Mass Effect 2 teaser

[frogbeastegg]

I have created an RPGs: The State of Play thread so the discussion can continue without totally derailing this topic.

I'm a bit pushed for time now so I can't add anything else for the moment. Perhaps someone else can get the new topic rolling?

[Krusader]

Gamer.no listed some voice actors in Mass Effect 2, unfortunately with no direct source, but seems to correlate nicely with the voices I've heard so far.

Martin Sheen - Cerberus leader
Yvonne Strahovski - Miranda Lawson, another Cerberus operative.
Seth Green - Joker
Keith David - Admiral David Anderson
Tricia Helfer - Normandy (the spaceship VI most likely)
Carrie-Ann Moss - Aria T'Loak, bandit leader.
Shohreh Aghdashloo - Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay
Michael Hogan - Captain Bailey (silly site had spelled it Mikael at first)
Adam Baldwin - Kal'Reegar
Michael Dorn - Gatatog Uvenk.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Nice find!

Adam Baldwin - Kal'Reegar

[Scienter]

Mikael Hogan - Captain Bailey

Awesome!

Adam Baldwin - Kal'Reegar

I wonder what Kal Reegar is. W/ Jayne as his voice, is this a romance option for the female PC?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Crap, I forgot to post a response to TinCow. Oh well, here is a video featuring all the voice actors Krusader listed:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/masse...opslot;thumb;1

[Krusader]

Sentinel video in case someone missed it:

Sentinel Video. Direct Link

Might be a choice for second playthrough.

[Monk]

Sentinel video in case someone missed it:

Sentinel Video. Direct Link

Might be a choice for second playthrough.

It looks like they've combined a lot of talent choices across the board (for all classes). With luck, this means playing the hybrid classes will be less of a hassle in point distribution and much more fun.

[Mailman653]

I read or saw somewhere that the game has a sort of lockers now where you can swap equpiment while in a level. The downside is, say you start the mission with a sniper rifle, untill you find one of these lockers, your stuck with the sniper rifle.

As a vanguard I loved using my shotgun for most things but sometimes I had to swap out for my pistol when I needed some precise aiming. But with this locker system, seems like when I want to get the job done, I need to rely on someone else assuming they are still alive to take the shot.

[frogbeastegg]

I read or saw somewhere that the game has a sort of lockers now where you can swap equpiment while in a level. The downside is, say you start the mission with a sniper rifle, untill you find one of these lockers, your stuck with the sniper rifle.

Oh no! Being able to swap freely between the 4 weapons was rather essential to playing a soldier class on the higher levels.

Why do this? It's as silly in the in-game lore as the need to reload. They've already established that the guns collapse down and attach to armour so all 4 types can be carried easily.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Whatever happens, I want to have Ashley, Garrus, and possibly Wrex back in my squads.

[Husar]

Oh no! Being able to swap freely between the 4 weapons was rather essential to playing a soldier class on the higher levels.

Was it? I used the sniper now and then, the pistol just to play a commander with a pistol but otherwise the assault rifle would be perfectly fine for most situations. Except when it would somehow overheat all of a sudden, probably some special ability on the enemy side.

[frogbeastegg]

On normal I used the assault rifle for everything except a rare few shotgun or sniper situations.

On hardcore and up I found myself using the full set. Sniper rifle to take down a couple of enemies at range if outside, assault rifle for the bulk of the killing work, pistol to fill the gap on the frequent occasions my assault rifle got targeted by that ability which made it unusable for a set period of time, and shotgun with knockdown ammo for dangerous foes like Krogan or the creepers or if my pistol also got knocked out of commission.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I am going to need to ask for a citation for this locker dilemma.

[TinCow]

I've started my second playthrough and will make a few comments to modify what I said earlier about ME. First, while the combat is simplistic, it is kind of fun. The relatively few abilities are made up for by the use of cover and other tactical considerations of ranged combat. I also give two-thumbs up to the combat ability interface; an excellent method of managing an entire party quickly and easily.

Which only makes the inventory system even more horrendous. How can they have done the combat interface so well, but created what is truly the worst inventory system I have ever seen? Seriously... this is even worse than Fallout 1/2. In most RPGs, the post-quest loot distribution and shopping runs are fun. In ME, it's so much of a pain in the butt that I actively try to put it off as long as possible.

So far, I stand by my comments regarding the plot: the game is extremely linear and there aren't many substantial choices to be made. I totally forgot about one aspect of the game that makes no sense to me: Paragon/Renegade points. Why can you get both at once? That makes no sense, surely gaining points in 'Alien-Loving Nice Guy' should take away points from 'Isolationist Egomaniac'?

In summary, with about 5-6 hours into my second playthrough I will temper my criticism of ME a bit. It's a fun game and provides decent entertainment, but far from a classic of the genre. A very middle of the road effort that seems on par with NWN2.

[al Roumi]

...Which only makes the inventory system even more horrendous. How can they have done the combat interface so well, but created what is truly the worst inventory system I have ever seen? Seriously... this is even worse than Fallout 1/2. In most RPGs, the post-quest loot distribution and shopping runs are fun. In ME, it's so much of a pain in the butt that I actively try to put it off as long as possible.

True, but at least you don't have to hunt around the map for items left on the ground (except of course containers.

I totally forgot about one aspect of the game that makes no sense to me: Paragon/Renegade points. Why can you get both at once? That makes no sense, surely gaining points in 'Alien-Loving Nice Guy' should take away points from 'Isolationist Egomaniac'?

Only if you consider them so diametrically opposed. As Froggy said in an earlier post, it's not about being an "Alien lover" or "crypto fascist" but about whether your character will bend over backwards/go out of their way to accomodate people or is so focused on the goal as to disregard the interests of all else around. I admit there are a few side quests that pull that distinction towards what you describe (notably the Human politician and reporter citadel side quests), but the impression i got from my various play throughs was more as I described -if not a simpler selfish/selfless choice.

[TinCow]

True, but at least you don't have to hunt around the map for items left on the ground (except of course containers.

I agree, that's an improvement. I remember not looting lots of low-level bodies in the IE games because the effort of clicking wasn't worth the 2 gold you'd get as a reward. While infinite inventories are probably not suited to all games, it certainly works well in ME and I give two thumbs up to the auto-corpse-loot system.

Only if you consider them so diametrically opposed. As Froggy said in an earlier post, it's not about being an "Alien lover" or "crypto fascist" but about whether your character will bend over backwards/go out of their way to accomodate people or is so focused on the goal as to disregard the interests of all else around. I admit there are a few side quests that pull that distinction towards what you describe (notably the Human politician and reporter citadel side quests), but the impression i got from my various play throughs was more as I described -if not a simpler selfish/selfless choice.

I'll keep my eye on the dialogs as I continue my playthrough to give this more scrutiny. So far it often seems to me that the dialog options tend to be one of the following:

1) I like aliens / I trust no one but humans
2) I like the rule of law / I do whatever it takes to get the job done
3) There's no need to reward me / Give me more loot!

In every case, the answers seem mutually exclusive. For example, with #2 responses, the game regularly rewards paragon points for liking law and order, and rewards renegade points for being an 'ends justify the means' type of guy. Since they're diametrically opposed answers and the give points into opposite areas, why aren't the conflicting with one another? Sure, there are some paragon answers that would mesh with other renegade answers, but in those scenarios it seems more like a 2-axis scale would be better. As it is now, ME has the same good/bad evaluation as the KOTOR games and Jade Empire, but it allows you to go both directions at the same time. I'm not inclined to think that makes a lot of sense. If they wanted to try and rate someone's alignment in that manner, they should have used a slightly more elaborate ranking system. A single axis with two poles just isn't cutting it as far as I can tell.

Ideally, they just should've scrapped the paragon/renegade stuff to begin with. If they wanted to let us be as morally ambiguous as we want, they shouldn't be rating us on our performance and rewarding/penalizing us for our answers.

[Husar]

I agree, that's an improvement. I remember not looting lots of low-level bodies in the IE games because the effort of clicking wasn't worth the 2 gold you'd get as a reward. While infinite inventories are probably not suited to all games, it certainly works well in ME and I give two thumbs up to the auto-corpse-loot system.

It's not unlimited, I got a warning when I was close to the limit but it only happened later in the game.

[al Roumi]

1) I like aliens / I trust no one but humans
2) I like the rule of law / I do whatever it takes to get the job done
3) There's no need to reward me / Give me more loot!

hmm. On reflection I think you're right -clearly you've been playing this more recently!

If they wanted to try and rate someone's alignment in that manner, they should have used a slightly more elaborate ranking system. A single axis with two poles just isn't cutting it as far as I can tell.

Ideally, they just should've scrapped the paragon/renegade stuff to begin with. If they wanted to let us be as morally ambiguous as we want, they shouldn't be rating us on our performance and rewarding/penalizing us for our answers

You're right, is this a trap that programmers fall into? binary decisions?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Ideally, they just should've scrapped the paragon/renegade stuff to begin with. If they wanted to let us be as morally ambiguous as we want, they shouldn't be rating us on our performance and rewarding/penalizing us for our answers.

I think that is the direction they are going in at this point. You kind of need a transition from 0 or 1 by making the value pointless to begin with. I never understood the point of it in a game like Mass Effect anyway where you are the hero no matter what. And I think that having no rating lets players react more towards how they would actually handle a situation rather then choosing something because they know that's the "good" path.

[al Roumi]

RE: Sentinel

It looks like they've combined a lot of talent choices across the board (for all classes). With luck, this means playing the hybrid classes will be less of a hassle in point distribution and much more fun.

I hadn't had the chance to watch that video before. I'm actually quite impressed with the Sentinel -on the the strength of that video anyway.

I'm glad they've allowed the class some basic weapons training beyond pistol (as was in ME -even though it reportedly had the most dps when using Marksman). I'm also interested in the range of new powers -cryo freeze for one sounds useful!

[Scienter]

I think that is the direction they are going in at this point. You kind of need a transition from 0 or 1 by making the value pointless to begin with. I never understood the point of it in a game like Mass Effect anyway where you are the hero no matter what. And I think that having no rating lets players react more towards how they would actually handle a situation rather then choosing something because they know that's the "good" path.

I was happy with the system in Dragon Age where you don't have good/evil alignment, but are rated by what your companions think of you. It had its flaws (it was easy to get everyone to love you and IMO that shouldn't be possible), but it was better than the renegade/paragon system in ME.

I'm playing thru a second time. My original character was a Vanguard, but it seems like a lot of the NPCs are biotic, so I made an Infiltrator. I was hoping to have lots of snipey fun, but so far I haven't used my sniper rifle that much, and have been relying on the pistol. Hopefully it will get more useful as I put more stat points into it.

[Mailman653]

I got the new issue of GameInformer (US) and it has a small feature on ME2.

Something things of note:

Normandy SR1 either is stolen or destroyed, it's status is unknown.

Shep commands the new Normandy SR2 which is much larger than the old ship, it has four decks and has a limited fuel supply which is assumed can be upgraded for larger capacity for deep space exploration.

Shep has a fish tank in his quarters which can be populated with creatures you can find or purchase on various planets. Shep also has a closet which can be used to customize equipment. For example you have red armor and found an awesome helmet but its pink, well now you can go and change the color in the closet. Though this feature only works for Shep. They also menttion being able to customize Sheps "casual" look. Also in his quarters are two computers, one which tracks character progress, the other to compare gear with squadmates and currently equiped weapons/armor.

Scanning for minerals and gases now have purpose, they can help upgrade the SR2.

SR2 has a new engine completely different from the SR1, new alien tech? Or maybe even Reaper tech?

Shorter Elevator rides.

You can manually discover planets and moons, plus you can scan planets (mini game) and even send out a probe in some cases or land a "heavily upgraded Mako."

Seems like Shep might forge an alliance with Cerberus in order to fight this "new threat" which in turn may allienate him from most of his old crew members which forces Shep to go out into space to recruit a new crew for the mission.

Joker and Dr. Chakwas serve aboard the SR2, plus the SR2 comes equiped with a VI.

The locker system is in place due to the amount of new weapons and ammos, since you can't carry it all, the lockers serve as storage so you can swap out weapons. With that in mind, it's possible the old style of having four weapons on your back is still in place and that lockers just help out with holding all the things you can't strap on to your back.

[al Roumi]

The locker system is in place due to the amount of new weapons and ammos, since you can't carry it all, the lockers serve as storage so you can swap out weapons. With that in mind, it's possible the old style of having four weapons on your back is still in place and that lockers just help out with holding all the things you can't strap on to your back.

Thanks for the info, I started a new game of ME as an Eng last night (got as far as liberating Liara, just before the boss fight with that damn krogan). Tech skills are def not as useful as biotics for subduing enemies, but they do make tackling individual "bosses" easier.

Back on the ME2 lockers, there do seem to be a lot more weapon types now, eg: heavy pistol, submachinegun -both of which might have been by covered the pistol class in ME. I just wonder how it will be that Shep stumbles accross a locker holding all his stuff in the middle of a Geth outpost... weapon drop?

Hopefully you'll be able to carry at least a couple of weapons around with you.

[Scienter]

Also in his quarters are two computers, one which tracks character progress, the other to compare gear with squadmates and currently equiped weapons/armor.

I hope this works well. One of my biggest gripes with the game is not being able to compare my companions' weapons to my inventory. My buy/sell runs take way longer than they ought to because of this. I really liked the buy/sell system in Dragon Age, where you can compare each item to all of your companions' right in the buy/sell screen.

Shorter Elevator rides.

YAY!

[Mailman653]

Confirmed: ME3 last in series

ME2 Hands on, spoilers ahead!
To spare myself the spoilers I haven't even read that article, I saw just enough to copy and paste the HTML.

[a completely inoffensive name]

FULL LENGTH TRAILER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TPfJ1qY4Z4

[Mailman653]

Awesome video, I assume the insects are the new bad guys in this game.

[Krusader]

Some new videos since this thread was last posted in.
Mass Effect 2 Videos Gallery

And just because I can, here's the videos of the classes shown so far.
(Just lack the Soldier & Vanguard ones)

Adept
Engineer
Infiltrator
Sentinel

Engineer, Infiltrator & Sentinel all seem fun to me. But will most likely play a Vanguard if they they come with Assault Rifles for first playthrough.

[Mailman653]

Vanguard with rifles......that will be new. I had gotten used to the shotgun-pistol combo. It will be cool to use something that fires faster.

[Subotan]

Btw happy birthday Frogbeastegg