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While that's certainly a possibility, I doubt it'll get that bleak. A more likely scenario may involve subscriptions giving you access to a pool of games, with extra fees (lower than the present €50, with luck) to get access to new, AAA titles with high production values. Other than the obvious "you need to be online to be allowed to EXIST"-bull****, I don't think I'd be too bothered by such an arrangement. I mean, I've been getting a gazillion hours worth of good (and not so good) entertainment from videogames. If you compare the dollar/hour ratio for videogames with other media and the costs associated, it's pretty cheap and I don't think publishers would be overstepping their bounds to change that. And hopefully continued funding would mean better support in the form of patches for games.

- "Do you smoke, Denton? Don't. That stuff will kill you. I knew this kid..."

I could understand if they used the FRM crap to rule out reverse-engineering and replication of the bonus weapon. But it would make sense to allow it to be used by someone else if Shepard for whatever reasons doesn't want to use it, no? And the FRM excuse simply doesn't fly when they are building weapons from scratch by virtue of NPC research. But you are right, Bio really went overboard in limiting the combat ability of JNPCs. Maybe during testing they found that without gimping them fights were over before the player knew what was going on? I can confirm that Jack is a beast with the Claymore + Warp ammo...

So, smoking is cool again? Heh, somebody said we'd be seeing that as a reaction to the anti-smoking craze we're having lately, in the nth-hand smoke thread. As for JC (Paul? whatever), just one word: poser. Here's how it's done:

Yeah, the Vindicator is a must-have. If not as much for the PC, as Grom said, for squaddies that use ARs. Garrus and Zaeed can make do with the Avenger as they have a sniper rifle for stand-off fights, but Grunt and Samara can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn at a distance. Funny that squaddies don't share that uncanny aiming with the rest of the NPCs controlled by the computer. Also, it's pretty stupid that only the NPC that researches weapon X is allowed to use it, and "bonus" weapons are in turn restricted to Shepard. Good thing that the coalesced.ini is there to help you around that and the fact that Zaeed doesn't have any research projects of his own.

No, I don't think I did. Garrus was screaming at me that everything was so urgent that I didn't even slow down to grab medi-gel. I figured I could loot the place after I secured the location... and scour for ammo, since by the end of the battle nearly every one of my weapons was totally out. Wrong. *sigh* It's a learning curve. For me, a big one! Since the game is divided into missions, it's advisable to create a new save before starting the next one. That way you can repeat the mission if you need to, for any reason, without losing too much of your progress. And missing the Vindicator is something I would repeat the mission over. Unless you have the Collector's Edition, there's only two other choices, one of which you already have and the other one requires you to play a certain mission in Hardcore difficulty. In Garrus' mission you can loot the place at your leisure between waves, when Garrus says "come talk to me" over the radio, btw.

Sure. Try playing on a different difficulty level, the game plays differently. Leave an engineer alone on hardcore, his drone will make you stagger out of cover - you die. Usually enemies with heavy weapons are more of a priority than the ones with pistols, unshielded foes take priority over protected targets, etc. And boss fights require custom tactics, too. It's really, really childish to come bragging that you can master the game in an hour, if you play on Casual. 1. Roll a Vanguard2. Choose "Insanity" 3. ??? 4. PROFIT!!! You see, the thing is I have posted evidence that contradicts your (and Volly's) nonsense that the only way to play is hiding behind cover. All you have posted in return is... *waaah waah my mad CS skillz are no good in a different game waah waaah* Err... I thought this should be obvious, but apparently I'm wrong. CS is a multiplayer game. Multiplayer games are, by their very nature, much more competitive and replayable. Learning curves have nothing to do with this - you can learn how to play CS in ten minutes. Refining your skills is only necessary and fun because there is a point in doing so, as it's a multiplayer game. A better comparison would be between HL and ME2. But then again, there's no need to land a 3-round burst headshot there, as the penalty for failing is merely a reload, and there's no reason to log the staggering number of hours required for that anyway. Come think of it, why the hell am I doing your comparisons for you? Go on, establish a comparison between ME2 and The Sims, for greater dramatic effect (and hilarity). I'm now going to quote and examine your arguments piecemeal. Brace for impact! Not quite. You are invulnerable from a certain reduced angle only. I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. But on the other hand, you have biotics and tech powers that work pretty much like grenades and can hit targets behind cover. Wrong again. Try Charge. Or Tactical Cloak. Or Combat Drone. Seriously, have you played this game, or are you just going by some review? You need to aim just enough to hit their head. How much more do you want? AFAIK, hitting the eyes doesn't deal extra damage in CS. And again, there isn't much need for extreme precision aiming in HL, or even in CS if you play against n00bs. You'd need to play the game a bit more to get the answer to that question. And, you know, try something that doesn't involve your fool-proof strategy of having fights drag on and on as you hide behind cover for your shield to replenish - I can see how that would be boring. LOL, I ignored UT because it's even more of a generic shooter than CS - there's virtually no difference between UT deathmatches and their Q3A and JK2 equivalents. You just run and gun, learning the maps by memory, camping at good spots, spawn-fragging and rocket-whoring your way to the top of the list. "Master" one and you have mastered them all; mechanics remain exactly the same, and only guns and maps change. Just up your mouse sensitivity to the top, remap the "jump" key, and you're good to go.

"Laughable" how? In CS you need pinpoint accuracy, reflexes and most importantly map foreknowledge. In ME2, precision is nice to have, but knowing when to take cover and who to target is more important. It's a different game with a different focus - if I started making comparisons with Jedi Academy gameplay, how much sense would it make? It's funny that you say that, after you went on about how awesome you are at CS, possibly the most one-dimensional multiplayer shooter ever. CS is fun and addictive because it's multiplayer. Ever try playing with bots? The main reasons why ME2 combat fails when compared to GoW (other examples welcome) are simplistic map design and a dismal AI. Basically it has two routines: (a) stay behind cover and take precision potshots at the player, regardless of whether the target is visible, and (b) advance towards the player, shooting along the way, ignoring all other considerations including obstacles/cover, map hazards and party members. It's really mind-****ing-boggling to activate tactical cloak, change places, decloak behind a door or cover only to see all enemies make use of their spider-sense to turn towards you and start pumping your cover full of bullets. And then there's squadmates only finding out they were being shot when they fall unconscious, and to make things even more absurd, they deal only about ~60% of the player's damage. Yeah, we can't have squaddies doing all of Shepard's work. And in spite of all of the above, it's still fun to play. Imagine if they got serious about making a shooter.

Unless you guys are suggesting that Bioware invented the epic poem, I'm not exactly sure where you're coming from, or how their sticking to a common but broad set of well known elements is a bad idea - rather, it's their execution of some of those elements that is sometimes lacking. I sure as hell wouldn't want a RPG about groceries shopping and doing the laundry.

No ****, Sherlock. Obviously, after years of paying insane taxes, you are left without the resources to face such an eventuality. You expect the state to cover your butt - which unsurprisingly, it can't do in your example. It did... And i have accumulated enough resources to have own big flat, own car, and i have no mortgage (or how it is called) and not a single EUR of debt Can you say that of yourself Mr.NoWelfareHealthcare And it still make me happy that when **** hits the fan, all the money i payed to our welfare medical care can save my ass in a hospital when i get an heart attack and the i get heart surgery worth of 100.000+ EUR and i do not pay a single dime... Uh... what exactly are you trying to prove? That your Euro tax regime is responsible for your privileged financial situation? You first said that if you had had to receive medical attention in a non-EU country, you'd be so broke your only option would be suicide. But now you say that's actually not the case - this negates your original point, or is simply a non sequitur. You need to either stop rambling, stop making stuff up to push your point, or a combination of both. And no, I don't have a flat. I don't need one, as I spend most of my time cruising around in my 100m yacht.

And yet, I'm seriously considering following Volo's advice and taking shotgun training for my Infiltrator...

Oh, yeah. Definitely! Throw Field - hit one key: encounter is over. It only makes sense that you consider this "overthinking it", and then complain about how "dumbed down" the game is.

No ****, Sherlock. Obviously, after years of paying insane taxes, you are left without the resources to face such an eventuality. You expect the state to cover your butt - which unsurprisingly, it can't do in your example.

You have the wrong powers and/or squadmates. If on Veteran or below, take Throw Field or someone who has it, problem solved. You can spam this so fast it's ridiculous. You can also substitute or combine that with squad Cryo ammo, too, for amazing CC results. Even Concussive Blast will make a mess on a bunch of unprotected husks. If on Hardcore or above, the flammable or inflammable (forget which) area thing will make short work of the armor of whole groups, that can then be quickly and efficiently dispatched with the methods discussed above. ME2 gameplay is, in general, a disappointment. I don't have a problem with enemies being protected - and protections thus negating the win-button that biotics are. Just try it; you can edit the coalesced.ini to disable both cooldowns and protections blocking biotics. The result: the game becomes trivial because, otherwise, the only thing preventing you from cutting a swath through the painfully simple, short and repetitive design of most levels is the sheer volume of fire being rained down on you. The crux is that, quite simply, Bioware isn't very good at putting shooters together, RPG or not. Their grating proclivity to cheat heavily and blatantly to compensate for their shortcomings in AI programming doesn't help, either. Most depressing of all is that, despite all of that, 2 is still better than 1... maybe third time's a charm?

The one that Deadly_Nightshade linked. Go check the date if you want to. I know. That was in response to MC's silly (and uninformed) remark.

How is it?

The patch came out five days ago. That's a copy of the patch for people with pirated copies of the game. This particular patch has been out for over a month.

There's no making everyone happy, ever. I'm thinking that, regarding the casualties thing, both sides have merit. A so-called "suicide mission" makes no sense if in the end, everyone gets to go home, and indeed, that makes the whole journey feel a bit cheap. But then again, whoever said it was suicide didn't really know what the mission was going to be about. And then there's the C&C thing. If, despite your best efforts, you fail to save everyone, then the result isn't much different from what you would get if you half-assed your duties as a leader - thus killing the C&C component that gets some folks so hot and bothered. Personally, I think the way they did it is the best way: let the player choose. It's not difficult to game the system into killing the one NPC you want to die (not so) heroically, but the possibility to get everyone home alive is still there. Sure, it involves a fair bit of metagaming, but no system is perfect. The bottom line is that most people like their stories to end with the big goddamned hero riding into the sunset, so it stands to reason that Bio would appeal to that. But for those that like a bit more drama (or who simply hate being stuck with a NPC they hate), a path also exists. Just because you can save everyone, it doesn't mean you HAVE to. Oh, wait. There's that achievement thing...

It's actually even better as Joe KNEW about the nukes before they were dropped. Dislodging the Soviets from the Japanese Islands, however, would have proven tricky. It also seems to be wholly ineffective as far as breaking the enemy's ability or will to keep fighting goes.

In fact, NSDAP got only a little over 40% of all votes in the 1933 Reichstag election. If Hitler got where he did it was because of the other politicians' weakness and lack of resistance to intimidation - not to mention the post-WWI socioeconomic circumstances that allowed the rise in popularity of both Communists and Nazis. Details, details. Keep using the "I'm Jewish" schtick as a disclaimer for your willful ignorance, that's a great way to get people to respect Jews.

Not really. As I said, Paragon Shep only has compunctions with killing when the victim is unarmed or otherwise helpless. This is not the case here, for the reasons I stated earlier.

The flick that showed us the dangers of Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. Never forget!

That, if true, would indeed solve everything. I'm not remembering anything of the sort, however. Hahaha. I suppose the easy way out would be just leaving the whole thing well enough alone.

Concerning Legion's loyalty mission: I can't solve this dilemma.