Mass Effect 2

[Narcolepsy Jones]

I have an unflashed Xbox. I'll probably wait for some website to undercut the rest by a few quid, then blaze through, sell it and hope to break roughly even.

[Phobos]

Eeew, you be one of dem dastardly console things.

[Kjeldoran]

Originally Posted by Phobos

If you know what I mean... nudge nudge wink wink

No, please explain yourself? :-)

[Extirpator]

if you haven't finished ME2, don't watch

the deadliest end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzZOwzpOdBA


-----------

same warning as above

A Story Critique Of ME2, From A Writer's Perspective

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass...-973813-1.html

[Pete]

I'm loving the game.

[hinch]

jsut arrived today though not going to get chance to play it for a week or 2 :(

[Extirpator]

Originally Posted by hinch

jsut arrived today though not going to get chance to play it for a week or 2 :(

Good for you, meanwhile ME wiki and gamefaq will have locations of resource rich planets and "hidden" missions (it has most of those already) so you won't have to waste time searching/scanning.

Just stay away from ME boards and youtube videos as spoilers are everywhere.

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Coalesced.ini
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynn2lwwtyzw

with

Speeding / slowing up the game (for running around Normandy and cities

Bindings=( Name="NumPadZero", Command="Slomo 0.5" )
Bindings=( Name="NumPadOne", Command="Slomo 1" )
Bindings=( Name="NumPadTwo", Command="Slomo 3" )

God mode (for fast replay of some boring parts),
Ghost when you get stuck (I wonder how long it will take them to patch that),
Flycam for looking around maps (tho they are not spectacular in any way)

Bindings=( Name="F3", Command="Ghost" )
Bindings=( Name="F4", Command="God" )
Bindings=( Name="F2", Command="ToggleFlyCam" )

Fast running around Normandy and non-combat areas

StormStaminaNonCombat=30
StormRegenNonCombat=30

---------------

ME2 sound files unpacker

download these utilities

afcextr (unpacks .afc files)
http://ctpax-cheater.narod.ru/personal/afcextr.zip

ww2ogg (converts them to ogg)
http://hcs64.com/vgm_ripping.html

and then create a batch

@echo off
for %%a in (*.afc) do afcextr "%%a"
for %%a in (*.wav) do ww2ogg "%%a" --full-setup
del *.wav

[Narcolepsy Jones]

Some thoughts on what I've played for (almost finished recruiting kims for my mission, I think). The universal ammo pickup system/combat system is quite cool, means you're free to (and have to) use pretty much everything you've got, rather than stacking it all in assault rifle, which is what you did in the first one if you wanted to knock seven shades of shit out of everyone.

It's nice to see familiar environments in it (Normandy, Citadel), although I'd like to figure out how to see the whole Presidium, rather than just the Councillor's balcony bit...

The recruitable characters are very cool, but not so much when you meet them... The Convict I was hoping would be a properly sick fucker who you'd constantly need to keep an eye on, and the Krogan warlord guy doesn't seem anywhere near as interesting as Wrex (my favourite character from the first game). The Archangel likewise, I had a feeling it would be Garrus. He's received a bit of haunted backstory, but he's essentially a standard tightarse extreme justice type.

It's a very good sequel so far though.

[Phobos]

Originally Posted by Narcolepsy Jones

Some thoughts on what I've played for (almost finished recruiting kims for my mission, I think). The universal ammo pickup system/combat system is quite cool, means you're free to (and have to) use pretty much everything you've got, rather than stacking it all in assault rifle, which is what you did in the first one if you wanted to knock seven shades of shit out of everyone.

It's nice to see familiar environments in it (Normandy, Citadel), although I'd like to figure out how to see the whole Presidium, rather than just the Councillor's balcony bit...

The recruitable characters are very cool, but not so much when you meet them... The Convict I was hoping would be a properly sick fucker who you'd constantly need to keep an eye on, and the Krogan warlord guy doesn't seem anywhere near as interesting as Wrex (my favourite character from the first game). The Archangel likewise, I had a feeling it would be Garrus. He's received a bit of haunted backstory, but he's essentially a standard tightarse extreme justice type.

It's a very good sequel so far though.

Mordin is the fuckin Win, same with Legion.

[Narcolepsy Jones]

I'm not too keen on Mordin. He could've been a much darker character, what with his experiments and executions... instead he's just some fag who babbles quite a lot.

The loyalty mission for Jack was fairly dark though, I liked that. But I still wish there were an insane, twisted serial killer on the crew.

I kissed Jacob earlier, well, my character did. I so wanted her to say "Once you go black..."

[Pete]

If you want a twisted serial killer on your crew then you become one.

I love the game, I just wish they did not screw with the inventory system, if they left it in and just improved it the game would be even better, which is hard to imagine because it's pretty damn good how it is.

[Phobos]

Originally Posted by Narcolepsy Jones

[...]The loyalty mission for Jack was fairly dark though, I liked that. But I still wish there were an insane, twisted serial killer on the crew.[...]

That bitch was way to emo, I wish I could've shot her in the end and take that other guy.

Originally Posted by Pete

[...]I love the game, I just wish they did not screw with the inventory system, if they left it in and just improved it the game would be even better, which is hard to imagine because it's pretty damn good how it is.

I second that.

[Narcolepsy Jones]

Like I said, I like the mixed skillsets meaning you use all your weapons, but I'd agree on the inventory thing.

The planet farming minigame is a little daft (I think I've got about 400 kilotons of fucking iridium) and I find I've got fuck all money most of the time. Even less than I have in real life.

[Phobos]

That's what Hax are for.

[Kjeldoran]

Originally Posted by Narcolepsy Jones

Like I said, I like the mixed skillsets meaning you use all your weapons, but I'd agree on the inventory thing.

The planet farming minigame is a little daft (I think I've got about 400 kilotons of fucking iridium) and I find I've got fuck all money most of the time. Even less than I have in real life.

You can't sell the iridium? What is it used for then?

[Narcolepsy Jones]

The minerals are used for upgrading shit. Element Zero for biotic shit, iridium for firearms, and the other two are for ship upgrades and tech I think. I've got way more than I need of all of them, because I tend to rape the planets dry as I explore (so I know if I've been somewhere there's nothing left.)

[Extirpator]

Yeah, you can't sell those fucking minerals,

I have hundreds of thousands of them (and tens of thousands oz zero) and nothing to use them on

So don't overdo it with mining. And now there are lists of rich planets and eezo planets on wiki and elsewhere, so don't waste your time mining crappy planets - there is nothing to use all that on.

If you don't have enough fuel, minerals will be used to take you back to mass relay star.
And then you are screwed. Wish there were more ways to get money

---------------

I started a new char in MassEffect 1, damn it's so much better story-wise, the only thing that was needed was better team controls and better inventory system, but no, those idiots had to throw the whole inventory and equipment out of the window because they can't create nonretarted interface for it.

[Narcolepsy Jones]

Yup, I don't bother actually mining them anymore even when they've got tons of shit on them.

Just acquired my final squad member. I'm trying to get every mission done before I have to take it back on Sunday. The side missions are mixed in quality. There's one where you just follow a mech around as it blows the shit out of some rocks. It's riveting.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Extirpator

So don't overdo it with mining. And now there are lists of rich planets and eezo planets on wiki and elsewhere, so don't waste your time mining crappy planets - there is nothing to use all that on.

You just love to use cheats, hacks, walk throughs, etc.. to ruin the enjoyment of games for yourself, don't you?

[Phobos]

Originally Posted by Pete

You just love to use cheats, hacks, walk throughs, etc.. to ruin the enjoyment of games for yourself, don't you?

That's the way it's meant to be played.

[Extirpator]

Originally Posted by Pete

You just love to use cheats, hacks, walk throughs, etc.. to ruin the enjoyment of games for yourself, don't you?

I have never used such things, why do you ask?
The only thing I used in ME2 was changing out of combat movement speed as walking slowly around (and on Normandy) is not really my idea of having fun.
I did the same in ME1 with slomo command to move fast through way larger areas ME1 offered. Or while driving that silly Mako.
For the damn best soldier humanity has to offer there is no reason not to be able to run around fast for at least 10 minuts anyway.

I mined all those resources on my own without using any lists. Usually while doing something else - like listening to/watching something.

But if you tried mining in ME2 you would know how boring it gets - so to save other ppl time I inform them that such lists exist and that it does not make any sense to overdo it, because there is no point. I bought every damn upgrade I could and there is enough resources left worth few hours of mindless mining.

[Narcolepsy Jones]

Finished it. I can only assume they'll work the surviving characters into the third one with fairly small parts like with Liara and Wrex etc. As far as I can tell no one is immune from dying on the suicide mission, but the whole squad building thing works very well so they've basically built up 10 potential characters who you'll already be well familiar with going into it.

[Extirpator]

Originally Posted by Narcolepsy Jones

As far as I can tell no one is immune from dying on the suicide mission

Make them loyal and select right person for the task. The game gives hints what type of person is needed. On my 1st play only 1 person died - because I did not read the info properly (well, he would die soon anyway....).
AFAIK there is one person that dies randomly.

[Phobos]

1st Playthrough - No Deaths.

2nd Playthrough - 1 Death, because apparently Zaeed got not Experience in Squad Warfare.

Originally Posted by Narcolepsy Jones

[...]As far as I can tell no one is immune from dying on the suicide mission[...]

Joker is.

[Narcolepsy Jones]

I made a bit of a cockup on my first go at the last mission. I wasn't taking it too seriously, though, I made Jack a fireteam leader purely to piss Miranda off and had Jacob as my biotic forcefield dude hoping he'd die. I played it through again with a bit more knowledge and everyone (including crew) survived.

AFAIK there is one person that dies randomly.

I don't think there's anything random. One of your two squadmates you choose for the final bit to fight alongside you will die to the swarm if you choose someone without the necessary biotic strength (Jack or Samara are the only two who have, I think). How it chooses which one dies, though, I don't know.

I actually started a second character with the intention of losing as many characters as possible in a catastrophic fuckup, but only got about halfway through. I reckon I could've got 7 or 8 of the bellends down.