Funny, the description, picture, and name are all identical. It even says both are intended for Krogan use. Plus, I haven't seen any major damage difference betweent the two shotguns when Grunt is in my squad. At least that is the case with the PC version. And with all three of those guns that you can pick up, only Shepherd can use them, reguardless of what weapon types your squad can equip. I've checked on all three.

Product Placement
my arousing success

Goodness me! You and Skool are such hornbags...
You and your amorous adventures.

Oh come on, just take a look at the guy , he's a dinosaur with a sniper rifle. You can't get more awesome than that. EXCEPT SOMEHOW HE MANAGES TO BE

I bet that sniper rifle is a hefty calibre... Prolly has a hair trigger though :(

You're just trying to bait me now, aren't you. T_T This reply is just vaidating you

If you want to see the distillation of Garrus's character and awesomeness then you should watch this video :kitty: Garrus Loyalty Quest spoilers! Guy's a goddamn predator, that's all. A predator with a... hm. Well not really a heart of gold at all.

err.... hm, well the last part is in this video around 1:19. one of the outcomes anyway.

Looks amazing. O_O

His face reminds me of a cat.

isukun
Funny, the description, picture, and name are all identical. It even says both are intended for Krogan use. Plus, I haven't seen any major damage difference betweent the two shotguns when Grunt is in my squad. At least that is the case with the PC version. And with all three of those guns that you can pick up, only Shepherd can use them, reguardless of what weapon types your squad can equip. I've checked on all three.

That's odd. In the X-Box version, the ones I can pick up are just the standard issues that everybody can use. The only guns that I can use that nobody else can are the heavy weapons.

The heavy shotgun is exclusive to the Krogan. Even the description specifically states that the recoil is too great for humans to handle. There's also an exclusive sniper riffle for another teamate that only he can get. I don't remember seeing an exclusive assault riffle.

Just tried playing the end mission again. Apparantly it IS possible to loose team members if you pick different people to do different tasks, despite having everything fully upgraded. If anyones interested in going through the final mission with a 100% survival rate and doesn't care to look through the spoilers, I offer this possible duty rooster.

#Cue the "bow chicka bow wow" music for Oz#
Pick Miranda to lead the second squad and Legion to be the tech specialist. Go through the first section with Grunt and Jack (since she doesn't want to work with Miranda). Pick Jacob for the escort mission, Samara as the Biotics specialist and Miranda to be the secondary team leader again. I've tried running the second section with Tali and Thane once and with Jack and Grunt again. Both times, everything ran smoothly. For the third and final section I picked Mordin and Garrus as my teamates, while the rest of the crew bunkered down to buy me some time. When I chose other team members to accompany me to the final section, Mordin ends up dying in the off screen firefight. Mordin is not so bad to have around for the final section either. He just so happens to have one of the very few powers that can affect the final boss. All Garrus was useless agains the final boss but he was good at keeping the minnions at bay while I focused on the big bad.

So that's how I did it. I'm interested to hear if anyone figured out an alternative solution that resulted in a 100% survival rate.

Oh. And I picked the renegade ending again. It's not that it's a cooler ending or anything. It's just that it's too good of an opportunity to pass up, despite the risk. My "boss" also makes a very compelling argument.


Warning! Mayor Spoiler!
If you find yourself with the option of either destroying an enemy base with technology, that's light years ahead of your side or releasing a radiation wave that will kill everyone aboard but leave the base intact for you to take over and studdy, what would you do?
Con: You're handing it over to a Human supremasist who will undoubtetly attempt use it for his own advantage, gaining more power and influence within the Human alliance while supressing the alien allies.
Pro: That same man is also the only person who's willing to work with you, preparing to defend against an overwhelming inter-galactic invasion. When the council is unvilling to listen, I have to give the one who's willing to do so all the advantage he can get. I would have gladly handed the base over to the council if that had been an alternative choice.

I wasn't done with all the missions yet, so I used a different save and ran through to the end of the game because the anticipation was killing me.

Amazing stuff in that last hour, amazing. Great stuff. Well done BioWare :]

Even the description specifically states that the recoil is too great for humans to handle.

And the descriptions says the exact same thing for the shotgun that you pick up in the PC version. The descriptions, pictures and names of both guns are identical.

isukun
And the descriptions says the exact same thing for the shotgun that you pick up in the PC version. The descriptions, pictures and names of both guns are identical.

Well ain't that something? Must be a PC glitch or something. Either that or you somehow unlocked those guns. Did you get some promotional codes with your game?

Thanks to skoolmunkee, I've been looking through youtube videos, checking out various Mass Effect 2 clips (I'm surprised how many there are already). Found this one that made me smile.



Good times.

Just about every dialogue choice you can make in the game has some sort of humorous follow up... the one you linked to is special though (for ME1 players) :]

I have a couple of save points I kept because I wanted to be able to redo a mission, and I like to try and get new dialogue. :] It would basically take forever since you would have to keep changing out your party members to get most of them, as there seems to be an 'interchangable set' of defaults, and a couple of character-specific ones.

Garrus has a great one at the end of the abandoned Collector ship (the first one, not the second one): If you have him in your team, and you choose the renegade responses at the end... something like "he betrayed us!" Garrus says in this really put-upon voice "and here I thought one betrayal and attempted murder was enough for one year."

I can't pick a favorite line from the game. :[ It would have to be a Garrus one though.

Yeah. I remembered those ME1 elevator rides well enough to appreciate that joke.

I've already mentioned couple of lines that I thought was gold. Just stick to the engineering section. It's full of them.

You know what I find crazy? I found a youtube video where someone had recorded and compiled ALL the possible sex scenes you can get out of the game. The game's been around for a week! How can people have this much of a free time? It's crazy!

Wow...

How interesting. Just noticed a comment that somebody pointed out.

There's an admiral on the Quarian micrant fleet called Zall'koris vas Qwib Qwib ('vas' means 'from' and Qwib Qwib is the name of his ship). You can make fun of the name and he explains that his ship is among many alien vessels that the Quarians have acquired over the time. Unfortunately for him, it has been proven difficult to alter the ship's registry information so he's stuck with that rather silly name. He then admits he's often pondered to transfer to a ship with a more respectable name, like the Defrahnz or the Iktomi. Now, if he'd actually do that, he would be called Zall'koris vas Defrahnz (vas deferens) or vas Iktomi (vasectony).

That's a very subtle joke. I'd never noticed that if somebody hadn't pointed it out.

The game's been around for a week! How can people have this much of a free time?

People were playing the game a good week before it hit stores thanks to a leaked copy and piracy. There was a series of videos showing an entire playthrough of the game on youtube before you could even buy it.

Product Placement
You know what I find crazy? I found a youtube video where someone had recorded and compiled ALL the possible sex scenes you can get out of the game. The game's been around for a week! How can people have this much of a free time? It's crazy!

I've only done a quick (non-final) endgame run, but it looks like afterward you can dump whoever you picked before, and then go get the others. (Not sure if you get the last part though...) So if you can pick up the others quickly like that, you don't actually have to play the full game so many times.

Not that it really takes all that long to play through the game, especially when you can skip half of it on later play throughs.

isukun
Not that it really takes all that long to play through the game, especially when you can skip half of it on later play throughs.

Skip it how? You don't have to do the loyalty missions again? Do the upgrades carry over into the second playthrough? I haven't started a brand new campaign with my first character so I'm completely green in that department. I only know that the game told me that if I start over again with the same character I'll get some bonuses.

It's just that I'm an extreme completionist. I have to scan every planet (for anomalies (I'm not crazy enough to look for every mineral on every planet)), check every crevice, talk to every person, methodically ask about everything or I get this annoying feeling that I didn't do it right. The thought of someone actually pulling of a video like that, so quickly seemed mind boggling to me.

You don't have to SCAN every planet for anomalies. EDI will tell you there is one when the planet info screen pops up.

I think what Isukun meant was that if you're just replaying the game to get to specific points or to record bits of dialogue, you don't need to worry about upgrades, loyalty, etc. The first time you play you probably would want to do everything, but later maybe not. Even if you do plan to do a second playthrough to the endgame, for example, if you never use a character then you won't bother doing their loyalty mission.

I'm not going to start a second playthrough yet (though I might use some spare time today to get through the beginning), but I'm not going to super-complete it again. I've got a couple things I want to do, like intentionally recruit the 'last' character as soon as possible so I can bring him on missions to see what he says, which will impact my ending, or choose all the opposite dialogue options... and I'm not going to care so much about completing every little thing.

I think if you start a newgame+ you can choose an additional special power like Warp Ammo, Disruptor, etc. I believe you retain your level, some money and resources, but still have to get all the upgrades etc. That is part of the challenge of the new game- you are a higher level, but don't have the upgraded weapons or ammo, so enemies are significantly more difficult.

Edit: All of the above is true, and you get to keep your pickup weapons. Still have to find the upgrades and buy them in the lab though. You at least get to respec your teammates once you pick them up again.

I haven't reached the end yet but, from what I've played so far, I think ME2 is going to be loved by anyone who enjoyed the first game but it isn't going to win over anyone who didn't.

Whilst I don't agree with Isukn's general view of Bioware games (I love them as much as he seems to loathe them!), I'd have to agree that some of the much lauded changes are actually changes for the worse.

Okay, so people didn't like the elevator sections. I'm not sure why; they were simply loading screens and at least you had the exchanges between party members to keep you amused. Now, instead of elevators we have ... olde worlde type loading screens! Yup - unchanging, colourless and boring - just like every other loading screen in the history of gaming. Useful only for giving you time to leave the console and make a cup of tea!

And exploring planets in the MAKO? A lot of people hated that, and so much has been made of the fact that Bioware took it out. Not so much has been made of the fact that, what they've replaced it with is even more irritating and mind-numbingly dull. Seriously, what kind of gamer would get any kind of pleasure out of dragging a scanning reticule over a planet's surface? At a snail's pace? Time and time and time again?! God, this made me feel nostalgic for the MAKO! In fact, I have a suspicion it might just be part of a plot to make us all scream for the return of the MAKO in ME3!

That said, I love the changes to inventory management (there isn't any!) and, whilst I can't see the point of the changes to the levelling up procedures (different but no better and no worse than those in ME1), they don't bother me. Too much. Even the combat system (supposedly the most re-worked aspect of the game) feels little different to me. There is a greater need to use cover but that's about it.

In short, as far as the changes are concerned, I'm surprised that so many reviews have been determined to tell us how good they are. Some make the game worse, and the positive ones make very little difference at all. But ... that's not the point really. None of those things affect what really makes a Bioware game stand out from the pack.

The story-telling techniques in ME2, the characters' back-stories, their individual personalities and your dialogue/relationships with them are all as perfectly honed as in ME1. Forget about all the changes. If you didn't like the focus on story and character development in ME1, then be warned - ME2 is more of the same. If you did enjoy ME1, however, then it's a safe bet that it was because of those aspects, in which case, go get yourself a copy of ME2 now. The story and characters in ME2 are every bit as involving, funny and exciting as in the original!

Skip it how?

You don't have to recruit all the characters to get to the end of the game. Plus, as has been mentioned, all of the character loyalty missions are technically optional. There are only about four or five actualy story missions in the game, everything else is character recruitment (some of which are optional), loyalty quests (all of which are optional) and side quests (all of which are optional and most of which are pointless). If you're trying to do something specific and you've already gone through the game once, it really shouldn't take more than six to eight hours for a quick play through.

(I love them as much as he seems to loathe them!)

I actually kind of like Dragon Age. I was hoping it would be a sign of things to come with Mass Effect, but Bioware kind of took it in the opposite direction.

isukun
Pointless missions

Pointless or not, you're still going to need to do those loyalty missions if you wish to get into the sack with those characters. So my hat still goes off for the guy who did that compilation video.

While you probably don't see the point of redoing those loyalty missions, over and over again, I think it's probably wise to do them all during a gameplay that you intend to carry on over to ME3. I have a feeling that getting through the game with all of your characters loyal, where nobody dies, is likely to give you big bonuses in the third game. Already do I see hints that some of my actions in the first game had positive (or negative) effects on the overall game progress. It looks to me like that the big storyline has the potential to move into two extremes, depending on how you play it. A paragon player will have gathered lots of allies for the final, final fight, uniting most of the alien races under a single banner that can defy the big enemy while the renegade player will simply buff up humanity enough to be able to take care of it on their own.

To make examples, I can name a few.
If you spare the Rachni queen in the first game, you get a message from her in the second, informing you that she wishes to help fight the Reapers. If Wrex survives the first game, he returns to his homeworld to unify his race, thus strengthening it for the upcoming invasion. During the course of this game, it's heavily hinted that you can help bridge some sort of peace between the Quarians and the Geth. As you play the second game, you can get few chances to plant seeds for that to happen.
These are all paragon examples since I haven't experienced the Renegade storyline but I assume that the renegade will ruin most of those opportunities (for example, by killing the Rachni queen). Instead he becomes instrumental in helping humanity take full control over the galactic body that most of the milky way races belong to and eventually give Cerberus a technological boost that will ensure that nobody can defy the humans in the foreseeable future.

So can people say that I'm exited to see how ME3 will turn out to be like? I think it's safe to assume that.

Well I for one am finding the game fun.
The controls are a little too "consoly" and simplified, and there are little bugs and silly small things that could be improved, but it's an enjoyable experience all told. None of that niggling stuff detracts from it as a whole. And I didn't even play the first one :)

It's more like a movie than a game really. -an interactive movie.

It's amazing how bad writing and boring gameplay have become "niggling stuff" these days. It's really kind of sad that people are starting to get comfortable with that "flash over substance" attitude. We could have so much better, but we don't because people are willing to settle for mediocrity.

I won't apologize for my below-perfect standards, especially not when it comes to video games where I can do it with the most amazing alien bro in the galaxy :colbert:

Heh.


Plus, feeding the fish is such a silly gimmick. I mean, can't I hire someone to do that for me? I'm the captain for crying out loud.


Fine isukun. You want to hate the game that much then be my guest. I don't think I'm settling for anything. I actually found this game to be quite enjoyable (putting the scans aside).

skoolmunkee
You don't have to SCAN every planet for anomalies. EDI will tell you there is one when the planet info screen pops up.

Yeah, I meant that I only scanned the planets with anomalies. Once I hat enough of that mineral crap, I stopped scanning the planets that I visited unless EDI budded in.

All my fish died... I didn't realise you had to feed them every single time. Can't they just eat each other? >:\

isukun
It's amazing how bad writing and boring gameplay have become "niggling stuff" these days. It's really kind of sad that people are starting to get comfortable with that "flash over substance" attitude. We could have so much better, but we don't because people are willing to settle for mediocrity.

lol! That's not what I meant by "niggling". What I meant by that was the limited movement your characters have (no jump, duck, roll, crouch, climb etc) and the really limited hud for you condition.

The gameplay is more interesting than an ordinary shooter... So "boring" in that sense is highly relative.
As for "bad writing", it's not really that bad. It's clunky in places, with lots of cliche, logical errors, and heaps of illogical silly Sci-Fi inventions and bad conventions, but in that sense it's no different from any Hollywood movie, even the A level ones with the biggest budgets. But unlike a movie, I can get more involved in this so it's way better :)

I don't expect perfection every time in everything, or even anywhere close to it. Often, if something gives me a really good time I'm willing to forgive. -not all the time, but this is one of those cases.
Obviously for you it wasn't and it didn't give you a good time. That's too bad.

ozoneocean
lol! That's not what I meant by "niggling". What I meant by that was the limited movement your characters have (no jump, duck, roll, crouch, climb etc) and the really limited hud for you condition.

The only one of those I really missed was the ability to crouch-run, or roll into cover. I look at them jogging around in heavy-looking armor with lots of guns strapped (magnetized?) to themselves, and I can't imagine them jumping or climbing. However crouching and rolling would have been useful. :[ Half the reason I chose Infiltrator was because I figured the cloaking would come in handy if I had to switch cover. (The other half was the sniping :3)


Apparently you can get Kelly to feed your fish, but not until fairly late in the game.

Yeah, my guy had dinner late last night with Kelly in his cabin as I was staying up LATE last night playing the damn game -_-
Now she wants to feed the fish, so I'll have to buy some new ones.

I was told you get to have a Hanar spectre named Blasto on your team. Not sure I'd want a hanar on my team at all. Yeah, great firepower, but in the end it's just another stupid Jellyfish/Glass Gun Emplacement...

"It's a big. stupid. jellyfish." ME1 Renegade :smug:

Blasto is on Illium the same way Elcor Hamlet is on the Citadel.

"This one does not have time for your solid waste excretions."