Well, it is out next week. Gamestop just called me about my preorder - the coupon for their preorder DLC is ready for me to pick up. I think my purchase of Dragon Age also entitled me to some kind of ME2 armour DLC.

All the early impressions I've read of the game talk about the improvements made over the original ME, and I really liked that one!

More info about the launch day DLC:

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/106/1061782p1.html

I don't mind the publishers trying to sweeten the appeal of buying a new copy of a game. I really hope that they haven't gimped the game in any way that only paying for DLC can fix (like they did in Dragon Age).

Very excited about this one as well. If they improved on ME1 it should be a fantastic game.

Very limited reviews so far, but all have been extremely positive.

Also this interesting tidbit from Penny Arcade (regarding playing ME2 on the PC after playing ME1 on the 360):


I decided to ask Chris Priestly, Bioware Community Coordinator Person, exactly to what extent I was ****ed on this. I've read quite a bit on how you can bring over your old character, which is obviously a much appreciated nod to a bygone RPG era, but I haven't read much about my own situation. It's a little more broad than you'd think, because there are many reasons why you might not have access to a file from two ****ing years ago. I was shocked to hear his reply: that they had fully accounted for this. When creating a new character, you can go down a list of key decisions and set them manually.

So far we have about 27 critic scores and tracking about a 97.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/masseffect2?tag=topslot;title;1


I am just happy to have been apart of BioWare during these past 4 years ... Generally if you can say, you have shipped a 90+ metacritic game a few times in your career then you have done well. Sometimes I feel it is just too easy at BioWare :p

whatever, enjoy the game ... it really is as good as they say. (on my 4th play through atm)

:cool:

Without derailing this thread too much. In the first ME is there no option to save the game? I bought it and am like the Citadel part looking for some contacts or something. When does the game save? Sorry I was playing late last night and can't remember if there is a save option.

This will kind of be a decision factor for buying ME2. Long story.

For the 360? I played it last night just to get back into things. I'm pretty sure I hit the Start button. One of the options is to Save...

Also, a bit of a DLC hitch has been encountered already:

http://kotaku.com/5457371/mass-effect-2s-downloadable-companion-delayed


Zaeed shows up as downloadable content in the Mass Effect 2 menu on the Xbox 360, but when you try to download the grizzled warrior, he isn't available. According to a forum post on the BioWare Social Network titled "Zaeed - unavailable for X360 until Wednesday/Thursday." it'll be another day or two before he makes his debut.

"Sorry all, we've had some delays with Zaeed. Your Cerberus account should still be able to access Normandy crash."

Not overly impressed so far with a couple hours in. Graphics are a disappointment after being told by a friend that it is gorgeous (360), and facial animations are not the best. Sometimes there are weird jerky movements when talking to people as well. Gameplay is alright though. Hopefully a more engaging storyline will evolve and make up for its shortcomings.

About 5 hours in and I'm fully enthralled. It started out a little sketchy for me but now its INCREDIBLE!

*stubles out of my man-cave, blinking at the bright light...*

Derrr, what day is it now? :p

Yeah, it's pretty darn good. There are nitpicks, but overall this is probably what people were hoping ME1 was going to be.

I miss the weapon and armour varieties from ME1, but the cumbersome inventory system has been wiped out so that's a decent trade off.

*edit* - I found this comment from an IGN editor that says what I am feeling about the game pretty well:

From - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1064914p2.html


From what I've heard in the office there is near universal praise for Mass Effect 2. But this isn't a perfect game, it's a heavily streamlined version of Mass Effect 1. BioWare took nearly everything that people complained about in the first one and stripped it from the experience. What we're left with is a brilliant conversation system interspersed with tactical shooting. Aside from allocating a few experience points and grinding through the very simple upgrade system, there just isn't much of what we lovingly refer to as "RPG elements." This will ultimately attract a wider audience by tricking a whole lot of Halo/Gears fans into role playing. I prefer to get my hands dirty with item management, branching skill trees, and weapon creation. But as much as I try to hold on to a few outdated gaming ideals, I can't deny that Mass Effect 2 is one of the best role playing experiences ever made.


I have to give credit to Bioware for their improvement to the combat system. This is easily the best combat system I've ever played in a BioWare game.

I played ME1 on my 360 and enjoyed it immensely. Now I'm playing Dragon Age, and thankfully I was given the heads up that it was a much better game on the PC (much like Oblivion).

So is ME2 great on the 360? That's my preferred gaming device. If it's ME1 with a smoothed down interface, it sounds perfect.

I've been playing it for a couple of days now on the 360 and while I can't say the graphics are greatly improved over the original, there might be some slight upgrades that I haven't detected. The elevator rides are now more bearable with interesting graphic animations during load screens. The weapon upgrade system is nice as the inventory system in ME1 was a nightmare in comparison.

The one nit-pick I have so far is the scanning for minerals on planets. I recommend finding the 15K Iridium as quickly as you can to upgrade the mining scanner on the ship as it doubles the speed of the scan. Also, don't spend much time on planets where the scanner reports poor results, look for planets that are rich. I'm not sure why they put this in there, I almost preferred going down in the Mako and driving around to find resources. At least that was fun driving around.

Mass Effect is an amazing game. I wish the wallet would let me pick this one up.

I've been playing it for a couple of days now on the 360 and while I can't say the graphics are greatly improved over the original, there might be some slight upgrades that I haven't detected.

You should try going back to ME1 now. The differences will be more obvious. The most noticeable thing is that the texture loading problems from ME1 are gone.


The one nit-pick I have so far is the scanning for minerals on planets. I recommend finding the 15K Iridium as quickly as you can to upgrade the mining scanner on the ship as it doubles the speed of the scan. Also, don't spend much time on planets where the scanner reports poor results, look for planets that are rich. I'm not sure why they put this in there, I almost preferred going down in the Mako and driving around to find resources. At least that was fun driving around.

I agree totally. They replaced one grind with another. In fact, the need to grind away for minerals in ME2 is pretty high, as you can't upgrade your weapons without it.

I do wish they had gone a different way with the inventory system and item upgrades. I liked the fact that different armour had different properties in ME1, and wearing different armour changed the appearance of your squad members.

Now it looks like most of your team goes into battle wearing jumpsuits. Or dental floss.

Again, this is mostly nitpicking. I'm still having a blast playing - I'm about 35 hours in and haven't made it back to disc 1 yet.

I'm glad they are making better use of Seth Green this time around too. His talent was kind of wasted in ME1.

Finished the game last night. I really liked the final mission. Very fun, and surprisingly tense. The final boss battle wasn't that bad. But I'm upping the difficulty on my next playthrough. I imagine at more advanced levels the bigger battles won't be so easy.

Again lots of choices to make. I'm glad I beat ME1 with two characters - a male renegade and a female paragon. I can't wait to see how my jerky renegade choices from ME1 affect things in ME2...

ah yea the final battle ... that was one of my levels in fact. That went through a lot of long meetings and ideas before it became what it is now. Glad you enjoyed it ... the end game has been getting some mixed reviews from bad to "best ending ever". If you crank up the difficulty settings the end battle is hard but I have played harder end bosses before. I dunno ... how many times does a player have to die before it is too hard?

also ... yea go back and play ME1, the lighting changes we made where very much under the hood of the engine ... but you should be able to spot them. I could go into detail about the tech surrounding it but I have a feeling no one will care or understand.

anyway it has been a nice few weeks sitting back and well ... celebrating. My liver is going to need some r&r after this month that is for sure :p

grumble...Stupid game kept me up until 3 am and about 15 hours of playing yesterday. After a bit of skepticism at the start, it's a Fantastic game with 25 hours in. MAN, Miranda looks hot in her skin tight black outfit, YEEESH! Definitely suggesting that outfit to the wife as they look eerily alike.

Ran into a glitch though. After "freeing" Maelon on Tuchunka, I decided to look around and hack his computer. It said to push "B" to end the mission but it wouldn't. Sheperd would just sit there and throw punches. Tried for about 5 minutes pushing all the buttons and triggers, wouldn't save, then had to quit to the 360 dashboard. Thankfully it put me right back to the room with Maelon when I started it up again.

Need a break today as my eyes feel like sand after that. Little Zombieland and Planet Hulk.

I think I am about half way through the game. Really enjoying it so far, but the planet scanning is pretty boring/repetitive. Playing through with an imported character, but it has been so long since I played the first, that I don't remember all of the decisions I made... I am liking the streamlined inventory system and the improved combat. The story started off slowly, but seems to be picking up speed now. Just wanted to say that it is cool to have someone commenting on here who actually worked on the game. Proud to see a Canadian game getting a lot of attention (both positive and negative...). I honestly had no idea that there were game studios in Edmonton. Please feel free to share more of your experiences in working on the game, I'm sure your recent relaxation time is well deserved!

I wrote Jennifer Hale a fan email.

I had to. She makes the game for me.

Well, after 42 hours of incredibleness (did WAY too much exploring), colour me MASSively EFFECTed by this game. This is a phenomenal game and the battle at the end was SUPER intense. Unfortunately I lost Garrus and Thane, the two guys I loved using the most due to their Squad Armour piercing and Squad Shredding ammo. I'll try to make decisions so that Jack and Zaeed are the ones I lose the second time through (morons, they always needed to be revived WAY to quickly), which I am going to do as a hard ass adept &!+<# (LOVE the singularity power, sad at the loss of the assassins cloak though).

And I have to agree Dioneo, Jennifer Hale has great voice acting.

Great Job Bioware. Cannot wait for the 3rd installment.

My second playthough on Hardcore has made combat a lot more challenging and enjoyable.

Damn level cap.