Mass Effect 2 Gameplay

[adam_grif]

At first I read that as "high explosive anti tank", then I realized you had just capitalized "heat". The entry claims it does damage from KE as well as "irresistible heat". Yeah, I'm sure temperature contributes a lot when your main guns are C-fractional.

[Aaron]

At first I read that as "high explosive anti tank", then I realized you had just capitalized "heat". The entry claims it does damage from KE as well as "irresistible heat". Yeah, I'm sure temperature contributes a lot when your main guns are C-fractional.

No, thats what I meant.

[adam_grif]

....

Oh.

In that case, why? It's not an explosive. It's just molten metal flung out.

[Aaron]

....

Oh.

In that case, why? It's not an explosive. It's just molten metal flung out.

Thats really all a HEAT round is, molten metal, it just uses an explosive to form and propel it. It's just the connection my mind made when I read the entry. No biggie.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

You realize that on Garrus' loyalty mission you can hack the heavy mech right? Or are there extra ones I'm forgetting about?

You're thinking recruitment, loyalty there're two you fight right at the end.

[adam_grif]

Ah yes, "HEAT rounds", explosive shaped charges allegedly used by MBT's. We have dismissed that claim.

You're thinking recruitment, loyalty there're two you fight right at the end.

Right you are.

[Jaepheth]

Did anyone else notice the references to Baldur's Gate?

The space hamster
Tali telling her drone to "Go for the optics"

[adam_grif]

Did anyone else notice the references to Baldur's Gate?

The space hamster
Tali telling her drone to "Go for the optics"

Yes and yes. But I was too heartbroken after losing my fish to actually buy the hamster. I didn't want to risk it.

[Vympel]

The fish are such a waste of money. Why the hell can't EDI feed the fucking things.

[adam_grif]

EDI is a shackled AI, Cerberus would never trust her with something as mission-critical as dropping food pellets into the Captain's fish tank once a day.

[neoolong]

Yes and yes. But I was too heartbroken after losing my fish to actually buy the hamster. I didn't want to risk it.

The hamster can take care of itself. The fish need to be fed. The yeoman can do it for you though.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Apparently, Kelly -can- take care of the fish... but you have to talk to her a fair few times.

[PeZook]

Apparently, Kelly -can- take care of the fish... but you have to talk to her a fair few times.

And she won't do it for a female Shepard, either. Bigwig commander Shepard can use his position to threaten crewmembers into letting him/her win poker games, but is too much of a softy to order somebody to feed his damn fish

The "reapers are harvesting organics to turn feed them into the reaper making machine" reveal was horrendous in my humble opinion.

Yeah, I thought it was terrible, too. What, the Reapers aren't enough of a threat if they're malevolent, ancient machines posessing advanced technology? They need to be "techno-organic constructs" and physically eat people, too?

It was also kind of funny how EDI could immediately tell the machine that looked nothing like a Reaper was in fact one.

[Starglider]

Yeah, I thought it was terrible, too. What, the Reapers aren't enough of a threat if they're malevolent, ancient machines posessing advanced technology? They need to be "techno-organic constructs" and physically eat people, too?

The sad truth is that when you have a team of a hundred people making a game like this, a third of them will be programmers and writers who actually understand technology and plausibility etc, a third of them will be artists who scream 'who cares about the technobabble, it must look as cool as possible!', and a third of them will be business types whose only concern is that the product be bought by as many people as possible. IMHO we're fairly lucky to get the moderate nods to realism that Mass Effect does include.

It was also kind of funny how EDI could immediately tell the machine that looked nothing like a Reaper was in fact one.

They clearly have Star Trek Magic Sensors (tm).

[PeZook]

The sad truth is that when you have a team of a hundred people making a game like this, a third of them will be programmers and writers who actually understand technology and plausibility etc, a third of them will be artists who scream 'who cares about the technobabble, it must look as cool as possible!', and a third of them will be business types whose only concern is that the product be bought by as many people as possible. IMHO we're fairly lucky to get the moderate nods to realism that Mass Effect does include.

Well, it's a minor problem compared to what some other sci-fi often does, but it's really grating nevertheless. The fact they decided to try and go for realism in irrelevant fluff is nice, but the effort should really go into the main story first

They clearly have Star Trek Magic Sensors (tm).

Which, of course, only work when Shepard actually reaches the larva's chamber - but then they can instantly analyze what it's made of.

[adam_grif]

IMHO we're fairly lucky to get the moderate nods to realism that Mass Effect does include.

100% of said nods come from the Codex, which takes it up the ass from cutscenes and gameplay really hard, really often. I've had people tell me that Mass Effect is "so realistic" because they're incapable of noticing massive discrepancies between the sources we get from inside the same game.

[Starglider]

IMHO we're fairly lucky to get the moderate nods to realism that Mass Effect does include.

100% of said nods come from the Codex, which takes it up the ass from cutscenes and gameplay really hard, really often.

The cutscenes are inexcusable; some combination of 'artists are idiots', 'writers can't give good guidance' and/or 'producer refuses to rein science-hating artists in'. Gameplay on the other hand; well, there is a reason why in Star Wars canon, the story and cutscenes of the games are considered canon but a specific exception is made for the game mechanics. Game mechanic design needs more artistic license than even movies, because while movies have to turn real life into something dramatic and engrossing, game mechanics also have to be consistently fun for a player of average skill. You need a different level of suspension of disbelief, so that you can see things like the hacking minigames as representations of what's really happening, rather than the usual SDN ultra-literalism.

[Havok]

And she won't do it for a female Shepard, either.

Yes she will.

It was also kind of funny how EDI could immediately tell the machine that looked nothing like a Reaper was in fact one.

EDI was able to tell by the power signature that the baby reaper was giving off, because she had reaper tech integrated into her design and had access to information from Sovereign. But hey, why pay attention to the game.

[adam_grif]

EDI was able to tell by the power signature that the baby reaper was giving off, because she had reaper tech integrated into her design and had access to information from Sovereign. But hey, why pay attention to the game.

What the fuck is a power signature? Is that some tricorder shit or what?

[PeZook]

Yes she will.

When? I never got the dialogue option, all I could do throughout the game was ask her about the Three Generic Background Fluff Pieces and about the crew.

EDI was able to tell by the power signature that the baby reaper was giving off, because she had reaper tech integrated into her design and had access to information from Sovereign. But hey, why pay attention to the game.

That would've been quite a trick seeing as the Reaper was unpowered, unfinished and of a completely different configuration than all the others. It was made with the same material, sure, but that wasn't readily apparent, either, unless Shepard has a spectrograph in his helmet. It was obviously a Star Trek magisensor thing done to save time before the final boss fight

[adam_grif]

When? I never got the dialogue option, all I could do throughout the game was ask her about the Three Generic Background Fluff Pieces and about the crew.

You have to hit on her. Like, a lot. She's an LI for both genders. You have to ask her out to dinner, then next conversation she should offer to feed your fish. Your main LI will take precedence over Kelly, so the only way to get it on with Kelly is to romance nobody, then she'll send you an email after the attack and you can invite her up to your apartment.

[open_sketchbook]

EDI was able to tell by the power signature that the baby reaper was giving off, because she had reaper tech integrated into her design and had access to information from Sovereign. But hey, why pay attention to the game.

What the fuck is a power signature? Is that some tricorder shit or what?

Something like this I imagine.

Shepard, I just linked into your suits sensors and holy fucking shit look at the waste heat on that motherfucker!

There are plenty of ways to find electrical disturbances, large power draws, and in the Mass Effect universe, the presence of a Element Zero core. And, you'll note, when planning the mission, EDI points out that the central control whatsits are beside some sort of big-old electro-magnetic disturbance which, hey, turns out to be a baby Reaper when you step in yourself.

[adam_grif]

What, large waste heat = reaper? They've only seen a fully mature one. The thing was dormant, so I have no idea how they'd conclude that it had a massive active eezo core or whatever. Even if it was running, it wouldn't be going at full power, so it's very doubtful they could accurately determine whether it was a large core running on low or a small core running on high.

The only wiki search results that appear to be vaguely related for "Power signature" were comic book articles, so I'm sticking with my plot contrivance hypothesis.

[PeZook]

This kind of trope is actually common in sci-fi, where all sorts of things can be identified by their "unique power signature", but it doesn't make sense with constructs that are radically different from each other: the reaper larva was way smaller than usual, so it couldn't have had a massive power core ; it had a completely different configuration, which means different power routings, heat management solutions etc.

Its signature would be completely different. It's like taking an IR photo of a random destroyer and a submarine and being able to say "Oh hey they're both American".

[Havok]

Wait... I'm sorry... the Reaper that ATTACKS YOU was dormant? Are you fucking kidding me?
And even if it was, there was a Reaper that was dormant that they got the IFF from. It's not like EDI hasn't had a chance to scan them. I just threw power signature out there because I didn't remember the exact dialogue, but continue to cry about it for a few more posts if you have to.