~Di

So, if they blow people up we like, they are terrorists, if they blow people up we don't like, they are freedom fighters? (thats a generic "we" not necessarily expressing my own likes and dislikes. Substitute "like" with "allied with" whatever) No, blowing up subways is pretty much an act of terror, period. I'm just trying to figure out if she really has been indoctrinated to believe that Russia's treatment of Chechens really has no bearing on the fact that Chechens have repeatedly attacked Russian targets, and if she really believes that other countries are the reasons the Chechens are attacking them. At least American kids learn that the reason our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are being attacked is because we invaded their countries and basically attacked them first. Russian kids don't seem to have that cause/effect connection, if our poster is an average Russian kid. Not sure why you felt your comment was an appropriate response to mine... but I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be complimentary.

This time around, I'm not having a romance with anyone so have noticed several extra dialog options I didn't have the first time, when I shamelessly flirted with Jacob the moment I hit the ship. The most hilarious of these new dialogs was with Mordin. After a mission, I was visiting all my crew members, asking how they were doing, if they had time to talk. Mordin says that he's been wanting to talk to me. He takes me aside and with great seriousness comments that he's noticed I spent a lot of time talking to him and although I shouldn't be ashamed of my obvious romantic interest in him (it seems he's hit on a lot by females of various species... apparently Salarians are just too damned sexy, lol), that he simply isn't interested in a human/Salarian coupling. I ended up thanking him for letting me down easy, but damn, I was laughing so hard I could hardly control the mouse! Anyone else get this dialog exchange with Mordin? It was totally unexpected and funnier than hell! Oh, and I officially hate all the Hammerhead missions. I cannot complete the volcano. I watched a YouTube of

It sure is. If this poster's completely skewered view of her own country's history and naive acceptance of every article pointing fingers of fault at every country but their own is indicative of an entire generation of Russian youth, then the world will be in a precarious place when they take over as brain-washed adults.

I'm a Southern Comfort fan! Ummmm....

I'm proud of you Di. I have seen the sun rise on the sandy beaches of Hawaii. I have seen the sun set on the coasts of Honshu. But neither dusk nor dawn compares the sumptuous beauty of the Geth Pulse Rifle. Nb - make sure you use it with maxed out inferno ammo, and you'll never have to ammo switch again. Thank you! *puffs chest* Thing is, I'm playing a Sentinel this time (and loving it!), so I rarely even fire a shot in battle. I can use it, though, because I chose the "assault rifle" perk when I had the chance. Inferno ammo I don't have, though. But I did know all my rifle-loving squaddies could use that bad boy, so I was determined to get it... even though I was so dumb that So getting that gun was sweeeet, even if my Shepard almost never uses it! BTW, Sentinels really rule!

Boobie cards of willing sexual partners (although idiotic and puerile) is NOT the same as the rape and torture of strangers. Of course I don't find games promoting, even rewarding the rape and assault of women to be acceptable. It's not just "adult" entertainment; it's nothing more than pornography. Should animated pornography appealing to those who fantacize about rape and torture be illegal? Probably not, although it wouldn't break my heart if it were. Should it be acceptable? Definitely not. I imagine this game and Japanese hentai in general is probably illegal in a good many countries. Can't say I personally think that manuals depicting the rape and torture of women and children should be allowed in any civilized society, but when you start banning animated "porn", then you've opened the door to banning games/books that depict murder, mayhem, eventually any illegal act. So although I'm disgusted by the kind of mind that would find this game "fun", I'd be leery of that slipperly slope when dealing with animated or drawn material.

I wrote that after doing the first quest, because I thought that was all there was. I now see in my journal that there are other hammerhead quests. Maybe I'll like them better. I don't much like the vehicle, though. It's very twitchy and hard to handle. I miss my mako. The lack of a save feature in these missions is really, really irritating.

OMG. I've just gotten the Geth Pulse Rifle by completing the recruit Tali quest on Hardcore. Utterly brutal. That damned gun better be worth it!

Meh. I just did the new Hammerhead DLC last night. Good thing it was free or I'd be mad as heck. Got nothing out of it but a few XP, some credits, and cramped fingers from mashing two keys for two hours straight. Am I the only one who hated this pointless exercise?

I understand why some folks would be upset by a lack of Zev & Leliana. Don't know about Leliana since I never played a male character, but female characters who romanced Zev and lived to fight another day were told that Zev never left her side from that moment on. 'Twould be pretty jarring to suddenly find him missing after an epilog like that, unless there is a good explanation for his hopefully-temporary absence during the expansion. And no, his tragic death would not be a satifying explanation...

Since I enjoyed W1 overall very much despite the puerile boob cards, I'll probably give W2 a try as well. I'm a bit concerned that it's shorter, but it really depends on how much shorter. I'll wait for player feedback before I buy.

Definitely Deus Ex and Anachronox! Anyone who hasn't played these classics must do so immediately! Anachronox is tons of quirky atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek funness!

Back before Muslims got involved, 'terrorist' meant somebody who sows fear & panic and targets civilians to further a political/ideological agenda. So yeah, he's definitely a terrorist. So what's the difference, in your opinion, between a criminal who sows fear & panic and targets civilians by, say, murdering them serial-killer style and a "terrorist"? Intention. Case closed. This guy was not a terrorist, because his intent was not to cause terror and he had no political agenda. His intent was to destroy the IRS building, because he was mad as hell that he couldn't pay his taxes. I thought this had pretty well been established a month ago. Then someone comes in with the implication that because it happened in the USA, if the guy had been Muslim he would have been called a terrorist and everyone jumps on the bandwagon, nodding. Well, no. He would still be considered a depressed and angry loser who couldn't pay his taxes and was mad as hell at the IRS. As far as that goes, I have no idea what his religion was. It flat doesn't matter. It's a criminal matter. Period.

Back before Muslims got involved, 'terrorist' meant somebody who sows fear & panic and targets civilians to further a political/ideological agenda. So yeah, he's definitely a terrorist. So what's the difference, in your opinion, between a criminal who sows fear & panic and targets civilians by, say, murdering them serial-killer style and a "terrorist"? This incident was a single individual who was mad as hell and committed a criminal act as a huge "**** you" to the tax man. You can call a potato a tomato until hell freezes over, but you still can't make a decent marinara out of spuds.

Truly the universal language! Wearing pants and flipping off a psychopathic hate-monger. I love this woman! I hope she got away before they dragged her off to the place they drag others who dare protest their corrupt regime.

I loved the Mako. I could do wheelies, spin outs, suck air flying off cliffs, all the while yelling "yeeeee-hawwww". Seriously, I thought driving it was a blast. I was stunned at how many folks hated it. ME1 hack games? Truly hate-worthy, not my stoic little Mako.

Lots of interesting theories and comments. Upon reflection, I agree with Grommy's point that the game itself gave little "new" information beyond the . It's frankly surprising that I had as much fun as I did with ME2, given all the WTF moments that made me go, "whoa!" The first of these was when the council pulled the I mean, are they kidding? How many kinds of gallactic stupid are there in this universe anyway? So right away I'm thinking, OMG, it's like ME1 never happened and we're starting from scratch with these jerks. Then we've got Liara's evil twin, which was akin to Alistair's sudden out-of-character tantrum in DA:O... went against everything the character had established during 100 hours of gameplay without the slightest explanation. I don't want to have to write in my head all the reasons why seemingly illogical writing could be rendered logical with enough "what ifs". It's not the player's job to fill in the blanks with their own speculations; it's the writer's job to make sense in the context of the story and characters they have created. Overall, not much of the ME1 story was advanced. The quests themselves really carried this game for me, though. They were interesting, varied and held my attention well. I'm finding combat easier in my second game (for obvious reasons), and I'm really having fun experimenting with various powers and combos. Well worth the money, IMHO, based on gaming fun... but it felt superficial, story-wise. At the end of ME 1 I couldn't wait to be propelled toward the next breath-taking episode of ME2. At the end of ME2, I just kinda felt like... okay, there's going to be an ME3, but I have no idea where it's going and just don't care at the moment. Kind of... meh, story-wise. Quests and characters basically carried this game for me.

Ever since the dreaded MOTB, I've been leery of expansions. I want an expansion that carries on the tone and flavor of the original, not some alien-themed plot whipped out of the ethos and having nothing whatsoever to do with the original. The reviewer seems impressed, but I dunno. For me DA:O was a completed project. Not sure I want to pick up and head out again. Think I'll wait and see what others are saying after they've played for a while.

Garrus?? I never saw any romancy-type dialogue options with Garrus. Not that I really want to, actually. I'm just wondering why the option never came up. I'm actually trying a Sentinel right now. Fun so far, although I've just started, but I think I'm going to enjoy it! I used Zaeed a lot until I got Grunt. He was pretty danged good, IIRC. My favorite was Mordin, actually. That skinny little Salarian and his incinerate were actually deady as sin out there, and not once did he let himself get killed! He's a corker!

It's difficult to do in your first playthrough -- I think you need to import a level 60 character from ME1 to be able to hit 30 first time around. Beating the game unlocks an achievement that increases XP gain by 25%, so it should be easier in subsequent playthroughs. Ah, thanks. I only had level 52 and 53 characters... the only DLC I had was Bring Down the Sky. I noticed the bonus XP gain when I started my next game, so yep, am hoping to make it this time. Think this depends on how many missions you do . IIRC, in order to save the whole crew you can do one, then you gotta go. I only did one. I got Legion, then did his loyalty mission, and off we went. I felt just the opposite. I thought the big reveal was kinda interesting, especially the way Mordin explains it. I'll have to pay more attention next time. For me, the whole thing seemed pretty nuts. Liara's doing some not very nice things, heh. What did you think of her personality change? I thought, "holy crap" I hated her personality change. It's like she got a lobotomy and a morals transplant all at the same time. There seemed absolutely no logical reason for her to go from naive sweetness to ruthless badass in the space of two short years. It was incredibly jarring and befuddling.

Well, I finished my first run with my soldier. Overall I enjoyed the game very much, and was able to save my entire team. It was still a pretty costly victory, considering that I also lost half my crew. I thought I'd saved I got mildly proficient at the combat system, but I must confess I didn't like it much. Running out of bullets in the middle of big battles was not much fun. Yes, I know if I were a better shot I wouldn't run out of ammo so fast. Bite me. The wild, frenetic shoot-and-hunt-ammo, take-cover-or-die thing was mostly just annoying to me, and I don't find constantly dying and reloading to be particularly enjoyable. I really, really hate those long, drawn-out battles that don't allow you to save for the entire mission... such as during the endgame. When I finished the final FINAL battle, I had two bullets left in my entire arsenal. If that thing hadn't dropped then, I'd have had another grueling 45 minute replay ahead of me. If I want to play Call of Duty, I'll buy it, thanks. The story kept my interest for the most part, but I'm still kinda scratching my head at the end. It... didn't make sense to me. The reveal left a bad taste. Again, seemed nonsensical. Took everything learned in ME1 and threw it out the window. And what's with gaining Renagade points just for helping Liara?? Bah. And yes, Jacob was just as dull in bed as I expected him to be. From now on, I'll just leave Kaidan's picture on my desk and forget all the drama-rama. Besides, FemShep sounds like a (cheap, loose woman) when she's seducing the guy. Made me cringe. On the plus side, they did a great job of creating varied, interesting recruitment/loyalty quests... and the N7 sidequests also had some interesting variety, since not all of them involved taking a team and shooting the place up. The two hacking games were a vast improvement over the hair-pulling hacks from ME1. I hated them. I also enjoyed ME2's research and build system. Quite fun, and since I was able to speed-mine planets to pick up the richest stuff, I never ran out of resources. I wish I'd have already finished one run-through when y'all were discussing the endgame. It didn't make much sense to me at the time, and now I can't really recall enough of the conversation to add anything interesting. I just came away confused by the plot twists, and sad to have lost so many of my crew when I thought I'd done everything right. Did anyone actually get a level 30 character? I swear, I did every conceivable quest and only made it to level 28. Overall, a very good game, although I did enjoy the story and characters in ME1 more... the ME1 endgame sequence was by far the most exciting of any game I've ever played. Always made my heart race and want to cheer when Joker takes on Sovereign. Joker is the best part of both games! Love that guy. Time to try a different class...

HA! And people thought FemShep got the shaft in ME1... Ha, not me! Kaidan was sexy and yummy. Thane is morose and creepy, while Jacob, although cute, is dull as dishwater. *yawn*

Hey, I like aliens as much as the next paragon Shepard, but that's just... creepy.

I still don't have Legion yet, but your above comment made me laugh because I remembered the "look" on Tali's "face" when she first came aboard the new Normandy and was told the SR2 had an AI wired into it. I mean, even through the mask you could see her "oh, no you didn't!" glare. Thanks for the info on the infiltrator class. I'm thinking I'll choose either that or sentinel for my next playthrough. By then I might be good enough to stay alive with a "squishier" type.