Mass Effect 2

Aazealh · December 14, 2009

Eluvei said:
Whatever the case, the companies that had anything to do with the PC version should have paid more attention to the quality of the port

Definitely, but this has nothing to do with the errors in your post I kindly pointed out. The development of ME1's PC version compared to that of ME2's took place in a completely different context. I wouldn't be worried about the new game.

Eluvei said:
I didn't complain when I had these issues

Well you just did. :iva:

Eluvei · December 14, 2009

Walter said:
*shrugs*

The PC port runs fine and looks fine on my machine. I just had to toy with some video settings, just like any other PC game. The only real complaint I have is that dynamic lighting often looks like it doesn't wrap to textures well, but that can be tweaked in the config file so that it works properly.

That certainly isn't making me hesitate at all to purchase ME2 on the PC. In fact, without question I'd get the PC version even if I owned a 360.

I had quite a bit of other issues. The sound kept being chopped off in a lot of conversations, the game kept crashing non-stop in two parts (once in Feros, once in Noveria during some conversations), and my settings would return to being set to "low" even after I edited them on BIOEngine.ini countless times over. I eventually fixed most of these, although the game kept crashing on my second playthrough. But I'm also not worried, these compatibility issues are obviously because of it being a rushed port.

Aazealh said:
Definitely, but this has nothing to do with the errors in your post I kindly pointed out.

You're right. Thank you for correcting me.

Aazealh said:
Well you just did.

But I didn't formally complain to them, which I could have, since I did, after all, pay for the game.
But you're right, I complained here, and I said I didn't do so immediately after. I'm sorry. I promise I'll try not to make such childish mistakes again. :iva:

Aazealh · December 14, 2009

All of this just reinforces my belief that one should always go for the original version. :slan:

Walter · December 14, 2009

I'd like to reiterate that most PC games these days have some problems, particularly with video issues. That's because of the myriad side effects of different brands of hardware all working together. No one system is designed like the other, so it's very difficult for any developer to draw a straight line through any ONE system rig.

But, one of the advantages of PC, there are always workarounds.

Eluvei said:
The sound kept being chopped off in a lot of conversations,

I'd recommend you change your sound card's audio conversion to run at "medium" in your control panel if it's currently running in "highest." That's a fix-all for games these days.

my settings would return to being set to "low" even after I edited them on BIOEngine.ini countless times over.

The way you're "supposed" to change your video settings is in the video config utility outside the game. It's listed in the launcher. That's one of the only ways to get your settings to "stick."

Aazealh said:
All of this just reinforces my belief that one should always go for the original version.

Pfffffffffffffffffffff :beast:

Aazealh · December 14, 2009

Walter said:
Pfffffffffffffffffffff

Don't worry, with the two versions being developed in parallel this time around, I'm sure they'll receive equal amounts of love from Bioware. :serpico:

Walter · December 14, 2009

I forgot to mention that I logged about 8 hours in ME1 yesterday afternoon.

I started a new character, intending to do a speed run, but about 30 minutes in, I ditched that plan. Instead, I finished up most of the side quests for the character Ill be importing to ME2. I hadn't even done either DLC missions with him, so I finished them up in one sitting. Vanguard is the superior class. :SK:

Bring Down The Sky is still one of my favorite missions in the game... By the end of Pinnacle Station, I had about 6 million credits at my apartment, so I spent a lot of it on the roulette type equipment vendor in the console there. Got some great gear. Spectre Gear X!

Oh yeah, and a bit of news for the thread, I did some reading on how imported saves will work for ME2, apparently you'll get the opportunity to change classes and the way your character looks even after you import them. That's great, because my main looks like a fucking mongoloid with a neckbeard. I'll happily change him to the default Shepard for ME2.

Eluvei · December 19, 2009

Walter said:
I'd recommend you change your sound card's audio conversion to run at "medium" in your control panel if it's currently running in "highest." That's a fix-all for games these days.

Didn't work. In my case, the latest driver for my onboard soundcard had issues with the game. I had to use the generic one that came with Windows 7.

Walter said:
The way you're "supposed" to change your video settings is in the video config utility outside the game. It's listed in the launcher. That's one of the only ways to get your settings to "stick."

This didn't work, my settings simply didn't save no matter what I did. After searching in portuguese, I found a dude with the same issue, and he sent me his settings. Somehow, by replacing mine with his, it saved. The shadows became kinda weird though for some reason.

Thanks for the tips, though.

Walter said:
Bring Down The Sky is still one of my favorite missions in the game...

There are so many details in the asteroid. That's the best DLC I've ever seen, and that's how they all should be: long, with a nice story and awesome. Well, I still didn't play Pinnacle Station, so I can't be sure.

Walter said:
apparently you'll get the opportunity to change classes and the way your character looks even after you import them.

This is very nice of them. Well, I was already planning to make the ultimate playthrough to import the character to ME2 so I probably won't take advantage of it. I just finished the game two times after all, it's simply not enough, I most likely missed something.

Mass Effect 2 is now available for pre-order on Direct2Drive. No Digital Deluxe anything.

$49.95, with the Iron Man costume only. And as expected from D2D, only for Canada and the United States.

I'm a little worried about Steam not annoucing it after so long, I hope they're planning something special. I'll be very dissapointed if I end up having to order the game overseas and wait at least until March to play it, especially because there are no Collectors' Editions available for pre-order anymore.

Walter · December 19, 2009

Eluvei said:
$49.95, with the Iron Man costume only.

Can we just call the Inferno Armor by its official name instead of this parody? I don't want to have to be the guy to reply to someone new to the thread asking "Is Iron Man in the ME galaxy?! That's DUMB!"

And I wouldn't worry about Steam. It's the premiere digital download marketplace. It will have ME2. And ME2 has been available to preorder on D2D for about 2-3 months now, so it's nothing new. It's likely that BioWare simply hasn't rolled out its collector's edition for the digital marketplaces, and that Direct2Drive's "deal" with the Inferno Armor is going to be the standard digital edition.

Eluvei · December 19, 2009

Walter said:
Can we just call the armor by its official name instead of this parody? I don't want to have to be the guy to reply to someone new to the thread asking "Is Iron Man in the ME galaxy?! That's DUMB!"

Oh, come on, it can't be a coincidence! I mean, look at it! :iva:

Walter said:
And I wouldn't worry about Steam. It's the premiere digital download market. It will have ME2. And ME2 has been available to preorder on D2D for about 2-3 months now, so it's nothing new.

Oh, my bad, I didn't see it there until today. But didn't the Digital Deluxe edition get available along with the standard Dragon Age for all digital stores? Or did it get the "Upgrade to Digital Deluxe" option later?

Well, maybe I am worrying too much about Steam, but I'm trying to be careful with my options. I would seriously have to wait nearly two months after buying, and pay almost 50 dollars extra for taxes if I had to buy a retail copy overseas. And that would still make it faster and cheaper than to wait for my country's official release. :azan:

Walter · December 19, 2009

Eluvei said:
Oh, my bad, I didn't see it there until today. But didn't the Digital Deluxe edition get available along with the standard Dragon Age for all digital stores? Or did it get the "Upgrade to Digital Deluxe" option later?

I answered this in an edited version of my post above.

Well, maybe I am worrying too much about Steam, but I'm trying to be careful with my options.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2953/ This was the official announcement for DA:O being offered on Steam. It came about 3 weeks before the game was made available. So, if that's the standard for BioWare, we can expect ME2 to be OFFICIALLY available for pre-order on Steam and other digital download sites sometime in early January.

I'd like to reiterate how crazy it'd be for Steam not to get ME2. They slam dunked exclusive rights to Modern Warfare 2, the biggest game release of the year (possibly ever). I'm 99.999999% sure that Valve can negotiate a deal with BioWare, especially since there's already precedent set with how successful Steam was with Dragon Age.

Proj2501 · December 22, 2009

Just like the slow acting mind control power of Sovereign itself, Aaz got into my head and convinced me to download Mass Effect. Which took a lot of convincing because I was convinced this game would suck and suck hard.

I was wrong.

This was my first time starting and finishing an RPG. (Demon's Souls made my bum bum hurt) :judo:

Aside from technical issues I really, really enjoyed this. It all took a bit to get used to but after 6 hours I wanted nothing more but to continue kicking Geth ass.

I also just downloaded the first of the 2 DLCs and began a 2nd play-through. I played the first time being as diplomatic and nicey nice as I possibly could. So, this time around it's almost comical what a snot Shepard can be. :ubik:

The trailer released today looks pretty damn sexy too.

[Spoiler removed by Walter]

What has me really excited is the use of your saved game file from part 1 in the sequel. That's awesome. Has a game ever done that before? (Again, RPG virgin here...well, not anymore.)

Oburi · December 22, 2009

Proj2501 said:
Just like the slow acting mind control power of Sovereign itself, Aaz got into my head and convinced me to download Mass Effect. Which took a lot of convincing because I was convinced this game would suck and suck hard.

You thought it would suck? Pretty much everyone on skullknight (the big important members anyway) have been praising this game nonstop. I admit I didn't like it when I first played it, which was right when it was released. But after all talk about it here I gave it another shot a year later and fell into a deep, passionate love with the Mass Effect universe. :guts:

What has me really excited is the use of your saved game file from part 1 in the sequel. That's awesome. Has a game ever done that before? (Again, RPG virgin here...well, not anymore.)

Seriously. I haven't played a serious rpg that has done this since Suikoden and Suikoden 2, which was one the greatest things about those games. And I never thought a modern, next gen rpg that i love so much would ever have this feature again. But Mass Effect is it. This will be the most epic game to kick off the new year, nay, the new decade!

Aazealh · December 22, 2009

Proj2501 said:
I also just downloaded the first of the 2 DLCs and began a 2nd play-through. I played the first time being as diplomatic and nicey nice as I possibly could. So, this time around it's almost comical what a snot Shepard can be.

You haven't seen the best yet, believe me. :guts:

Proj2501 said:
[Spoiler removed by Walter]

I thought it had been made clear no spoilers were allowed! You know what happens to people who post spoilers? :femto:

Proj2501 said:
What has me really excited is the use of your saved game file from part 1 in the sequel. That's awesome. Has a game ever done that before? (Again, RPG virgin here...well, not anymore.)

Not to the extent Mass Effect is doing it. It's never-seen-before mechanics. Prepare yourself for the best RPG that will ever grace the world (until ME3)!

Oburi said:
You thought it would suck? Pretty much everyone on skullknight (the big important members anyway) have been praising this game nonstop.

Some people are less receptive to my persuasion skills than others. In the spirit of Christmas I was magnanimous with Proj and only requested 10 lashings.

Walter · December 22, 2009

I also didn't like ME when I first played it. The game starts you out with Eden Prime, which is fun, but you really have no idea what you're doing at that point in the game, since there's no tutorial. Then, you're grounded at the Citadel for a handful of hours before you can finally explore the universe. Those first few crucial hours really don't make a convincing case for the game. But if you get through that, it really takes off and comes into its own.

It took Aaz to convince me to give the game a second chance, and I am grateful for the advice :casca:

Also a reminder, I will delete ANY spoilers about ME2, whether they're spoil tagged or not. Please refrain from discussing story/character/plot details until a few weeks after the game's release. After that, spoiler-tagged discussions will be allowed.

Proj2501 · December 22, 2009

Oh, one more thing. Deleting older ammo upgrades was by far the most annoying aspect of the game for me. At one point in the game I found myself holding 150 items, the bulk being ammo upgrades. I thought when it came time to sort things out and delete the older stuff I had to scroll down all the way to the bottom and omni-gel it and just continue. But No. I was whisked all the way back to the tippity top of my rather long list of ammo upgrades. This torture went on and on.

Oburi · December 22, 2009

Walter said:
I also didn't like ME when I first played it. The game starts you out with Eden Prime, which is fun, but you really have no idea what you're doing at that point in the game, since there's no tutorial. Then, you're grounded at the Citadel for a handful of hours before you can finally explore the universe. Those first few crucial hours really don't make a convincing case for the game. But if you get through that, it really takes off and comes into its own.

It took Aaz to convince me to give the game a second chance, and I am grateful for the advice

Same. I also credit Aaz for turning me on to this epic.

Aazealh · December 22, 2009

Proj2501 said:
Oh, one more thing. Deleting older ammo upgrades was by far the most annoying aspect of the game for me. At one point in the game I found myself holding 150 items, the bulk being ammo upgrades. I thought when it came time to sort things out and delete the older stuff I had to scroll down all the way to the bottom and omni-gel it and just continue. But No. I was whisked all the way back to the tippity top of my rather long list of ammo upgrades. This torture went on and on.

I'm pretty sure it was the most annoying aspect of the game for everyone who played it.

Oburi said:
Same. I also credit Aaz for turning me on to this epic.

"There is no God but Shepard, and Aazealh is his prophet."

Eluvei · December 22, 2009

Walter said:
I'd like to reiterate how crazy it'd be for Steam not to get ME2.

You're right, it's crazy if you really think about it. Thanks for replying to my nonsensical desperate babbling, Walter. :farnese:

Oburi said:
Seriously. I haven't played a serious rpg that has done this since Suikoden and Suikoden 2, which was one the greatest things about those games. And I never thought a modern, next gen rpg that i love so much would ever have this feature again. But Mass Effect is it. This will be the most epic game to kick off the new year, nay, the new decade!

I had given up all hope of finding a good RPG after the Playstation era until I found Mass Effect. The last one that blew me away was Xenogears, and after that I kept getting frustrated by shitty games, or formulas that had gotten old to me. ME totally took me by surprise, I had no idea I'd love this game so much.

Aazealh said:
Not to the extent Mass Effect is doing it. It's never-seen-before mechanics. Prepare yourself for the best RPG that will ever grace the world (until ME3)!

Haha, if you think about it, it's gonna keep getting harder and harder for the game creators to make the sequels. I mean, ME3 will be affected by our choices from the last two games and so forth.
Which means we'll also have to replay all the games all the time to see what would happen on ME3 if we made a different choice on ME1, for example. Sweet! :guts:

Aazealh · December 22, 2009

Eluvei said:
Haha, if you think about it, it's gonna keep getting harder and harder for the game creators to make the sequels. I mean, ME3 will be affected by our choices from the last two games and so forth.

Well they apparently still plan to end the Shepard storyline with ME3, so the hypothetical future games that will take place in the ME universe will not have to build on that trilogy (based on declarations by Casey Hudson, lead developer).

Eluvei said:
Which means we'll also have to replay all the games all the time to see what would happen on ME3 if we made a different choice on ME1, for example.

I've been looking forward to it! :guts:

Walter · December 22, 2009

Eluvei said:
Haha, if you think about it, it's gonna keep getting harder and harder for the game creators to make the sequels. I mean, ME3 will be affected by our choices from the last two games and so forth.

Not necessarily. That presumes the outcomes of some of the choices you made in ME1 won't be concluded/wrapped up in ME2. It could just be your ME2 choices that carry into ME3, for instance.

But ... I don't really believe that either :carcus:

Which means we'll also have to replay all the games all the time to see what would happen on ME3 if we made a different choice on ME1, for example. Sweet!

Really though, at some point I think we as gamers develop a sense of what the REAL outcome is. Likely the one where we felt most attached to the story and characters.

Aazealh · December 22, 2009

Walter said:
Really though, at some point I think we as gamers develop a sense of what the REAL outcome is. Likely the one where we felt most attached to the story and characters.

I have to agree. I don't even need to play ME2 and 3 to know what will motivate my choices in any given situation.

Anyway, are you guys going to buy some ME2 merchandise when it's made available? I missed out both on ME1 and DA:O and it was rather frustrating, so this time around I'll try to keep an eye out. Everything in there always sells out super fast, it's a shame. I'm sure they'd make good money if only they had a bigger stock.

Eluvei · December 23, 2009

Aazealh said:
Anyway, are you guys going to buy some ME2 merchandise when it's made available? I missed out both on ME1 and DA:O and it was rather frustrating, so this time around I'll try to keep an eye out. Everything in there always sells out super fast, it's a shame. I'm sure they'd make good money if only they had a bigger stock.

I am also looking forward to the merchandise, especially an N7 T-Shirt. However, I've come across this while searching for some info on it:

http://meforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=712746&forum=120

Chris Priestly said:
Sorry, the BioWare store is being closed down with our goods moving to the EA Store. As mentioned, we are working on ways that our products can ship internationally, when we have word on this, we will let everyone know.

So, any new stuff will only be available for North America until they sort things out. Since the guy said they're working on it, we can only wait... or ask for North American friends to buy them for us. Well, I believe they'll hold on to some limited merchandise for international costumers until then. :sad:

There's a thread about it: http://meforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=711955&forum=120

Aazealh · December 23, 2009

http://eastore.ea.com/

For those of you who haven't noticed yet the digital deluxe edition is available right now in the EA Store (at least for Europeans)! Included in it are:

Exclusive in-game Collectors' Edition weapon and armor
Exclusive "Incisor" sniper rifle
Mass Effect 2 OST
Behind-the-scenes and making-of videos
Mass Effect Redemption #1 comic book by Dark Horse
48-page artbook
Cerberus Network code granting access to bonus content

Man this makes me jealous! You PC players will be getting more stuff than those buying the physical box (namely the OST and Incisor rifle)! Well, at least my Inferno Armor will give me +10% negotiation, +10% power damage and +10% sprint speed. :badbone:

Eluvei said:
I am also looking forward to the merchandise, especially an N7 T-Shirt. However, I've come across this while searching for some info on it:

So, any new stuff will only be available for North America until they sort things out. Since the guy said they're working on it, we can only wait... or ask for North American friends to buy them for us.

Raaah, damn it! :mozgus:

Good thing I have many North American friends. :azan:

PS: And there are even some Dragon Age t-shirts left, awesome!

Eluvei · December 23, 2009

Aazealh said:
For those of you who haven't noticed yet the digital deluxe edition is available right now in the EA Store (at least for Europeans)!

South America too! Check this out, they only translated part of the image, obviously because it looks stylish with some French in it. :ganishka:

Aazealh said:
Man this makes me jealous! You PC players will be getting more stuff than those buying the physical box (namely the OST and Incisor rifle)! Well, at least my Inferno Armor will give me +10% negotiation, +10% power damage and +10% sprint speed.

Wow, that Inferno Armor is badass. Oh, let's not forget we all get our good old Blood Dragon Armors too. I keep forgetting. :carcus:

Aazealh said:
And there are even some Dragon Age t-shirts left, awesome!

This gives me hope for some international ME2 Merchandise!

Aazealh · December 23, 2009

Eluvei said:
South America too! Check this out, they only translated part of the image, obviously because it looks stylish with some French in it.

Hahaha, busted! You should email them about it, try to pressure them into giving you something for your trouble. :iva:

Eluvei said:
Wow, that Inferno Armor is badass.

Totally, and it looks badass too. :badbone:

The armor they showcase as the "Collectors' Edition bonus" looks interesting as well (rather ominous, actually). Makes me wonder what the Mass Effect Galaxy bonus will be. I hope it won't be redundant with the contents of the Collector's Edition...

Eluvei said:
Oh, let's not forget we all get our good old Blood Dragon Armors too. I keep forgetting.

Indeed, BSG nerds will finally be able to play as a Cylon centurion. :void:

Mass Effect 2

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