Raithe

You can also get any of the bonus skills during the game through the research console. And you can get all of them together. Yes, but you have to do the research and pay the element zero in-game. I was meaning that they've also set it up like the bonus skill you could unlock in the first game.

Hm, and I'd have felt more oomph about being interested in the Achievements if they actually gave in-game benefits again.. Although I think if you get the loyalty achievements it opens up the "bonus skills" and you get to choose one from the beginning of any new game.

Nothing is as good as the original Shepard as Miranda explained. But think how many clones/robots you could get for all the money he spent on Shepard! And I'm not really seeing the "Shepard as a symbol" thing. Yeah, but he's meant to be a symbol to the Humans.. and you don't really encounter that many "average citizen human"

Yeah, he couldn't even pay for the needed resources so I had to scan all those xxxx planets.. Well he had already spent over 4 Billion on Shep.. and thats not including what he spent on building the new Normandy... Maybe he's now on short cash reserves for the moment..

Given any Modesitt sci-fi a try yet?

That and when you get about 1 recruitment mission into the game.. you've got access to better research that makes the N7 armor work better then the dlc. So it's not like you'll want to wear the other stuff for more then the first mission.

There were a fair few nice visuals, and the score was damn good. Sure, some of the storyline was some ripped and streamlined from myths.. but hell, how many rpgs haven't been ripped and streamlined from myths from somewhere? Sure it was surprisingly short, and there were flaws in the combat. But it was playable, it had some interesting moments. And the main bad guy did have a fair chunk of magnificent bastard about him.

Just keep playing. Not possible to miss it. Don't bet on it. Your talking to the guy who went 20 hours before realizing the Normandy had an observation deck. Unlike all the other recruitment missions, it's impossible not to do the one where Legion turns up. It's storyline specific if you want to actually move forward in the game.

The one trouble I see... is that I'm now tempted to replay ME1 specifically to try to see what different combintions will result in changes to ME2 when I replay that... dang it. I foresee much of a social life disapearing over the near future... Although what are the odds someones going to figure out an editor to ME save files to handle that at some point in the next couple of months..

Ninja Assassin - so so. The shaky cam was annoying during the action sequences.. especially with the amount of shadows and light flashing off weapons.. But some impressive blood spurts and amusing de-limbing.

It's got some good tunes on it and some of the grand pieces are there.. but some of the sweeping epic orchestral pieces seem to be missing. At least the ones they used for the launch trailer and such..

Depending on what team you were using, mixing in biotics/tech powers like warp and overload to take down shields and armor was nice. There were times it worked better then just shooting at them to take them down. But when you utilise the powers in the right combat it was a breeze to knock those things down. I mean, the first time you run into a Harbringer manifestation , he was a bit of a pain. But that final sequence he was barely lasting 40 seconds or so each time he manifested with the right use of powers.

The stripped down is that they've removed the ability to select skills to improve weapon aim. Certain skills do provide bonuses to weapon damage... All aiming is now twitch-based. If you don't aim right (with whatever controller you enjoy) you'll miss. No "point in the general direction and hold down trigger" times. The changes in cover mechanics is a little better, although the multipurpose control is annoying. Sometimes you jump over cover, sometimes you mean to run and end up diving into cover (on the wrong side of it) all because of that multipurpose button. The enemy AI is muchly improved.. (although whether you can classify that as a strictly combat mechanic is point-of-view). It's much more streamlined, but I think it comes down to personal perception of whether removing skill "bonuses" to hit counts as dumbing down or not.

I installed Dreamfall once.. and my computer died and one of the sli cards in it blew up.. so I seem to have a psychological block against re-installing it.

Hah. 44 nearly 45 hours of gameplay and I've finished my first run through. Went on Veteran and imported my 60th level Vanguard from the first... And dang it.. I lost Mordin. And only Mordin. Now I'm going to have to figure out why the hell he died...

How about we shelve the piracy and concentrate on the other things.. Aka, Do you really want all games you buy from now on to end up using the same type of system where you have to be online to play it. Even if you just want to play a single-player game.. If you have a crappy net connection (which a lot of people still do) , if something happens (like I suffered recently) and you end up with no phone-lines or internet for a week because of weather damage...

The rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan was rather award-worthy..

Hm, and I seem to have had a small glitch in the whole carry over saved games... Conrad Verner turned up and played out as if I'd used the Renegade option on him in my ME1 saved game.. which I hadn't... Since I reran ME1 about 3 weeks ago in a fairly paragon way to have my level 60 Shep all ready to go.. my memory wasn't that bad . Everything else I've encountered has been spot on.. so now I'm pondering if something glitched that .. And damn, I was so tempted to choose the "Shoot him in the foot" option.. I'm probably going to have to reload just to try that one out...

Hm, after getting into the Archangel recruitment phase.. I have to say in many ways I like the refined combat.. but right now I am getting really annoyed with the all purpose key. I keep telling Shep to run so I can get out of fire and around some cover.... and then he jumps into cover rather then run past it.... and of course.. he's on the wrong frikkin side of the cover.. .. not just once.. he does it every frikkin time.. It's... annoying.

My shiny CE edition just arrived in the post.. and yeah, the store fudged and didn't provide the pre-order code for the Inferno Armor.. Ah well. Just in the process of downloading the Zaeed , Normandy Crash Site, Collector's Armor, and Blood Dragon Armor.. so I guess I can't really complain But it's still that little annoyance factor that someone screwed up.

Hah. Well I'm a firm believer in practicality. If it kills them, I don't care if it's a bullet, a biotic neck snap, or just some tech explosion. If it works, use it. It's all about being able to put the boot in. Now that's manly.

Offline mode always works and you can always launch your games. The problem is getting into it. It'll often try to update Steam for 5 minutes before it gives you the offline mode option, but it IS there, even if you try to turn that mode on with no net on a fresh boot. Hm, I just spent 4 days with the phone lines down.. (and thus, all internet access dead) and I couldn't run any of the steam games installed. Even trying to put it in offline mode they wouldn't run.. so.. mayhaps there's something weird there...

The non-Gizka site released a working version about ..mid october last year I think it was. They've subsequently released about 3 patches for it as well.

Good, they only use a SecuROM-less CD-check and a CD-key. Unless you want the DLC stuff.. (obviously) then it's the whole sign onto Biowares "community" site, type in the correct pass codes, and then when you run the game you get the log in options and it downloads it all.. but then you don't have to dl some other software ala steam or games for windows live doohickey to handle it. It's all purely internet browser.

This does seem a very "kick the dog" approach to it. Well, I can't really say this will stop me getting their games since none of their upcoming releases was likely to interest me anyhow. As long as it doesn't catch on with other companies.