The Glade 4.0

Think I'm gonna stay true to Ashley, even though she:


Be interesting to see how it plays out In ME3.

That's ok, after Liara's actions in ME2 I was hoping for the Renegade action to pop up so I could drill her in the forehead.

I always preferred Tali anyway, even in the first game. Just too bad you don't see what's under the helmet...

Just finished Jack's background mission. Man they don't pull any punches in this game, do they?

Yeah, I'd want to kill her too

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Loved Tali's loyalty/background mission. Very well-done, IMO.

I must say (save for a few), the ME2 characterization has been very strong so far. You actually empathize with the characters (which is increasingly rare in modern games).

Except for Jack and Miranda that was true. I couldn't stand either of those two, though...

Actually, Jack was one of the better ones. Miranda wasn't bad, either, but she kinda felt like the stock woman in charge type, and as you gained other crew members, her importance seems to fall by the wayside.



Anyway, just finished it.

Wow! Great game.

The Goods:

Story (duh! It's a Bioware game)

Characters (they did a great job with them save for one or two exceptions. I think they really did a good job with the Illusive Man.)

Graphics (best looking 360 game that I have seen -- a few "bleed through," and missing patches moments, but nothing too bad)

Paragon/Renegade Quick Actions (these were really neat, but you had to have your finger on the triggers at all times, and really pay attention to the screen)

New upgrade system

New planet sweeping system (Mako was alright in ME1, but this way is less frustrating, albeit a bit more boring)

Intensity (there were several moments, especially near the end, where you just had to keep playing to see what would happen next, and see how they were gonna get outta this one, your heart pumping the whole time.


The Bads

Throw Away Characters (most notably Zaeed -- I mean seriously, he had the potential of being one of the most interesting of the lot, but I feel they really just kinda tossed him to the side. The doctor was another, as were the engineers . . . hell, pretty much the entire supporting cast seemed like wasted opportunity)

Inconvenient Checkpoints/Auto-Save Locations (had to get really friendly with the self-saves, as I had to reply a lot of scenarios only to find myself having to go back through a really annoying part.)

Load-times (They're baaaaaack. Especially infuriating when you die and have to reload frequently.)

Lack of character emotion (I may be alone in this one, but I felt many times there were these very emotional things happening and the voice actors just sounded like they were reading it straight, with little to no feeling. Male Shepard was especially guilty of this, don't know if female is any better. In a dialogue-heavy game, that's a bad thing.)

Inexplicable Progression Shifts (one that comes immediately to mind is:




Wanted more side quests/character missions (I clocked in 40+ hours of game play, but still wanted a little more)

Weapons felt weak / Enemies felt overpowered (Not sure which, but there was definitely a balance issue there somewhere. I took so many frustrating deaths because the weapons I had felt like shooting a .22 against people in body armor)

Fuel/Probe money sink (seriously, why? Just give me infinite probes and fuel. This isn't an MMO where you need money sinks to help the in-game economy)

Wanted more appearances/interactions with ME1 characters (sure you run into a few, but I wanted more cameos and more dialogue opportunities with them, especially your ME1 love interest.)

Other than that -- yeah, great game. Looking forward to ME3.

Re: Archangel:

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

RE: Zaeed


RE: The Doctor


Also RE: Mordin...

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Holy shitsnacks!

Mordin is one of the best characters in any video game, ever. If you don't play the game again and have him in your party at all times, you're missing out.

I'll agree with Mordin being awesome.

For the most part all the characters were interesting. I wish they had done more with Zaeed, but he was a free DLC, so I guess you can't complain too much.

Really the only problem I had with the game was the exploration/probe stuff, which was downright boring. I gathered basically just enough to get all the ship upgrades and then ignored it from then on out.

If they keep the exploration/mining stuff in the third, they really just need to turn it into a distracting mini-game. Something like you have a mining team that you can send down to planets. You leave them there while you take care of a side mission elsewhere on the planet, and then you go pick them back up. Make it so the team levels up, gaining access to maybe a couple abilities that affect their ability to find various elements, the amount of the elements they find, and so on. You could even add a whole new way to waste money by getting access to and buying them better equipment. Now you don't have to go through the drudgery of finding hot spots/probing a planet or driving a poor handling vehicle and hoping you stumble across something.

Oh, and I also felt the main story line was a little short, I wish it had been longer. Another 2-3 main story line missions that weren't "go pick up a new crew member!" would have been nice. There's a decent amount of content though, so this is a small complaint.

Technicalities. She was still *****, and needed to get slapped.

Yeah I know, but I guess the way they had you go about it did not make sense to me. As a Paragon character:


As for Mordin, yes he was friggin' awesome, and yes I got to see his little performance. I always liked salarians.

Oh, and speaking of Mordin:



But yeah, there was a definite schism in the standout characters vs the more blah ones.

My breakdown is:

Stand-outs = Jack, Tali, Legion (these first three are my favorites), Grunt, Thane, Mordin, Joker, Illusive Man

In-Between = Samara, Garrus

Blah = Zaeed, Miranda, Jacobs

Something else that kinda irked me (this is actually a carry-over from ME1) -- dead-end conversation lines. After you refuse a romantic involvement, you get stuck in a dead-end loop. I wish they would have opened up a different convo line for these characters, but ah well . . .

EDIT: I just saw who Lenas' avatar was -- sweet!

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Thought about replaying it as a middle-ground character and pursuing a romance, as well as:
.

I can't help but feel that I will catch many things I missed on a second play through.

Has anyone gotten the Kasumi DLC yet?

If so:

Finally beat the game last night. Had to go on a binge to do it since the RAM I bought for my new computer has some issues and I have to RMA it back to NewEgg.

Good times.

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The Dude abides.

For shits n giggs I am replaying this with a female renegade Shepard.

Normally I am a fan of Jennifer Hale, but I don't really care for her in this game. Her voice just sounds wrong for some reason. Even making a neutral/good decision, she sounds like she hates you when she speaks.

It's because she does a horrible renegade. Her paragon is better, but her performance in ME2 is not nearly as good as her performance in ME1.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

LOL @ the She-Shep flirting scenes.

With Male Shepard, he's all smooth and slow and plays the game.

With She-Shep, she's like, "Hey wanna **** here on the floor?"

Well when you have an entire galaxy to save, you can't exactly waste your time ****' around.

Buh-dum-ching!

Mass Effect 3 to be more "light-hearted."



Source

I got a kick out of this: