Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[rajpoot]

From what I can see of the story in the game and the literature outside the game Liara is the cannon romance interest Ashley is really only included for renegades and should really always be left on Virmire for a paragon.

I kind of disagree with that. For one you'll have to point out the literature you're referring to.....Secondly, Ashley/Kaiden are the canon romances. Liara is the second choice regardless of gender. Like Morrigan/Alistair in Dragon Age and Leliana regardless of gender.
Furthermore on starting a new ME2 game (not importing an ME1 save that is), by default for a male Shepard, Ashley is dead and for a female Shepard, Kaiden is dead. Which I think is done so that the player can check out the new romance options in the game.

[gaelic cowboy]

I kind of disagree with that. For one you'll have to point out the literature you're referring to.....Secondly, Ashley/Kaiden are the canon romances. Liara is the second choice regardless of gender. Like Morrigan/Alistair in Dragon Age and Leliana regardless of gender.
Furthermore on starting a new ME2 game (not importing an ME1 save that is), by default for a male Shepard, Ashley is dead and for a female Shepard, Kaiden is dead. Which I think is done so that the player can check out the new romance options in the game.

Well the literature I mentioned came with my edition of the game it is a comic called Mass Effect Redemption. Liara is searching for Shepards body and the collectors and illusive man are also the feel of the story is Liara is the love interest so far anyway to my mind.
I accept your reasoning if you had no romance and you generate a character without a save but Kaidan and Ashley really cannot be cannon because they do not both survive one has to die in ME1. The story needs a person who survives regardless hence Liara this game was always meant to have consequences on the next one so my money is on that I am right but it is only a game and doest really affect the playing experience too much
The game will start with liara on the normandy if you saved that romance and she has way more dialouge in the game with you.

[tibilicus]

I kind of disagree with that. For one you'll have to point out the literature you're referring to.....Secondly, Ashley/Kaiden are the canon romances. Liara is the second choice regardless of gender. Like Morrigan/Alistair in Dragon Age and Leliana regardless of gender.
Furthermore on starting a new ME2 game (not importing an ME1 save that is), by default for a male Shepard, Ashley is dead and for a female Shepard, Kaiden is dead. Which I think is done so that the player can check out the new romance options in the game.

I'm just wondering, if you don't import a save then is there still a picture on the desk in Shepards room or is it simply absent?

Well the literature I mentioned came with my edition of the game it is a comic called Mass Effect Redemption. Liara is searching for Shepards body and the collectors and illusive man are also the feel of the story is Liara is the love interest so far anyway to my mind.
I accept your reasoning if you had no romance and you generate a character without a save but Kaidan and Ashley really cannot be cannon because they do not both survive one has to die in ME1. The story needs a person who survives regardless hence Liara this game was always meant to have consequences on the next one so my money is on that I am right but it is only a game and doest really affect the playing experience too much
The game will start with liara on the normandy if you saved that romance and she has way more dialouge in the game with you.

I don't think you can call it Canon either way. The point about Mass effect is there is no real canon, the games are designed so you choose what is canon and what isn't canon. If Liara is meant to be the main love interest in the game then it doesn't really show over the other choices. Sure, Ashely/kaiden are fairly cold when you see them on Horizon but the way Liara is written is just as bad. She basically doesn't acknowledge you as a love interest and talks to you like your one of her employees.

She's an Asari too, meaning that because her lifespan is so huge, 2 years should be nothing to her. The way in which Asari comprehend time, apparently, is vastly different from the way humans comprehend it. 2 years should only feel like months to her, if not less.

Oh well, hopefully we will find out in ME3.

[rajpoot]

Right, I'm err....sorry I remembered it wrongly Actually Ashley survives for the male Shepard and Kaiden for the female, by default when not importing a save that is......

No idea about the picture, I'd read the info in the wiki. Never did start a new game myself.

[tibilicus]

Forgot to add in my earlier post, the end game sequence was awesome.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Reapers are coming!

Now we know why they need to harvest organic life, I can't wait to find out who created them and why.

.

[Mailman653]

So.....who here bought their issue of Fornax? ha ha ha..!

[rajpoot]

So while playing the endgame sequence using old saves for like the 10th time, two things struck me;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Does anyone else feel sorry for the Collecters? I mean in that last shot, when the whole station is blowing up and Harbinger abandons the Collecters, the Collecter General looks rather forlorn and pitiable, staring at advancing wall of fire....

Secondly Harbinger says something along the lines of,'We are your salvation through destruction'...I hope this does not mean that the Reapers would turn out to be AI guardians who decided that the best way to preserve biological life for ever is to kill them all and make Reapers out of them.....I mean where else have we heard about machines going mad and killing people because they thought that was the best way to save them?....Wait, almost everywhere!
I hope ME3 does not follow the crowd....

[tibilicus]

So while playing the endgame sequence using old saves for like the 10th time, two things struck me;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Does anyone else feel sorry for the Collecters? I mean in that last shot, when the whole station is blowing up and Harbinger abandons the Collecters, the Collecter General looks rather forlorn and pitiable, staring at advancing wall of fire....

Secondly Harbinger says something along the lines of,'We are your salvation through destruction'...I hope this does not mean that the Reapers would turn out to be AI guardians who decided that the best way to preserve biological life for ever is to kill them all and make Reapers out of them.....I mean where else have we heard about machines going mad and killing people because they thought that was the best way to save them?....Wait, almost everywhere!
I hope ME3 does not follow the crowd....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry for the collectors? The same collectors who are servants of the reapers and have been abducting organics for years trying to harvest them. The same collectors who tried to melt my crew into reaper goo, no way. I felt slightly bad for the general as he helplessly tried to save his base but then I smiled with joy as me and my crew flew of into the sun set in the Normandy.

I also have my own little theory going on about the reapers. I think that they're not as "machine" as we think. I wouldn't be surprised if the reapers were initially an organic civilisation who simply made themselves into machines to preserve themselves and what they considered life in the galaxy. After all, organic life comes and goes but the reapers do not, they can preserve themselves by combining organic and Artificial life.

Also they need to harvest organic life to survive or so it would seem, It appears they don't just desire the destruction of organic life because they're opposed to it ideologically or whatever, but it's essentially a survival tactic. I really have no idea beyond that though, that's just my own little theory.

Guess we'll have to wait till ME3..

[Beskar]

So.....who here bought their issue of Fornax? ha ha ha..!

I got it, but I didnt know if you needed it for something. What does it do?

[Scienter]

I got it, but I didnt know if you needed it for something. What does it do?

I didn't come across any quest that required it. I think it was just there to be funny. I bought it in the hopes that it would show up in my cabin somewhere.