Mass Effect 2

Shephard's gotta be faking his death. No way they'd give you that much investment in a character in the first game, and then kill him off for the direct sequel.

Regardless, cannot wait.

Whens this coming out again?

I've still gotta buy and complete Fallout 3 yet...

Last I heard they were aiming for a 2010 release, so I'd say you have time to save the wasteland yet.

Shepard may not be dead, but if the follow the KoTOR model, I wouldn't count on him being playable. There are only so many ways you can explain how your character lost all the abilities he gained at the end of the last game, and frankly if i have to play another amnesiac hero in an RPG sequel I'm going to be a bit disappointed.

"Duh gee... just yesterday I could fire mind bullets. Now i can't get it together to use a knife and fork." Tired.

Personally I'd like to see your old save determine what Shepard looks like and how the choices you make affected the game universe. That would be enough for me. What would be really cool would be if your Paragon/Renegade choices in the first game determined whether Shep would be an ally or (at least at first) an obstacle in your quest.

Either way, I feel that Bioware has earned the benefit of the doubt, and I look forward to this one. Hell I've been looking forward to it since the first time i finished ME1.

ETA:

Readers of the latest Mass Effect novelization have been saying that all signs point to this being the explanation. I haven't read the book yet, but I'll probably pick it up this weekend.

Perhaps... Amnesia?

Please, please, please fix the homogeneity of all the interior structures on the different planets.

I agree......otherwise, a fun game.....

They -were- optional, you anal-retentives!

Please fix the worst inventory system ever invented.

Supposedly they had already fixed the inventory system in the PC version.

Wow, I can't believe they're trying to take the story even darker. I felt like the first game was too overwrought and serious ... I can't wait to see how I feel about the sequel.

Cannot wait for this. I haven't finished the first game. I got REALLY into the mood when I saw Star Trek, so I was playing pretty hardcore lately. Then my 360 broke. Fuck.

I'm still wondering if ME2 is going to come out for PS3. I have the original on the 360 but given how much I prefer the quiet gaming experience of the PS3 and that I'd like to share the game with my brother (who only has a PS3) I would be interested in having the choice. Of course, it could be hard choosing not to continue the adventures of Chappy Shephard.

Erk. Should I submit these via News next time?

Christ on a bicycle, that looks fucking great. I adored the first installment, and now that I have a brand new 360 (originally had my brothers for nearly two years) with no saved Shepherd on it, I look forward to going through it all over again in the leadup to this new game. Looks like it's only getting wider and more epic in scope which can only be a good thing for a space opera fiend like myself.

...and yes, mustache guy made my day.

Saw the vid, and ME2 looks great! Loved tge first game, read both books - bring on the sequel!

Another IGN article, looks like decisions made in the first game will affect Mass Effect 2 and 3.

This was the first I heard it was a planned trilogy (other than sequels to successful games being a foregone conclusion), that they had an overarching story in mind. Were they saying that when Mass Effect was released, pimping a trilogy from the beginning, or is this post-heavy-cashflow salesmanship?

Whatever, I don't really give a shit, I'm on board. Currently replaying as Renegade Commando Babe, and 5-6 months later (I was late to the party, as always) it's still fun as hell. The DLC was a fun diversion, too, with thankfully less punishing vehicle fights (man I suck with the Mako's guns).

Yeah, this was always intended to be a trilogy.

Thank god. I got really sick of "visit bland, same-y interior here, go mine minerals there, go collect data here, leave."

Don't forget those planets that were really harsh so you only had like 30 seconds to do anything outside of the Mako.

Well, it looks like Shepard is less dead than hinted.

I'm getting quite excited for another adventure with Chappy. I may have to finish my playthrough of the the first one where I don't kill Ashley Williams. You can stay behind and blow the nuke this time Kaidan (although I'd much rather just kill that jackass Garrus).

The trailer looks great and it's cool to see what may be a male quarian. I also think I spotted a weapon that looks like rocket launcher in this one. Thinking about it, that was something that I didn't even realize was missing from the first one until I saw it there.

Man... I just put down ME 1. I'm done with it, and I can't really be more dissappointed in a game. The load times never bothered me, but the rest of the unfinished shit was inexcusable. Battles where you die two seconds into them! Checkpoints before said battle that were BEFORE fucking dialogue! Driving mechanics that made me want to kill small children! Odd difficulty ramping battle to battle? AI "partners" who couldn't do SHIT!

I was so bummed. I really wanted to LOVE this game, and I loved the universe, the story and the characters a lot. I just couldn't stand another 20+ hours of horseshit gameplay to justify it. I'm an extremely forgivable gamer, but I think too many people gave this one a free pass.

Wait, you died in battles ... a lot? How did that happen? I don't recall dying very frequently in-game.

Then I must suck because as soon as I left the Citadel, the first battle was so awkward where my characters were dying with one shot sniper kills.

Maybe I did things out of order, but there wasn't enough direction then other than to hope you guessed right, then.

Oh yeah, I forgot how shitty the interface was. Figuring out what weapons and tech to hook you and your party up with was as bad as they come.

It's not like I haven't played RPGs, either. I finished and loved Fallout 3, KOTOR, and a bunch of others without issue.

Weird. I can kind of understand the bitching about the Mako (although I didn't have a huge problem with it) but I didn't think combat was ever a big problem.

How heavily did you abuse the ability to pause/give your squad orders? I found that a lot of time if I was getting overwhelmed, taking a moment to locate the visible enemies and choosing whatever special actions to issue to the squad gave me a chance to regroup and move to a better spot. Plus, once I was a SPECTER I could resuscitate my squadmates from a different room so I'd just send them into full rooms to get slaughtered for a while and chill out in the back.

And I've said this a ton of times now but the dour bleakness of the game can just be a little too much for me to handle. It's just such a joyless sterile world. I still loved the game once I could get into it but it took me 3 tries before I got far enough that I felt it was worth it.

The inventory system was quite crappy though, no disagreements there.

I'd give out commands, but maybe I was doing it wrong. It was just really frustrating for me which surprised me. Maybe some day I'll go back to it.

In the sense of 'unrelenting bleakness.' I don't see how else you could view the world of Mass Effect.

I didn't see it as bleak. I saw it as pretty pulpy. Great space opera fodder.

What did you see as bleak?

Once I got into the spirit of it, I was fine (well besides occasionally making fun for myself). I found the story more engaging than the one in KillZoSistanceOfWarDutyPoint 2 so I'm OK if that's how they want to go. I just found it to be a bit too gloomy and always taking itself too seriously.

If it weren't for the fact that it came out in a year where there were tons of great games that also came out at the time (Uncharted, Orange Box, Rock Band, CoD4, etc.) I would have probably played through it a second time almost immediately.

Since I know how much I enjoyed the first game in spite of that, it should be much easier for me to get into it the second time around and it wouldn't be something that will keep me from playing it. I am kind of interested to see how Dragon Age: Origin ends up comparing to it tone-wise as well.

ETA:
Off the top of my head: the fact that civilization is cyclically destroyed by an army of machines and that by the end you've only temporarily delayed their return. The plots themselves seemed to feature on extremely corrupt and ruined cities and individuals. The crummy way you're screwed over by people at every turn, the decision about the giant bugs on whatever planet that Matriarch Benezia is on, the weird vine thing that's at the colony, the whole back-story with the krogans.

Never mind just the generally bad things that seems to happen to everyone there. One of the side missions is "try to get a dead soldier's body back to their loved one." Another is "these two former business associates are angry at each other and trying to kill one another." You get your ship by forcing an admirable captain into retirement. The jackass diplomat who represents the humans in front of the council (or whatever it's called).

I can't believe this is actually an argument someone would need to have about the game. It's bleak. That's a tonal decision and if it didn't present any problem for you getting into the game, that's fine. I was just saying that for me, it was.

Hmmmm, my run through Mass Effect was more of a comedy, where Commander Shepard blasted her way across the galaxy, punching reporters and the mentally ill, shooting surrendering criminals, being wonderfully childish to her bosses and generally going all Judge Dredd on anything dumb enough to interfere with her investigations. Garnished with huge dollops of brilliantly voiced* withering sarcasm.


* Jen Hale did a superb job, they damn well better get her in for the sequel too, the male version was dull as fuck in comparison.

Wow, the first game is short. Admittedly, I was into the story to the point I was skipping most side-quests, but my first play through was 12 hours.

I will never, ever understand people that rush through story-based games.

I get it. It comes from a flaw in the game's design... They tell you how urgent your main mission is, then proceed to offer you 1001 distractions that have nothing to do with that mission. So if you get involved in the story, you feel like an asshole if you're delaying saving the galaxy to go dig up moon rocks. And if you get involved in the 'game' and do every side-quest, you become detached from the main story (if you can even remember it after puttering around randomly for days/weeks).

Fallout3 has the same problem. It's obviously not a deal-breaker, as both games are great. But they'd be even better if the side stories and main story didn't feel like two completely separate games fighting each other for your attention.

I was into the story and wanted to see the ending.

Also, the third time I hit a barren planet and was attacked by a Graboid-wannabe, I was through with that.

Fuck yeah.

*elbow-drops Trevor into a glass coffeetable*

I wonder what a heroic interrupt will consist of. In the middle of a heated diplomatic debate you can choose to take them to lunch on the company credit card to try and explain things in a calmer fashion?

I want the interrupt that lets me take on two alien chicks at the same time. Otherwise, this feature is a failure.

*INTERRUPT*

Choice A. Slip it in.
Choice B. Cuddle.

If it's anything like Mass Effect a HEROIC Interrupt will consist of Shepherd acting like as much of a pussy as possible. It was one of the things that infuriated me about Mass Effect, that the 'righteous' path was also the path of least resistance.

Half the time when you choose the "good" response it just feels like Shepherd was just duped.