Nightshape

Then you're easy to please. It really is at best average in the GFX department. Certainly nothing special going off.

I don't know about that being the reason. Is this just you insinuating your opinions as fact again? *yawn*

The console kids wouldn't stand a chance otherwise with their clunky gamepads. The console version is awful, I haven't looked at the PC version, it may be somewhat better. PS3, I couldn't find a match. XBox 360 I could find a match, but firing the gun was basically point in general direction, squeeze trigger, let auto aim do the rest. Alien is over powered, Marine is underpowered, and the preditor was just clunky and overly complex. Bad controls, bad GFX, the only good thing was the level was laid out kinda cool. I always sort of knew it would be bad, but its worse than I expected.

Who said that Vol? Twice... In as many day am I agree'in with you. Bioware focus on gameplay LIKE ANY OTHER GAMES COMPANY. They just really cook up a story to go with it instead of half baking it like oh, MW2 the quake 3 mod that could.

I would never say for a minute that bioware made a good fighting game with JE. This was the first time bioware attempted something different and stepped outside of their comfort zone. I commend that, regardless of the result. Personally I prefer it, pause and play was fine 10 years ago, when they were attempting to imitate DnD, but in order to flesh out the portfolio and IP's it makes perfect sense to attempt new things. What bioware was clearly trying to bring to the table was RPG elements combined with a fighting game, not many games spring to mind that have attempted this and succeeded. Even obsidian are moving outside of their traditional comfort zone. Just because you like pause and play, doesn't mean that the sales figures indicate that its worth the investment. It's that simple at the end of the day, it's about business.

I believe JE was a turning point for Bio in many ways. It was the first time they really moved away from pause and click style of stat driven gameplay. It has its flaws, but I do see it as the beginning of a different approach to games. Less focused on PnP and more an attempt to make interactive games, with traditional gameplay elements.

I've seen the heaps in Estonia... ugly things.

*shruggs* who knows why bio does what bio does... But they did fail when it came to Ash. I hate agree'in with you.

Cheap, easy to do, why NOT do it.

It's a quick and easy way to deal with the character without having to DEAL with the character. It sucked that BIO did this, but ya know they can't do everything...

Well, if you are going to bother having stats at all, they should do something. Character building and customization is a part of RPGs, and BIO turned the dial way down for ME2. Everyone has different tastes and all, but at times it felt like I was playing a shooter with RPG elements, not the other way around. (Is that what's supposed to be?) I agree with Grom on the resource thing. I never had resource problems, but that's only because I'm a tad obsessive about this stuff and can't leave any planets unexplored. It's quite clear they're going for the interactive story based shooter market. It's no stat based rpg, and in a way that's refreshing. This does afterall come down to taste... On a completely other unrelated note. ME2 isn't really pushing the XBox to its limits at all... *sigh*.

apologize in advance for being a tad crude, but am gonna admit that the resource acquisition mini-game felt like a big bioware FU to all those folks who complained 'bout the mako. " You thought the mako sucked? Fine, we got rid of the mako you whiny plebes. Are you happy now? If you decide to b!7ch about me 2 ammo or excessive reliance on cover, keep in mind how we "improved" planetary exploration between me 1 and me 2. Ungrateful little..." HA! Good Fun! ps am not honestly suggesting that me 2 resource acquisition were a result o' biowarian vindictiveness... but it felt that way as we slowly mapped a dozen or so planets looking for iridium and platinum. /Facepalm. Resource stuff is purely about having something to do during down time, it's exploration based, slow paced gaming. I actually enjoied it, it broke up the action and story and made me feel like I was preparing for a purpose. If I ever got bored of collecting resource's I'd just go do a quest, or seek out a side quest etc... ME2 is now a very entertaining shooter as well as having role play and exploration elements. Then again I suppose most folk think we should let the stats do all the killing *yawn*.

Its all personal opinion. Taking what I say as being some kinda customer - producer interaction is way outta line. I'm saying how I feel about the situation based on what I know, and have experienced. These are my personal opinions and noway represent any other entities opinion. This was clearly stated. If I can't continue to post without being percieved as a mouthpiece I will have to stop posting all togeather.

Legion was a shock. I didn't expect a NPC from that faction at all. Genuinely enjoied that whole experience.

This is all personal opinion. If I came into your house, sat at your table, ate your food, took a dump in your toilet, slept in your bed and then dressed myself in your clothes, would I be doing anything wrong? I imagine all the people who took offense to my commenting that piracy is theft really wouldn't mind, afterall, they won't have locks on their doors! So yes, I'm definately going to help myself to a beer! Seriously, I'm old enough and grizzled enough to realise that there are only 2 kinds of people in the world the DRM bothers, cheapskate unemployed dole monkey pirates ( you can swap this out for student if you'd like, it's interchangeable), and paranoid computer geeks who genuinely believe the world should be running linux and don't understand why we're all left using windows, because teh command line is awesome boys. I'm willing the bet that most of those who are doing the whining about DRM are one or the other. The average user genuinely doesn't care, hasn't been affected by, or even remotely noticed that DRM exists. More often than not, it doesn't cause a problem at all. The funny thing is, when Codemasters release OFP:DR (regardless of what you think of the game) it had no CD key, it had no DRM past a CD check, there was an uproar because people instantly feared, hackers, and cracked users coming and spoiling the online experience. Fact is you can't win, someone somewhere is going to get upset about it because that's what internet people do. I can see a downloadable future, where everything is kind of like steam, even on consoles, except you won't have an offline mode! You'll have to connect to a server in the bowels of the company offices be that EA, or Ubisoft to even begin to see the loading screen, in effect all games single player will require a connection for authentication. Or worse, all games will be streamed via video using services like OnLive. Piracy and second hand sales have driven the industry in this direction. I'll be honest, I don't see how the industry is likely to continue to grow if they don't. To put this in a way people may understand easily, you see what Bethesda did with Fallout 3? Where they pissed off a hardcore group of fan's knowing they'd secure a larger fanbase regardless? Yeah, DRM haters, you're like those guys from NMA, and RPG codex, nobody is listening, because they don't have to. Do you really think that in a few years time when Infinity Ward is releasing their next Quake 3 mod, that if such DRM was in place it would effect sales dramatically enough to ensure that it wouldn't make ANY money. Come on now?

Did anyone notice Tali saying "Go for the optics!", cracked me up.

I clocked up 37 hours on my first play through, imported my first character from ME a level 37 Infiltrator. I tend to do alot less exploring on my first play through as I am mostly concerned with the main plot threads. That said, I didn't loose a single character, I don't know WHY I didn't loose a single character as all the options seemed pretty straight forwards. Started a second play through, with my next character from ME 1, I still have another in the bag for after that.

I expected a better response, how wrong I have been.

Well if you ever wondered how bad game development can be.... This blog kinda spells it out

I love the way the supposed law abiding citizen complain about DRM. You wanna blame anyone blame the damn thieving pirates. PIRACY IS THEFT! I don't know what kinda jobs you folks out there are working, but if I went into a shop and stole something I'd be a thief, if I didn't pay for a service, the same again. If people were honest they wouldn't need DRM, and we all know that will never happen. SO GET OVER YOURSELF!

Phew. It's terrible, but I didn't want to say that if it was some sort of therapy you were going through. Oh for the dude who's doing it, it is therapy LOL. It's not supposed to be good art, it's just short snippets of real life events. On another note, couple of my buddy's have set up shop : http://www.wonderlandsoftware.com/

Nope, I can't draw, and I've not worked at those studio's. It's a friend of mine from work, I thought I'd share it.

Games dev stories from the front lines, all troo! http://baldmunkiememoirs.blogspot.com/

I like bagged milk.

Krezack is correct.