Gromnir

dunno. we didn't have all upgrades our first play-through. even so, we were pretty strapped for cash at end of the game... and that is with the big credit bonus we got for importing a level 57 me1 character with the rich achievement. HA! Good Fun!

I thought Tali's actually had a time limit.. or at least if you spent too long doing other missions there was only one possible outcome... if there is a time limit, we didn't notice. we did all other recruitment (save for legion) and most loyalty missions previous to recruiting tali. we also did virtually all the available side-quest stuff and anomalous world assignments... had clocked over 30 hours o' gameplay and were level +20 before we started tali recruitment quest. HA! Good Fun!

vol is a goof. "Notyhing about the doc screams '20 somehting hottie'." you mean other than the youthful body and face? *chuckle* as for not being entertained and failing... HA! is like arguing with a chimp. sure, Gromnir will win such a battle of wits every single time, but we looks damn silly trying to have a serious discussion with a poop-hurling simian. HA! Good Fun!

Ah but the point is special forces groups , while willing to do the odd suicide mission, aren't designed for suicide missions. They're meant to do the mission and get out alive. Remaining capable of performing further missions. Unconventional warfare does not equal suicide missions.. and me2 weren't a true suicide mission neither as is evidenced by fact that it is possible to get out alive with entire crew intact. regardless, special forces groups is full aware that they may, at any time, be called upon to plan and execute what is likely to be a one-way mission. fact that the mission is probable one-way does not somehow diminish the need for sane and dependable squad-mates... it increases the need for such trust. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain about lead writer, but we will admit that mordin were our personal favorite character from me2. am agreeing that much of me2 seeming shortcomings is probable due to fact that bioware is building up to me3... but am still seeing me2 lack of identifiable villain as a mistake. yeah, it would be foolish to go back to the saren well yet again, but with the revelation that the collectors is actual re-purposed we sees a wasted opportunity for a me2 villain. a collector general with some self-awareness of the origins of his race coulda' been interesting on multiple levels, no? dunno. we woulda' done different. me2 and da:o are both examples o' games with climaxes that were somewhat anti-climactic... good games otherwise hobbled by a less than satisfying final battle with a foe that had 0 personality. after killing the archdemon, Gromnir says, "was that it?" had a similar reaction at end of me2. we played me2 for near 40 hours, only to find that nothing really happened in me2... were all just stage setting for me3? *snort* bad cess to those bioware writers who chose to lay foundations for me3 at the expense o' me2 story. is no rule that says a writer cannot set stage and entertain at same time. HA! Good Fun!

ain't nothing wrong with reapers as a villains... but lack of development really hampered me2. a remote and enigmatic Villain is problematic in a crpg precisely because the protagonist must be written to accommodate a range of player styles. you can play shep as renegade or paragon and it not genuine alter Big Picture of me1 or me2 story. no writer of movie scripts or novels would ever seek o write a heroic story wherein the protagonist were vague. nevertheless, bio goes even further by leaving the villain vague? why? at the end o' me1, shep faces a galaxy shaking conflict involving a rogue spectre, a geth fleet and sovereign, the forerunner of the reapers. if you not stop saren and sovereign, the reapers emerge en masse from dark space and all sentient life in the galaxy can pretty much kiss their arses goodbye. by comparison, me2 climax involves a somewhat perplexing confrontation with the collectors and a half-baked human-reaper hybrid. ... harbinger, speaking through the collector general, gave us some insights into the reapers and their plan for humanity. remote and enigmatic menace. ooh... spooky. *shrug* particularly as we had already confronted a reaper in me1, the collector threat didn't seem near as threatening. even worse, the collectors simply existed... no personality or emotion. boring. bio spends sooooo much effort creating drama for the normandy crew but they forgets to create any drama for their me2 villains. is a mistake... a big mistake. is not that the reapers suck... is that they were not developed. HA! Good Fun!

take away hair color and voice and nothing 'bout chakwas would suggest older than 20s. no crow's feet or lines on face to suggest age. no saggy bosom. is visually nothing that suggest age other hair color. as for somebody suggesting that all the burnouts and psychos is typical or reasonable for a suicide mission, am gonna have to disagree. take a look at how special forces units is screened and recruited. stable family men is much preferred as having a life beyond the unit gives those guys something tangible to fight for, and a built-in support group to keeps 'em grounded. psychotic but brilliant v. competent and stable how much you trust the psycho to have your back? build an entire unit o' unstable and untrustworthy? that is indeed a recipe for a suicide mission. drama is important. is understandable that bio chose to populate the new normandy with characters that were to face and overcome serious personal obstacles. such characters is Dramatic characters. drama is better than boring. even so, the number o' crew members who were having to deal with a potential suicide mission AND daddy/family issues or childhood traumas were staggering. Gromnir could recruit solely from ACoA members lists and chances are we wouldn't have been able to put together a more damaged bunch o' future effexor junkies if we tried. HA! Good Fun!

Anything but. Tali's probably the most mentally balanced chick in ME universe. mental balance? tali is number 2. dr. chakwas is, as far as we can tell, one o' the only women shep knows who ain't suffering from trauma, psychosis, hero-worship, or some other unpleasantness. for mass effect 3, Gromnir would prefer to develop a relationship with the doctor... though it not have to be romantic. develop a mature relationship with a supposed older women would be refreshing. ... and for those folks with an unsavory desire to love-up older women, dr. chakwas has benefit of being old only insofar as the voice-actor portrayal and her hair color would suggest. heck, at least wynne from dragon age were given some liver spots and a few lines on her face to imply agedness. if we didn't know she were old, and we turned volume down, we would never guess that the doctor were anything other than a hawt 20-something. we wants more chakwas in me3. me2 were too over-the-top with the character drama-- too many issues. chakwas were the only stable, non-traumatized, non-cerberus operative who we could talk to. refreshing. HA! Good Fun!

which sniper rifle do you use? Gromnir typically brings along the widow for boss killing, but there wouldn't be enough ammo for killing 75% of enemies. played as an infiltrator and we used the heavy pistol most frequent. the smg is nice enough, but this game depends on cover, and we does far more damage with a single heavy pistol headshot than we does spraying a bunch o' smg ammo into a target. peek out from cover to take two shots for a kill is requiring us to be exposed less than does smg. was kinda a no brainer for us when we had choice between assault rifle and the widow sniper rifle as we were building a sniper character, but am betting that we woulda' actual gotten more practical use from choice of assault rifle training. combined with heavy incinerate, the widow sniper makes relative short work of some of the more challenging me2 foes, such as scions, the end boss and those ymir mechs ( a single ymir mech is no problem, but we find that when we is faced with 2-3 in a single encounter they can be... troublesome). nevertheless, is relative few ymir, scions, and bosses. regardless, when we hear that folks is killing a majority o' foes with sniper, we wonders which version o' the weapon they is using: incisor, viper or widow? HA! Good Fun!

yes, and as the planet scanning is optional, it is perfectly acceptable for such a feature to be repetitive, tedious, and uninspired. heck, the loyalty missions is optional too... am surprised the biowarians put any effort into them at all as the status of such material as optional relegates such stuff to relative non-importance. ... 'course vol mighta' been simply talking nonsense... again. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

am gonna have to double check on the cryo and biotic barriers. Gromnir relies very heavily on heavy pistol headshots. is possible that the reason we sees biotic barriers strip away so quick is 'cause o' our weapon choice rather than ammo. HA! Good Fun!

quick observation: cryo ammo strips biotic barriers over on the bio boards and elsewhere we seen lots of complaints 'bout cryo ammo being useless. oddly enough, we found cryo ammo very useful. with heavy incinerate to takes down armour, disruption ammo for shields and synthetics, and cryo ammo to reduce asari commandos to mewling bed-wetters, Gromnir's infiltrator were never impotent in any fight. am wondering what others is seeing (or missing) in regards to cryo ammo. am gonna test out warp ammo this weekend... HA! Good Fun!

let us keep in mind that we ain't claiming that me1 were some kinda ideal o' crpg design. Gromnir were not a big fan o' the customization options available in me1 as we felt there were considerable redundancy and some obvious dog skills/talents... and it often seemed as if adding additional points to a skill did not have proportional impact on gameplay. nevertheless, we has played me1 multiple times and choice of class did not effectively end the character development options. based on manner in which we distributed points, a me 1 commando-infiltrator were a near invulnerable combat killer. as an operative-infiltrator, we we could leave tali or kaiden on the normandy as our tech skills were more than sufficient for any scenario. we had numerous variations o' both kinda characters. me2? if we play another infiltrator, we is gonna build the exact same way 'cause it just not matter. a few points changed in one skill or another will not change gameplay approach much or at all. btw, the functionality that allows you to retrain is a bit... odd. am admitting that we "gamed" the system as we used the operative-agent early in game to benefit from the paragon/renegade point bonus, and then switched to operative-assassin once we had maxed paragon points. retrain still felt like cheese. HA! Good Fun!

that is kinda the point, no? few options mean that there will be very little variation of builds. me2 offers largely pointless character development choices beyond the player's initial decision regarding class. lack of meaningful character development choices does not make me2 a bad game. some of the characters is entertaining and/or intriguing, and we generally liked the writing. me2 offered some nice opportunities to make meaningful or colorful gameplay choices. even so, given the lack o' functional diversity in character builds, the character development aspect o' me2 were somewhat disappointing... which is passing odd for an original bioware crpg. HA! Good Fun!

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! Granted, but what was the point? That there are less possible combinations for a character in ME2 than in ME1? That's only true at the beginning of the game. And ME1 has less options in the beginning, as well. You get more options after you become a Spectre and then some after the mission on Luna (if you take that mission). Do the powers not count because you have to earn them? again, you is being misleading. a me 2 sentinel built by enoch or Gromnir or you will look pretty much identical by level 30. sure, maybe you got 1 point in a bunch o' bonus powers, but 'cause such powers is only available very late, your sentinel will not be very different from Gromnir's. as for me 1 spectre... is apples and oranges. spectre in me 1 can be unlocked 'round level 12 in a game where you easily reach level 40 on first play... and spectre bonuses does not cost additional points to provide a benefit neither. Gromnir rare put more than a handful of points into the spectre line from me 1... just enough to get first level o' unity. even so, we benefited from the choice between operative or commando when playing a me 1 infiltrator. greater diversity were created, even if it were largely illusory. HA! Good Fun! ps: similar to enoch, we is very curious about warp ammo... but it were available late in game and as such it were not worth exploring. warp kills everything, so is warp ammo analogous? the problem is that we do not know at this point, and we already finished an entire game. btw, as difficulty is increased, the value o' tech armour, shields and fortification powers seems to diminish. cover is 10x more important than armour or shields. on a high level o' difficulty we might alter enoch's suggested build by decreasing tech armour and increasing something else.

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!

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? In ME2, a Sentinel gets: Throw Warp Tech Armor Overload Cryo Blast Reave Slam Shockwave Armor piercing ammo Geth shields Fortification and some more a bit of a misrepresentation, no? some powers you list is unlockable late in game, and some is only available on a subsequent playthrough. the average player with no meta-knowledge of game does not have such a robust list to choose from. HA! Good Fun!

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. dismiss mathematics if you will, but the math does show that given the number of skill/power points available, diversity o' character builds necessarily diminishes as you decrease the number of skills/powers upon which the player may spend their points, and for many folks such a result is antithetical to the spirit of a rpg. unlike numbers, Gromnir would not have made a quantity v. quality argument regarding differences in character development options 'tween me 1 and me 2. that being said, numbers has a valid point. at level 30 your me 2 sentinel or infiltrator will look much the same as Gromnir's or number's or enoch's. making meaningful gameplay and character development choices is typical what sets crpgs apart from other genres, no? sadly, me 2 character development scheme gives the player only one vital character development choice: your choice of class. is not a matter of "dumbed down" or quality, but me 2 does offer the player very few meaningful character development options once you exit the tutorial portion o' the game. lack o' character development options does not make me 2 a bad game, but for the folks who live and die by the rule of Meaningful Choice to judge crpg worth, me 2 is found wanting compared to previous released original bio titles, including me 1. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

don't know if such info is helpful. HA! Good Fun!

apologize in advance for being a tad crude, but am gonna admit that the resource acquisition mini-game felt like a big bioware FU to all those folks who complained 'bout the mako. " You thought the mako sucked? Fine, we got rid of the mako you whiny plebes. Are you happy now? If you decide to b!7ch about me 2 ammo or excessive reliance on cover, keep in mind how we "improved" planetary exploration between me 1 and me 2. Ungrateful little..." HA! Good Fun! ps am not honestly suggesting that me 2 resource acquisition were a result o' biowarian vindictiveness... but it felt that way as we slowly mapped a dozen or so planets looking for iridium and platinum.

am gonna suggest that thane is the actual carth stand-in for this bio game. as for pc v. xbox... pc versions is almost invariably superior, but Gromnir's left hand is damaged... manual dexterity needed to use wasd is too much. can still manage a gamepad. no pc support of gamepad for me 1... didn't bother to check for me2. HA! Good Fun!

if me 1 were so close to perfect, the developers wouldn't have had to make any real changes... such as getting rid o' the mindless planet exploration you like so much. me 1 were enjoyable, but if you can't see the flaws you ain't looking... or you is willful oblivious. to get the ratings me 1 received from reviewers required vol level myopia. as for advertising... *shrug* am personally not concerned with numbers of additional sales. more significant to Gromnir is that the publisher clear ain't thinking of me 2 as a niche product for a smallish sub-group of gamers. HA! Good Fun!