213374U

"That a hose in your hands or are you happy to see me?"

Yeah, it's not like high-ranking career military personnel ever defect to the enemy for reasons other than hero-worship! Unthinkable! She does mention that she doesn't consider herself to be working for Cerberus, but for Shep. Whatever lies she tells herself, however, are of little consequence - at the end of the day she's serving on a Cerberus boat, wearing a Cerberus uniform and working towards Cerberus' goals. Conversely, take Kaidan/Ashley as examples of "hero-worshippers" that aren't quite so casual about abandoning their military careers and going to work for a supremacist fringe organization. For now, at least. All in all, the retcon they subjected Cerberus to between ME1 and ME2 is pretty awful, and consistency problems like this were bound to arise. Unfortunately, their best isn't very good, at least when it comes to shaping and solving the central, defining aspects of the setting. For one, the Reapers and some of the underlying themes related to them are conceptually fine, but the realization is terrible. *screams in denial*Search your feelings... you know it to be true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ioslNR0WiI Between 1:47 and 1:50. 0_o edit: RE mining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9cdUsHa4qc#t=4m07s Funny how a nearly 20 year old game can have a better gameplay solution for the same design idea...

Imbalanced? I'd say it's retarded. I tried insanity for my second playthrough. Once I realized that every joe shmoe and his dog has shields and/or armor, I switched back to veteran instantly. The rock-paper-scissors scheme is the worst part for me of the revamped combat system... an "option" to have it forced down your throat on every single fight in the game is more drudgery than I can tolerate. Shame, because hardcore and insanity were cool in ME1. Oh well, I'll just have to bear with it for Tali's mission.

Apparently that's a lesson many people missed. But what about the lesson that meddling in a civil war and preventing it from running its course is a bad idea in the long run? In fact, it seems to me that the exact opposite is rule #1 in some sort of "realpolitik for dummies" manual or something, since apparently no civil war is left alone. I can understand the Allies getting involved in the Russian Civil War (they DID have a direct interest)... but Yugoslavia? That's not what he said. I don't know about you, but the Muslims I know aren't happy about seeing Israel's actions. Nor were they thrilled to see Saddam go down. They will always side with the islamic fascists, no matter what, if forced to choose. That doesn't mean they're out to kill me. Boo is right on one thing, and it's that there's no visible Muslim equivalent to Locke et al.

That's actually 5 skills, as the "class" branch doesn't do anything appreciable. That's the reason I didn't include it. But if you want to go that way, ME1 has the "Spectre training" and the class/PRC branches. You can also get a bonus skill in ME1, for extra customization. Good point about the persuasion skills. That's about the only change for ME2 that I like, in this regard.

How do they "win"? Confirmation that Iran has acquired the capability to manufacture nuclear weapons would be the equivalent of a green light to launch airstrikes. You don't assemble a nuclear arsenal overnight, you know. And if you think something like that can be kept secret... Again, you know this how? We aren't accepting magic-8 ball consultations into evidence, fyi. There's more to it than that, apparently. Sending a message to Uncle Joe for one, so think about that. The alternative to the bombs - a naval siege, or even Soviet landings - would have been worse, btw. The Japanese were already facing severe shortages by the time the nukes were used. There simply was no bloodless way out of it, since unconditional surrender wasn't a possibility the Japanese leadership contemplated.

My bad. I was writing that from memory, and I was pretty certain my sentinel had marksman. But that comes from the Bastion/Medic branch. As for the rest, you cannot get to lv 60 in one playthrough, as there simply isn't enough XP to go around. Even at 60, you cannot max everything, as you get 1 point for each level gained from levels 51-60. IIRC, you'd need to be around level 90 for that. And even so, getting to lv 60 is tedious as hell. Getting to level 30 is not too difficult in ME2, if you import a character. Sigh. I already explained how there is a difference between the different levels of a same power in ME1 (I even explicitly mentioned that the minute increases do NOT factor into this and could have been done away with without changing the argument one iota!), giving specific examples and comparing to ME2 progression which makes ZERO difference from a gameplay perspective (lv 1 Adrenaline Burst works exactly the same as lv 3, with only lv 4 offering some difference). But even all of this ignores the fact that there are LESS powers to choose from. Who said anything about "better"? You were specifically discussing variety, and that very concept is based around counting. To put it in terms you would understand, the idea of variety is fundamentally linked to "MOAR" (choices). At this point it's plain that you either don't know what you're talking about (must be that barrier language thing, heh), or are just "playing the devil's advocate" (read: trolling). Find a dictionary if you need further clarification, I'm done with this idiocy. Yes, probably. But, eh... how is the possibility that they will expand the talent trees and add new talents an excuse for limiting choice in this game? Just make it so you CANNOT progress past level 30, only with more stuff to choose from. That ensures that you won't be able to max everything, leaving room for progress in ME3 and the result is the same... only you have allowed for actual customization! EDIT: That's what I'm saying. I did like ME2 better overall.

Then you are simply not thinking hard enough. In ME1, a Sentinel has: Pistol talent branch Throw -> 3 different major levels, giving you the ability to knock around even Armatures when maxed Barrier Decryption -> again, 3 different levels allowing you to open containers of various difficulties First Aid And can unlock: Lift - same as with Throw, max lift allows you to lift Armatures and Primes, making it worth it to max out Stasis Electronics - same as with Decryption Medicine - for Neural Shock You can combine different proficiencies in those in any number of ways, and get a "prestige class" for added variety. Whereas in ME2, a Sentinel gets: Throw Warp Tech Armor Overload Cryo Blast Without dramatic differences between levels, except for the lame "evolutions". Refer to jags' coffee analogy, about those. ME1 could have done without the granular progression without making much of a difference, but that's not the point. There are less possible combinations in ME2, if you can count. But hey, it's always fun to argue against mathematical facts, right?

... that.

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. Fortunately they compensated by making it so I can't change ammunition for ten seconds after I use the bullet time power. Um, yeah. BRILLIANT thinking!

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?

Oh, wow. "You assure us"? And how, pray tell, did you come across this piece of knowledge? Are you Ahmadinejad's therapist? Does Khamenei call you regularly to ask for advice on geopolitical matters? The problem with autocracies is that there's only one way of knowing how far they're willing to go about their propaganda. And by then it's too late.

A proper left-wing design philosophy can and should provide every player with "enough" health and ammunition to face whatever challenges the game throws at them. If you find yourselves facing a lack of either, it's due to the much discussed shortcomings of bourgeois, materialistic approaches that focus on how much the player can hoard, encouraging unequal distribution! Open your eyes and embrace the revolution!

But AP isn't supposed to be a "pure" shooter anyway, so bringing up HL for comparison isn't such a good idea. FPS combat = reflexes, coordination, practice "Action" RPG combat = problem solving Different focus, different mechanics.

It's obviously a clear case of the writers not having the faintest idea of how to resolve a plot item. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the whole freaking story arc revolves around it. They did the same with Cerberus. In ME1 you're clearly told that Cerberus is an Alliance black ops outfit gone rogue. Retconned for effect in 2. Oh well. BTW, anyone played Star Control 3? How do you get her to do it? I never saw the option... You need to invite her to your quarters for... eh, dinner. Yeah, that's the ticket. After that, she offers to take care of your fish.

Which helps keep alive the fantasy that the US would be willing to act as they did back in '50. If the PRC doesn't invade it's because they don't stand to gain too much. They have enough in their plate as it is.

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... Kaidan/Ashley would have worked much better as a DLC than this. Clumsy. On a related note, characters don't even seem to account for hard vacuum. No, a plastic breather won't protect you from that. Not even a Cerberus plastic breather. How hard would it have been to put them in hardsuits for those missions? They even had the models from ME1!

Yo RPGmasterboo, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but please use spoiler tags.

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.

Well, and when somebody tries and assumes the role, they either a) fail miserably (hello, UN troops) or b) raise hell and get everybody else howling about self-appointed "world policemen" ****ing with their interests. Fortunately, you can trust that superpowers will always work to protect their interests. There's a certain sense of predictability and security in that. Yeah, we'd have to wait until they invaded Finland, annexed the Baltics and remilitarized the Rhineland before the people actually started realizing that autocracies are only deterred by overwhelming force...

IIRC, the one you earn for beating the game gives you +25% XP. Maybe it's not the only one? There wasn't a point to begin with, apparently. It seems that, originally, the system was a hybrid of ME1 and what they ended up implementing. Apparently, heat absorption packs actually absorbed heat instead of working as ammo packs, so you could wait for the gun to cool down and let the thingamajig do its thing. If you went John Woo and just kept firing, the thing would be overloaded and you'd have to eject it and "reload". Makes more sense that way, I think. Wonder why they went with plain ammunition in the end. edit: also, YO!

Facepalming in reaction to your advances?