard finding out more about the Protheans in a few weeks than she could in fifty years jaded her a bit... but to go from the bookworm with no social skills whatsoever (by her own admission), to badass killer bitch with knowledge of everything that's happening on Ilium -- not to mention taking on the shadowbroker in a more blatant way than anyone else dared to do -- in just two years? Nah.... but then maybe I just didn't like her anymore, heh.

Alot can happen in two years to change people. Look at the rest of Shepard's crew. Liara's an extreme example; she underwent a personality rewrite. But Alenko/Williams basically say !^#$ you Shepard. Garrus became a vigilante, Wrex became a politician. Tali's the only who pretty much remained true to character. Udina's an opportunist, probably paid the shadow broker to find anything on Shepard that could be found. When it happened, he gave the shadowbroker some money and said, make shepard go away. If Udina's on the council then he's killing Shepard to get rid of the last genuine threat to expose what really happened during the 'geth attack' on the citadel.

cha-ching! what did he say? cha-ching! cha-ching! uh, something about how much longer we can continue to make our games. cha-ching! cha-ching! cha-ching! Ah, that's what i thought he said. cha-ching! ,etc. Your lack of Leliana love is disturbing. Elitist. Too bad you went into the DA experience already disliking it for not being able to topple BG2 from the pedestal you've put that game on. Kept you from enjoying the game for what it was, which was a pretty fun fantasy-based CRPG. Ah well, like you said, you didn't buy it.