toblix

Mass Effect

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When does playing the wizard not suck?

So far in most games I played only the warrior or warrior-hybrid classes worked well

In most DnD style fantasy RPGs wizards start weak, but at high levels they often have the power to obliterate everything. They are often favoured by more tactical players. This may well be the case in Mass Effect, but if so then it is especially painful getting there.

Does inflitrator (or whatever the sniper was called) count as soldier hybrid?

Yeah the sniper type Infiltrator is a good choice by all accounts.

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I think I was a normal warrior thingy, who mastered the weapon overheating skill.

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Space station designs are often so obviously non-functional. It especially comes out in games, where for example you hear metallic clunks as you walk around. I think this was also noticeable in KOTOR, although I didn't play much of it. I mean, if someone would be designing a real space station, I'm sure they would use a floor material that didn't produce annoying sounds as people walk on it. Also, some of the space ship interiors look a depressing place to work in for the crew that probably spends a big part of their life there.

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The ISS has floors that make clunk sounds, they just don't have artificial gravity. I think (most of) the space station design was quite well. I say most, because I'm completely ignore the bases on the non-story planets. Those were quite lame.

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The ISS has floors that make clunk sounds, they just don't have artificial gravity.

Yeah, I actually meant to clarify my post regarding that, but the editing didn't work for some reason. The ISS is something that's bleeding edge for our current abilities in space technology (i think?), it's design may have lots of constraints.

But I mostly actually meant these big space cities, or spaceports or whatever you call them. I mean, these should be designed for people to live in, they even have trees and parks in the Citadel in Mass Effect, but for some reason they also have these stupid floors.

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But I mostly actually meant these big space cities, or spaceports or whatever you call them. I mean, these should be designed for people to live in, they even have trees and parks in the Citadel in Mass Effect, but for some reason they also have these stupid floors.

But the citadel was made by aliens a long long, very long time ago

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But the citadel was made by aliens a long long, very long time ago

Ok, yeah, that might explain it. I guess I haven't gotten (or payed attention) to all the back story yet.

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It's a very good point, though. We tend to "futurize" things in very unrealistic ways in order to make it look "futuristic". In reality, no-one wants to walk down sheer bland white corridors all day long, and if anything, they'd try to disguise its technological origin into something more human friendly.

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I don't know about that.

Sure, one common approach is the white/silver metalic look.

But an other is completely different approach is a dystopian world (like in Blade Runner).

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Had I not have a dozen of other games to play, I'd pick it up again just to play on my new computer with better graphics... same for Fallout 3.

10 bucks is a steal for such a great game.

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I have been considering doing another ME run before the release of the sequel.

In my first run i was a very sinister dude who was irked by the fact that the game didn't allow him to be as evil as he wanted to be.

How different would a playtrough with a completely different character be?

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Has anyone heard about whether or not MEPC's saves will affect ME2PC's saves, similarly to how your character will carry over on the 360 version? Not to say that I've heard anything to the counter, I guess I just don't remember reading if that's going to work out on both platforms.

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Has anyone heard about whether or not MEPC's saves will affect ME2PC's saves, similarly to how your character will carry over on the 360 version? Not to say that I've heard anything to the counter, I guess I just don't remember reading if that's going to work out on both platforms.

Yes, your character will carry over. I've asked the BioWare guys on a few occasions to confirm.

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Yes, your character will carry over. I've asked the BioWare guys on a few occasions to confirm.

:) That's funny when I imagine it:

Chris: Hey, will your save carry over from Mass Effect to ME2?

Bioware: Yeah.

Chris: Hey, will your save carry over from Mass Effect to ME2?

Bioware: You already asked us that.

Chris: I know, but what if you changed your mind...

Bioware: We didn't.

Chris: How 'bout now? No? Ok. Good.

One week later...

Chris: Hey Bioware, it's Chris Remo calling, I guess you're out or in the bathroom or something. You haven't returned my calls. I was just wondering...

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I was totally excited about the character being transferred to the sequel, but by now I have forgotten so much they could just make sure Shepherd is an ugly man and I wouldn't notice any other discrepancies.

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I was totally excited about the character being transferred to the sequel, but by now I have forgotten so much they could just make sure Shepherd is an ugly man and I wouldn't notice any other discrepancies.

I have a vivid recollection of my character. His harsh cold stare, the scar on his right cheek, the fact that he has red hair, and some personality stuff.

I'm not sure if i want to use him though. Since he was too evil for the limitations of the first game, and he

alienated/killed

some chars i have second thoughts about.

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sorry in advance for wall of text.

the weekend deal on steam (like so, so many times before) finally gave me a reason to buy ME for the pc (already have two copies for the 360, german, and english which I won at shacknews.com and which Nick sent me. Thanks again, Nick!)

Although I have played that part like 6 or 7 times already, the approach to the Citadel still gave me goosebumps (probably mostly due to the music). And I still think the faces in this game are the best looking ones I've ever seen in a game, including various Half Life 2 games. I also chose the premade John guy like in my first playthrough, otherwise I tend to create female Shepards for some reason - probably because I prefer to either choose something which resembles me or which I like to look at (mutual exclusive I guess)

Two things bug me so far: first, the game seems to be unable to restore from tabbing out. Some autoupdate window popping up killed it for me and I had to restart. Second, the Mako controls on PC are absolutely horrible. Maybe I got so used to it on the 360 but it feels like the just mapped the analog stick to the cursor keys and it shows. I died on the first mission because I drove into lava with one wheel.

Minor problems I had with the pc version were some clicking sounds after certain parts (which may be my cheap onboard sound's fault) and the fast loading seems to cut certain sequences short which made the sound end abruptly, and too early.

Still this is my favourite RPG since Deus Ex and it mades me somewhat sad that they said in an interview on giantbomb that they put more focus on combat and less on talking in ME2 like "in some parts of ME1" (which seems to indicate that we won't have a place as cool as Citadel in the sequel.)

Regarding the Wizard-class, my first playthrough was with a Soldier on normal and the second a pure Biotic on hardcore. After knowing the game, I thought the biotic playthrough was actually easier despite the game difficulty being ramped up. Of course it would've been harder on my first play-through than with a solider but only because I didn't know wtf. IMO the tech is the only bad class in this game, and even there some people like it more than the others. So I think balancing wise they did a good job, they just didn't manage to explain the use of skills in certain situations very well. The game just gives you stuff and says good luck, cya.

Oh, and another reason why I like to compare this game to Deus Ex; in this playthrough I want to always choose the red option, or if it's missing the one on the lower right. This led to not having

Wrex

in my party at all which I didn't know was possible. Finding out about this kind of stuff after repeated playthroughs is among the things that keeps me coming back, like finding out that you could save

Paul

in Deus Ex after playing through that like 5 times and taking it as a given that it's not possible.

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Respect to the Original Space Asshole

SoulChicken, you just made me laugh out loud in front of my co-workers. Good work.

I feel bad about ambitious video games like Mass Effect or Shenmue that have to deal with massive tonal shifts.

Even when you try and roleplay seriously, your game can end up

.

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But I thought SHEPHERD WAS DEAD!=!=!

I did not understand that stuff at all at E3. Spoiler: In my playtrough it did look like he might have been smashed, but he walked away from it. Then he chose which of the two dudes to be in charge or whatever... Did i miss some after credits scene or something or was it just my playtrough?

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