Mass Effect 2

[Jaggyd]

Do the loyalty missions play into who survives? Hm... That makes sense.

Also, picking the right teams/operatives in the suicide run also determines who lives and who dies, too.

I lost Thane and Jack the first time through. Then Garrus the second time. I think I've gotten it figured out to get through without losing anyone

 

[Zombipanda]

Also, picking the right teams/operatives in the suicide run also determines who lives and who dies, too.

Yeah. I knew that much. But given that, at the end of the game, it says something like "Keep playing and finish your loyalty and side missions" I assumed that not finishing a loyalty mission didn't cause your crew to die.

I lost Thane and Jack the first time through. Then Garrus the second time. I think I've gotten it figured out to get through without losing anyone

Really? The only one I lost was Chambers. I finished all my loyalty missions, sent Talia into the ducts, used Miranda and then Jacob as my squad leaders, and used my girl Jack as the biotics expert.

 

[Jaggyd]

Both times I saved Chambers. I sent Thane into the ducts, and he died closing the doors for me, that's also how i lost Garrus. I lost Jack because I chose Jacob as my biotics person, she got nabbed by the Swarm.

 

[DIrishB]

Are you able to play the downloadable content without an internet connection? I know you need an internet connection to download it in the first place, but do you need an active internet connection to actually play it once its downloaded? I just downloaded Cereberus Network DL last night, but haven't bought the game yet (just been renting it) so I can't check for myself until I buy it. But I don't have an internet connection at home, so I either bring my Xbox 360 hard drive to a friends or lug over my whole system to my parents place to download any DC I might be interested in. Normally this isn't a problem since once the content is downloaded to my 360's hard drive, I can play the stuff with or without an internet connection. But a friend told me that Cerberus Network only works while connected to the EA Network through Xbox Live, which I'm of the opinion might actually be the case after seeing that the file size was only 58KB as opposed to 100-200MB like normal DC is. I'm thinking its possible the content is already on the ME2 discs and the 58KB file is just an unlock code or something, but I doubt it. So anyone who's got the DC stuff and an internet connection, do me a favor and unplug your DSL/cable line and let me know if the DC missions are still available.

 

[Zombipanda]

Are you able to play the downloadable content without an internet connection? I know you need an internet connection to download it in the first place, but do you need an active internet connection to actually play it once its downloaded? I just downloaded Cereberus Network DL last night, but haven't bought the game yet (just been renting it) so I can't check for myself until I buy it. But I don't have an internet connection at home, so I either bring my Xbox 360 hard drive to a friends or lug over my whole system to my parents place to download any DC I might be interested in. Normally this isn't a problem since once the content is downloaded to my 360's hard drive, I can play the stuff with or without an internet connection. But a friend told me that Cerberus Network only works while connected to the EA Network through Xbox Live, which I'm of the opinion might actually be the case after seeing that the file size was only 58KB as opposed to 100-200MB like normal DC is. I'm thinking its possible the content is already on the ME2 discs and the 58KB file is just an unlock code or something, but I doubt it. So anyone who's got the DC stuff and an internet connection, do me a favor and unplug your DSL/cable line and let me know if the DC missions are still available.

I'd be happy to.......








if my 360 were working

 

[Grocer Man]

Do the loyalty missions play into who survives? Hm... That makes sense.

I guess my point is this. One of the main appeals, to me, of Mass Effect is that you have to make hard choices to determine the outcome of the game. And determining who survives the final mission seems to have less to do with making moral choices rather than filling out a checklist. Buy the ship upgrades, finish the loyalty missions, pick the right characters for the final sub-missions. That said, I've just kind of assumed that finishing the loyalty missions automatically gives your characters loyalty. But it's possible that's not the case. I did everything to appease my characters in their loyalty missions. For Zaeed in particular, that meant making a very reprehensible choice. Once I get a chance to replay the game, I'll make some different choices and see if that's still the case. But if it just comes down to ticking off check boxes, then that will be a little underwhelming.

The other thing that kind of disappointed me was the system for acquiring new weapons. There wasn't a whole lot of range for weapons upgrades (by which, I mean different weapons rather than the +20% damage researches and such) and the ones that were there were clearly and obviously better than the weapons that preceded them. I would have liked to have seen, for instance, a wider variety of machine pistols where different models have advantages and disadvantages rather than just getting a new gun and never using the older one again. That said, it's a far cry better from the equipment system of ME1.

All in all, they're relatively minor gripes. I was impressed that even as deep as the

Spoiler

Legion

loyalty mission there were huge decisions that will have major repercussions in ME3. I just wish they'd had a bigger impact on the ME2 end game. I am rather excited for ME 3. I look forward to recruiting all the various races to finally destroy the Reapers, and it looks like we're finally going to get to visit

Spoiler

Earth

.



I already went back and saved Chambers after getting her killed the first time. But now my 360 is broken and I'm going to have to dismantle the whole thing to fix it.... Again....

It's possible to get Zaeed's loyalty without being an *******. You just have to amp up the Paragon.

 

[DIrishB]

Are you able to play the downloadable content without an internet connection? I know you need an internet connection to download it in the first place, but do you need an active internet connection to actually play it once its downloaded? I just downloaded Cereberus Network DL last night, but haven't bought the game yet (just been renting it) so I can't check for myself until I buy it. But I don't have an internet connection at home, so I either bring my Xbox 360 hard drive to a friends or lug over my whole system to my parents place to download any DC I might be interested in. Normally this isn't a problem since once the content is downloaded to my 360's hard drive, I can play the stuff with or without an internet connection. But a friend told me that Cerberus Network only works while connected to the EA Network through Xbox Live, which I'm of the opinion might actually be the case after seeing that the file size was only 58KB as opposed to 100-200MB like normal DC is. I'm thinking its possible the content is already on the ME2 discs and the 58KB file is just an unlock code or something, but I doubt it. So anyone who's got the DC stuff and an internet connection, do me a favor and unplug your DSL/cable line and let me know if the DC missions are still available.

...So...anybody?

 

[Jaggyd]

...So...anybody?

SOrry I missed that earlier. As far as I know, once you download it, it's on your HDD, so you won't need to have an internet connection to have the armor/weapons/Zaeed/quests



Edit: so just checked, yes, I was able to use all my DLC. Only thing I couldn't access, obviously, was the Cerberus Network

 

[Zombipanda]

New DLC announced. They're releasing the Hammerhead and Firewalker Mission Pack in late March, featuring five new missions and a hovertank.

and it's free.

Dig.

 

[Jaggyd]

New DLC announced. They're releasing the Hammerhead and Firewalker Mission Pack in late March, featuring five new missions and a hovertank.

and it's free.

Dig.

Rumor has it, we're going to be getting an "Urban ninja" as a new character in the near future.



oh and

 

[Grocer Man]

Rumor has it, we're going to be getting an "Urban ninja" as a new character in the near future.



oh and

Nice. I assume the little Asari is the kid of Liara and Sheperd you mentioned at the beginning of the thread. Doesn't look very gothy, though.

As for that rumor...I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, a new character who's sure to be fleshed out and three-dimensional. On the other hand, I like the current number of squad members just because they form a "dirty dozen." Tumultuous Thirteen doesn't have a nice ring to it.

I know it's shallow compared to good storytelling, but I can't really get past it. I'll probably come around later.

 

[Zombipanda]

Rumor has it, we're going to be getting an "Urban ninja" as a new character in the near future.



oh and

That's the hawtness.

Some Jack love would just make my life though.




And yeah. I heard about the thief/ninja character. She's called Kasumi, apparently. Hopefully most of the DLC will be post-game content rather than stuff for game replay.

 

[Grocer Man]

This is a mite bit off topic, but this is an interesting summary I found of some ideas for the opening that were rejected.

I seem to remember that there was originally a full fledged mission in between the SR1 biting the dust and Shepard reawakening, in case anyone has wondered where the extra voice acting comes from. I'm not spoilering anything here since none of it made it into the game and it doesn't actually delve into any late game plot.

You started off as Legion, unfolding from a cargo box that you had sneaked into aboard the Shadowthrone, the Shadow Broker courier frigate with your body on board. After a few minutes of sneaking, you start hearing gunshots and reports of an intruder over the intercom. Eventually you met Liara, who was on her own mission to steal the corpse. After a heated mexican stand, Liara and Legion teamed up to steal the corpse on agreement that she got to take it where she wanted(Cerberus). Over the course of the mission, you played as Legion and inquired about Shepard's decisions based on your investigations. In this manner, it was originally set up to allow you to customize an ME1 game's choices through your dialogs with Liara.

After a few short gunfights, they were to finally get to Liara's small infiltration ship, but not before having to take of Shepard's armor off order to get him/her into Liara's containment field to keep the body from falling apart. On his way into the ship, Legion was to be shot and disabled as well as given his iconic wound. It was then to shift into first person and you see Liara close the door and launch her small ship from the airlock. A -NO FEED- was to come up on the screen in red and then fade from view, followed by Shepard fading in and out and seeing Miranda. The game then continued as normal until you got to the first missions.

On your way to Omega for the first recruitment, you picked up a distress signal from the Shadowthrone. Miranda was to recognize it as the ship that your corpse had been stolen off of. It's beacon suggested that it had been adrift for nearly two years. Knowing that agent that had bought you from had left the ship functional and suspecting that it had something to do with the disappearances, she suggests boarding the ship to investigate. Once on board, you discover that Legion had reactivated and repaired himself with the armor that had been pulled off of you. He had then hunted down and killed the entire crew but had accidentally caused irreparable damage to its drives. To save energy in the powerless ship, he went into a hibernation mode. You find the hibernating Legion in the engine room and remove him, leaving you with the choice of whether or not to activate him.

In the end it was scrapped because it was seen as too confusing for players new to the series. It was also redundant to have Legion tell his unique story to Liara in the beginning and then to Shepard again less than two gameplay hours later. Additionally, it was seen as too different from ME1 to have the player's first shooting battles be as a Geth against humans. The comics were given an OK instead to fill the gap and some friend for Liara was created to take the place of Legion.

A lot of assets, like Legion's Shepard Armor repair or much of the unused dialog, were left in game with little or no explanation. In the case of the former, it went from causing a long conversation about how he stalked the crew of the Shadowthrone to "No Data Found." Much of the lost dialog, like his lines before he can be acquired, were just left since he would never be there to trigger them. Other dialogs, for instance he had a long dialog with Liara if you brought him to Illium, never even made it off the paper. Most of the assets were retooled though, like the SR2 Cargo bay that was originally Legion's starting point in the mission. The Crashing Ship mission is almost a direct usage of most of the Shadowthrone's assets, complete with the engine room where you were supposed to find him in up where you now turn the engines on.

Additionally, Veetor was a relatively late addition to the game. Originally you met Tali on Freedom's progress and she joined you from there, but that was scrapped for reasons I don't know. Similarly though, many of her lost dialogs were just left in since she would never be there to trigger them without hacking the game.

The source is here:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...rid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=528#post372786306

 

[Jaggyd]

See, I'm not sure why they couldn't have left that in. It could have been used for the "Import ME1 character" option, then the beginning we got in final release, could have been the beginning for new games.

 

[Zombipanda]

See, I'm not sure why they couldn't have left that in. It could have been used for the "Import ME1 character" option, then the beginning we got in final release, could have been the beginning for new games.

Well, it sounded to me like the game had been there specifically for new players, so they could determine some of the choices their Shepard had made without playing all the way through ME1.



:roll: So after two days of working, my 360 is broken. again. Disc tray error, for the third time in as many months.

 

[Zombipanda]

So, my main Mass Effect guy is a Renegade who always looks after his crew and has a soft spot for alien races. I love my guy to death.

But I figured I'd start a new ME1 profile and just play it as a total renegade (I eventually plan on making a female Paragon. I hear the voice actor for femShep is way better) and I just finished the game.

Man.... Full-on Renegade just qualifies as straight up dickhead. I shot Wrex for no real reason. Garrus asked me "Can I ask you a serious question?" and I was like "No. I'm busy, *******." But the **** that had me on the floor laughing was when I decided to not protect the Council. At the end, I picked the Ren response, and dude was like "Yeah. I let those Council guys die. They were always getting in our way, so I was just like '**** you. Die now please'."

 

[Grocer Man]

See, I'm not sure why they couldn't have left that in. It could have been used for the "Import ME1 character" option, then the beginning we got in final release, could have been the beginning for new games.

Well, assuming Legion would have had the same powerset, you'd be forced to play as an Infiltrator even if you didn't choose to.

Also, I've been hearing stuff about the whole Legion/Liara team-up to have been a hoax. I haven't found any proof of that, but I apoligize if that's the case.

Oh, and Panda...

[video=youtube;-PjTuSQNLI4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4[/video]

It goes a little off topic, but still pretty accurate.

 

[Jaggyd]

April 6th, the release date for the DLC "Kasumi's Stolen Memory". I'm reading conflicting reports on if it's Cerberus Net DLC, or if it's a pay DLC.

 

[DIrishB]

I think the Kasumi DL is the first ME2 DLC that you have to pay for (unless you didn't get the free code for Cerberus Network when you bought the game).

I'm looking forward to it. After I finish DA - Awakenings, I'm going to replay ME2 to check out all the DLC missions. Speaking of which, is the Firewalker/Hammerhead tank DLC out yet? I haven't seen a specific date, just late March, so I assume it'll be out in the next couple weeks, but this close without a specific date leaves me wondering if it won't be pushed back some, especially coming so soon before the Kasumi DLC.

 

[Zombipanda]

IGN reports that Kasumi is paid content downloaded through Cerberus, and also that in terms of the content, it's pretty much the same as Zaeed: i.e. a new character who you can recruit at any point in time who doesn't have conversation options but who has her own loyalty mission.

I know it's only been a couple of months, but I'm already chomping at the bit for post-game content. C'mon Bioware!