Nepenthe

You can unlock every special power of your squadmates as soon as you get their loyalty. At least I could. And on my first playthrough, too. I had like 6 or 7 powers in the end, IIRC. True you don't see them from the start but if you make any upgrades at all (which is true for most players I guess) you will see them. regardless, your initial list is more than a bit misleading. loyalty missions come After recruitment, and some npcs is not even initial recruit-able. HA! Good Fun! But the theory at least is that with the different way bonus powers are set up, there's going to be relatively significant variations between characters, say Sentinels in this case. I'm also far from certain that all end-game characters are going to have the same weapons training. Or every other sentinel went with assault rifle training and squad AP ammo, like I did. To reiterate, I'm not calling ME2 the pinnacle of customisation, I'm saying that when you compare a lvl 60, or even ~55 ME1 character and a lvl 30 ME2 character, the differences between builds will be similarly minimal.

There's also the red facial glow, which makes it less of a leap. Looks like I'll have a good chance of staying totally unspoiled if the Beth forums are going to be the main source of information.

It was pretty painful how an elite soldier is not able to hop over a 3 ft/1 m gap in the floor. But at least it's much better than the Normandy crash site. I still haven't found all dog tags after returning to that place 5 times.

I must have missed this explanation. I believe I have only seen you refer to it as a given. If I am mistaken in this regard, I apologise. I didn't read the earlier part of this thread very carefully, as I've been away. But we apparently have different concepts of trolling. I always considered it to be making personal attacks, not defending the less popular viewpoint - and I'm not really even "arguing" here, I just don't think that things are as clear-cut as some people make it out to be. My point still is, in this case, that the "variety" Mass Effect 1 had in greater amounts, was largely cosmetic - whether actually cosmetic, more different colored weapons, or getting a second more of duration to your warp on 9 out of 12 green dots. As an aside, I especially like the fact that putting four ranks in a skill is no longer the same as putting a rank in four skills.

I got the same vibe.

Haven't we already gone over this before mkreku? Mods are not paid employees. This is not his profession. He does not need to kiss up to members of the forums or play nicey nice with everyone. He is not breaking any forum guidelines by criticizing you, so get over it. As an aside, that's why it's a really good idea to have an external team of moderators. I've been moderating the official forum of a band for years with the understanding that it's my "job" to be the prick so they don't have to be.

Mathematics can't tell me which one is better, it can just tell me which one is "MOAR". ME1 throw has 3 different levels with a lot of filler, ME2 throw has 4 different levels, with the 4th level branching into two different options. The boosts you get at every level in ME2 are like the ones ME1 has as "new" versions of the power - not the minor percentage boosts to partial effects in between. Again, just because there's more little boxes for you to tick (indeed, a mathematical fact), does not necessarily mean = better. Just like level 60 isn't automatically more than level 30.

Hitting the language and cultural barrier here, I guess. The downside of English being my third language. He meant you either spent 12 points in a skill or spent 6 to unlock another and learned that. I'm totally failing to see the relevance or the difference. You spend two points to unlock a new skill or four to max it. Ok, maybe not totally, but I'm still not accepting the more boxes with more granular upgrades equals deeper character development argument. The elite commando not hitting an outhouse while standing inside it argument has been done to death since Deus Ex, and would make even less sense when you've progressed from elite commando (N7) to first human spectre and saviour of the galaxy. Btw. I am partially playing the devil's advocate here, but it stems more from not having a preference between the two systems than from thinking that the new one is better. I do like the choice evolve gives me, but I'm totally indifferent to the guns. Ok, maybe not, since the new system prevents me from "maxing" the weapon skills to a ludicrous degree and removes Marksman, among other things.

Hitting the language and cultural barrier here, I guess. The downside of English being my third language.

Frankly, this looks like an afterthought. In ME2 you get to choose between getting -50% health damage during bullet time or +70% time dilation (50% normal). In ME1 you got to choose between speccing in a power or getting a NEW one. Qualitative jump, there. ... What?

Nah. Real top of the line gear like Savant X tools weren't common at all unless you were level 50+ which forced you to choose which of your squaddies was going to use it - same with HMW. But to a point that's a secondary issue, and stems from the new game+ feature. Less different talents to specialize in means less character customization. Silliness notwithstanding, that's less player choice. In my first ME2 playthrough, I maxed 4 out of the 7 talents available, with some points invested in others (not that there is much of a difference between maxed out and regular in most). In a ME1 first playthrough you couldn't come even close to that proportion. That may not be "dumbing down", but I don't know what it is. And whatever happened to bringing tech guys along to do tech stuff? Fair enough. I can't remember not having a Savant VII at least, but I must have been new game+ing too much towards the end. And I mean end, I can't see myself going back to it in a while. I hadn't thought about the tech specialists. Mostly because the minigames beat the ME1 QTEs (yes, x360 version) hands down. While I see your point about less options resulting in less choice, I don't think it really worked that way in practice with ME1. I guess that my point is that while there are significant theoretical differences, in practice I'm not really noticing them that much. Maybe I'm just the target audience of this "dumbing down", the old guy with limited time for gaming (but limitless time to spew bs on forums when work isn't... working)

I kinda agree with you. I tried playing it a few months ago, and I just couldn't care enough to last more than 15 minutes (I'd like to point out that this is not a common problem to me ). Probably also because I have the xbox version, and it does look pretty hideous emulated & blasted onto a 40" screen.

That's kind of the issue I had. Unless I'm completely confused in this matter as well ( ), you basically get both NPCs with AI hacking so late in the game, they are practically useless by the time. The YMIRs are in overabundance in the early stages of the game. Looks like there are a lot of rewards for playing Infiltrator And I still think that the reasons for (some of) the changes were something else than "dumbing down for consoles" - if for no other reason, than the fact that ME1 was originally a console exclusive. I'm still not seeing the lack of variety, which was mostly cosmetic and not really a choice unless you wanted to handicap yourself by not using HMW+Savant+Colossus/Predator L/M/H, as a bad thing. And I don't think that the leveling up system is "dumber" either - just because the bumps are bigger (4 vs... 12, right?), it doesn't mean it's dumber, right? I think I actually had to think a lot more about the way I assigned my points than I ever did in ME1... The way gear works does reek of "saving" stuff for DLC, though, especially when it comes to the ludicrously small selection of armor and civilian clothes - even if with the cosmetic customisation you can basically get more variety in looks than you could in ME1. *shrug*, I don't really have a strong opinion on the matter, it's just a game I enjoy, but the "dumbing down" argument gets tossed around IMHO way too easily, and especially in this case. I'm sure "simplification" was one of the guiding lights in the design, but I don't think it was the only one.

I'm never thankful for having the obvious stated for me. I found the encounter with the YMIR mech+Blue Suns infantry quite challenging, as the Suns were flanking me while the YMIR was going for a full frontal. Kind of illustrates why tanks work best with infantry in a beautiful practical way. But then again, what can I expect from a guy who can't disagree on something as trivial as a game without going all junior high.

What tactics? Hiding behind a conveniently placed crate, letting Miranda spam overload/warp & pulling out the sniper rifle/missile launcher once the enemy's defenses are down is the win at all times. Yeahyeah, thank you for these insights.

I've heard that the only way to hit level 30 on your first run is to import a level 60 character from ME1. You get an extra 25 % experience for completing the game (and all subsequent playthroughs), if you have a lot of N7 missions left over you can probably hit 30 even with a lower level import by playing "after completion". Or just get it the second time around. I thought they were just perfect after the endless tunnels of DAO. On an unrelated note, I got my bottom really handed to me several times during Jack's recruitment mission. Going to be interesting if my fine-tuned tactics work better now that I'm playing on insanity.

Why would that be the case? The Witcher gets blasted a lot on these boards for its failings and stupidities, even by people like myself who think that overall it is a fine game. I must have missed all that blasting then. Me too.

Unless they've really gone off the deep end, I'm pretty sure the reason's the same as for why the king and Alistair look pretty similar. Hint: it's not recycling art assets. Still, interest level - plummeting

HA! Good Fun! Yeah, the second team leader does make a difference I think. The consensus seems to be that because you fill up less colored dots during level-ups and you improve your gear via customising existing gear as opposed to going from Spectre Master Gear VII to Spectre Master Gear X makes the game less of an RPG. I'm having trouble adapting to this - and none of the table-top RPGers I know are disagreeing with me. Wonder if its a CRPGer thing.

Probably going to be a MMORPG I ****ing well hope not... MMOPOSes are... well... POSes... I got that impression from your nick/sig. For the record, I agree. I went through that page during the text era of the 90s. I wouldn't touch a MMORPG with a 10' pole.

The least they could have done, was giving him a different voice. Really, with the technological prowess Cerberus seems to possess, they could've simply scraped some DNA off the surface of whichever planet Shepard crash-landed on, and built an army of mind-controlled Shepard clones. Instead of rebuilding just one lowly person that gets killed in 10 seconds when standing out in the open, like everyone else. Who says they didn't?

Dunno about the first, don't think so - yes to the second.

Yes. One of the games I try to replay every 1-2 years, along with Deus Ex. Different motivations, though.

I dunno, overall the score felt a bit more subdued to me during gameplay. Maybe the "epic" stuff is just forgettable (unlike the ME1 main title!) and the more driving synth combat tracks have been eliminated - much to my chagrin. Picked up the score, will listen to it today.