Mass Effect 2 teaser

[Stark]

So you weren't moved when Ashley recited poetry?

If only it were BETTER poetry!

[Ford Prefect]

She ... recites poetry? No wonder I was so upset when I realised that I'd killed Kaiden over her.

[Stark]

Have you seen Kaiden's HAIR? Holy shit, how could you let that guy die???

[Ford Prefect]

I've always wondered if he was such a dull person with an interesting story on purpose. He deadpanned practically every line in the game, and yet I could not get neough of the Jump Zero stuff.

[Stark]

Maybe I'm too generous, but I thought it was a deliberate performance choice where he was a sardonic and controlled individual. I liked his laid-back supportive style. And his hair.

[Galvatron]

Do I fail out of the Fine Wine & Cheese club if I buy Mass Effect 2 and like it?

[Ford Prefect]

I would be willing to suggest that he's subdued on purpose (I don't actually think he's that dull). Also he was the only human character to have a character design anywhere near as cool as my Sheppard. Something I'm hoping for, because I will end up playing Mass Effect 2, is the ability to transfer over characters, so I don't have to recreate my awesome face again.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

The best thing about Mass Effect was my gaunt, eternally scowling cross between Genghis Khan and Anton Lavey after a long tan always talking in his sleepily cheerful neutral WASP voice to people.

Oh yeah, and choosing the Renegade option in Alien interactions = RACIST, with no indication in the preview line that rather than be able to tell Ashley to shut the fuck up, you would just insult your other friends for no goddamned reason OH WAIT THAT'S EVERY RENEGADE OPTION EVER.

[Ohma]

I want to get in on this critisicm action too, but nearly everything I have to say has been said allready...and more succinctly than I would've been able to put it as well. >.>

Anyway, yeah, I thought Ashley was actually just kind of sheltered and racist (though not so thoroughly so that she was irredeamable, in fact I'd assumed that part of the potential plot with her was going to be DEALING WITH THAT...but nooooo, that would require her to not be totally lame ) like the majority of humans in the game...and then I finally played far enough for her to mention her dead dad..."gee, SORRY I'M FROM SPACE AND DON'T BELIEVE IN A MAGICAL BEARDED GUY ASHLEY!", yeah, my opinion of her rather soured after that.

Liara also pisses me off, mostly because the fucking Asari exist SOLELY to justify the inter species lesbian romance option, like, hilariously transparently so. If Bioware had even had them look less human it would've been better BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, guh, fucking nerds, I want my badass gay space heroine, but not if her partner is FULL OF LAME.

Kaiden would've been improved by not having the same VA as Carth from KotOR, because I can't think of him as not having Carth's voice, which is bad since it's already a Bioware game and therefore already very similar to all their other games.

And yeah, there really needed to be better descriptors for the dialogue options. If the option reads "You betrayed us?!" I don't want my character to say "You alien SCUM! *shoots dude in head*". O_o

[Ford Prefect]

The best thing about Mass Effect was my gaunt, eternally scowling cross between Genghis Khan and Anton Lavey after a long tan always talking in his sleepily cheerful neutral WASP voice to people.

Actually, one area I don't think I can fault Mass Effect in is Boy Sheppard's voice. His voice has worked quite well for a number of facial types I have tried, except this freakish looking, plasticine faced monstrosity. I was not as impressed with Girl Sheppard.

Oh yeah, and choosing the Renegade option in Alien interactions = RACIST, with no indication in the preview line that rather than be able to tell Ashley to shut the fuck up, you would just insult your other friends for no goddamned reason OH WAIT THAT'S EVERY RENEGADE OPTION EVER.

Wow, I'm glad I didn't bother with anything other than Paragon. That was just badly written and magical. About the only time the Renegade option is any good is when Sheppard gleefully punches some dude out while they're having a panic attack. GG, Sheppard.

[Alyeska]

Sheppard has another good Renegade encounter with the obsessive fan. Sheppard puts a pistol to his head and asks him how he intends to get out of the situation, or something along those lines.

[Samuel]

Sheppard has another good Renegade encounter with the obsessive fan. Sheppard puts a pistol to his head and asks him how he intends to get out of the situation, or something along those lines.

So they changed the morality option by making it lawful stupid and psychopathic?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I second the need for more dialogue options. I do not understand why ever since RPGs went into consoles, the number of dialogue options is limited by the number of buttons on the gamepad.

[Stark]

Its.... not. The Mass Effect dialogue menu has nothing to do with the number of buttons on the controller at all. Have you even PLAYED it?

To be honest, the dialogue options' worst feature is the inability to judge the result beforehand. I can handle that the options are things like yes/no/maybe/what about Raven but as others have mentioned, having an option that says 'no I do not' result in 'don't come up to me like that you alien trash *BANG*' is retarded. More dialogue options will NOT fix Bioware's terrible writing or framing of player interactions.

[Ford Prefect]

If they changed the name of 'Renegade' to 'sociopathic maniac', it would make much more sense.

[Stark]

If the manual didn't say something like 'dedicated and mission-focused, the renegade will do whatever it takes to complete their mission - no matter the cost' and instead said 'a huge bigot, the renegade is unable to maintain an adult relationship due to serious social disability. Their constant recourse to violence leads them to abuse their power to no end' it'd be fine.

[Lagmonster]

Interesting teaser.

That's about the most subtle way of letting us know Sheppard'll get MIND-UPLOADED into a Geth body after a tragic something something revenge evil something.

[White Haven]

Probably the best Renegade moment I remember was just straight-up executing that little administrator fuck once you find out about the Thorian and just staring down the rest of the guards. Even when I've got high enough convo skills to have 'magic button' options, I still just give that little shithead a cranial excavation.

[Vendetta]

Probably the best Renegade moment I remember was just straight-up executing that little administrator fuck once you find out about the Thorian and just staring down the rest of the guards. Even when I've got high enough convo skills to have 'magic button' options, I still just give that little shithead a cranial excavation.

I liked the way that you could convince the other guy not to shoot the administrator specifically because, as a spectre, you could do so for him and no-one could touch you for it, but if he did it he'd be a criminal.

[Zixinus]

Surely you don't actually think Ashley is an interesting character. I could pass Tali, but Ashley? She was awful.

Actually, I've found both Ashley and Liara awful.

Ashley put me off when she told me the story of her sister beating up a pushy boyfriend and then kissing him.

Liara had "shy scientist" written all over her. That wouldn't have been bad, but the fact that her practises are actually pseudo-science ("I couldn't prove it but I knew there was a pattern" or something like that, does that sound like a scientific effort to you?) undermined that.

Both are there for the sheer sake of getting nerds with an under-controlled, developing cavemen-brain to play the damn thing.

Tali was tolerable. She was genuinely working her ass off and at least had some pretence of character and competence. Her glee for Shepard is what I can't quite get my head trough.

Wrex was totally destroyed as a character by the writer's cowardice.

What do you mean by that? What should have the writer's done in your opinion?

[TheFeniX]

I've been playing through Mass Effect again to lock out the rest of the achievements and I forgot how much I enjoyed the game. The combat has only a few flaws, the most noteworthy being your character "sticking" to cover. Now, I'm on my 4th play through with my biotic and I'm really seeing the deficiencies with the dialog options.

Personally, I find I'm really annoyed by the choices made on the main quest. It's either kill the Rachni or set them free. As if it's completely inconceivable to call the council and have them send a team to recover the Rachni Queen and bring her back to citadel space so they can decide what to do with her. Same with the Asari Commando on Feros. Kill her or let a known criminal escape the consequences by staying with the colony. What's up with this "I am the laaaw" style of writing?

I still love the double standard with the renegade options though. In one instance, you're "Ra ra! Go humans! Racism is FUN!" Then a few lines with Garrus or Wrex are "Yea, I'm forgetting I hate alien scum because you enjoy breaking the rules and killing people without provocation or due process. RENEGADE!" There really needed to be a lot more cohesion on part of the writing staff. Each mission is really it's own little mini-story with no effect outside that particular chapter. Each writer seemed to have brought his/her own definition to what Paragon and Renegade meant and it really detracts from the story.

The original concept of Renegade was supposed to be (from the original documentary I watched) "Mission first at the expense of everything else." It's anything but.

Even with all that, I'll definitely be picking up future Mass Effect titles as long as a dev like BioWare is at the helm. Fucking Obsidian and KOTOR2....

[White Haven]

Lucas's goons are who you should be pissed at for KOTOR2. Because seriously, fuck Christmas.

And yes, you could easily play a drinking game in Mass Effect: Take a shot whenever Sheppard says something barely related to the conversation option.

[Feil]

The original concept of Renegade was supposed to be (from the original documentary I watched) "Mission first at the expense of everything else." It's anything but.

In the French version, Paragon and Renegade are Conciliation and Pragmatisme respectively. They translate as you would expect them to.

EDIT: ...as a side note, those zombie things that attack you in the first mission are also, sensibly, called zombis. I forget what the English version calls them.

[TheFeniX]

EDIT: ...as a side note, those zombie things that attack you in the first mission are also, sensibly, called zombis. I forget what the English version calls them.

They are called "Husks" in the English version.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Liara had "shy scientist" written all over her. That wouldn't have been bad, but the fact that her practises are actually pseudo-science ("I couldn't prove it but I knew there was a pattern" or something like that, does that sound like a scientific effort to you?) undermined that.

Well, she is a xeno-archeologist. Studying leftovers from a civilization a great deal removed from her time. Spoiler

One which had been systematically eradicated by an amazingly moustache twirlingly bored race of machines...

My problem with her, is more with her race... Space lesbians are one thing... I could justify a race which is technically all female... Hell, a fair number of species on this planet are hermaphroditic, and a few can actually change gender.

Though, I don't know if it's ever addressed if their little psychic space lesbian thing is ever called. "Biotic" mind powers are in that universe, and her species is supposedly naturally talented, but they all look way too similar for their supposed gene stealing to really be the case...

Both are there for the sheer sake of getting nerds with an under-controlled, developing cavemen-brain to play the damn thing.

And, ya know, free publicity from the usual sources...