Mass Effect 2
 

It's coming out in less than a week and I know some of you are psyched about it.

Personally, I'm really happy that they've done so much to the combat system. The original version was pretty good too I guess, but there were problems everywhere... I mean, why bother giving squad-control commands if they were given to BOTH team members at once? You can't make them both take cover behind a box because then they'll just get in each other's way.

Beyond that, they've added a ton of new powers and weapons (more than 4 weapons! score!) so you do stuff like curving Biotic powers around cover, freezing enemies, using heat-seeking rockets... quite a bit above the original, in my opinion.

Probably my favourite thing is that they seem to have gotten rid of the Mako. In the original, the vehicle sections seemed tacked-on and cheapened the experience by giving you shitty controls and limiting you to two forms of attack. In the sequel you seem to be able to choose your landing spot (not sure how this works, procedural generation of the landscape maybe? Or it could just be one landscape that gets used over and over again... we'll see) and you go right there in a shuttle.

I'm torn as to what characters I want to use. They've brought back Tali and Garrus, but they seem to have something like 10 other characters (more with DLC, too) and most of them seem pretty awesome. It doesn't seem like they're limiting the nonhuman characters to the standard classes, either, because a lot of them appear to have unique abilities that they can use. Definitely going to be a game I'll play through multiple times for different party combinations.

I'm currently on a playthrough of the original as an Adept that I modeled after 50 Cent.
...So you could probably say I'm really excited about this game. Anybody else?

I am just ridiculously psyched for the game. That's probably obvious, as my Bioware fanboy status grows by the day.

Already got it preordered, limited edition PC edition. I hope they support this one with better DLC. BDTS was fine, but it was overpriced, and it was the only thing for like a year.


Edit:

I am very curious to see, not only where the story goes, but where they take the "actions from the first Mass Effect save game" thing they've promised. Really curious. Because as everyone knows the first game ends on kind of a cliffhanger. I read the first novel but it was very mediocre so I didn't bother getting the second one. Apparently the second one sets up the sequel more though, while the first was a prequel. I'm always a bit amblivent when Bioware says something like "and now there's this whole new enemy!" When I hear that, I worry about the plot meandering and having less to do with the Reaper threat. But, I'm sure they're related. I Believe in Bioware. :p

I'll say that the ME2 DLC is gonna be pretty good.

EDIT: I'm currently reading the 2nd ME book. I have actually noticed that they seem to be focusing on a lot of elements from ME2 - the Collectors have been mentioned, some important characters are affiliated with Cerberus, and so on - and while I'm still pretty early on in the book, I think that it'll serve as a pretty good "prequel" so to speak for ME2.

I agree that the first one was a little underwhelming, but the second is pretty good so far.

I played Mass Effect 1 when it was first released, and have played it since. Now I'm going to play through it again to get caught up on it and get ME2 on the PC as soon as it comes out. I also have 2 of the books that I'll read through when I'm away from home.

Fuck yeah. My favourite two NPCs from ME1. Kaidan, Ashley and Liara were boring and Wrex was kinda cool but I liked him better when he was called Black Whirlwind. And I liked him better when he was called HK-47.

What I've gleaned from the things I've seen of ME2, the "new enemy" is the Collectors, and they have somehow managed to acquire Reaper technology. As for the choices that will carry over, my guess is that it will alter who gets cameo appearances (and possibly offer side quests), depending on who got killed off. I hope that it's more than that though.

The one big nitpick I have with what I've seen about this game, is what they did to the health system. I hate games that change their old health system to regenerating health, especially when there was nothing wrong with the old health system. I feel that when I'll be playing this game, every time I see Sheperd's health regenerate I'm gonna think that he has a layer of medi-gel between the inner layer of his suit and his skin.

What, seriously?
You think Wrex is like HK-47?

Well not really. More meant the guy who always advises violence as the solution. In that way they're similar. I just think that role works better with someone who's totally nuts, rather than Wrex. Maybe the comparison isn't that great. But whatever I thought Wrex was okay, just didn't really like him a great deal.

Ashley might not have been as badass as Wrex but there was something satisfying about having your most powerful party member being a human woman.

But yeah, roommate and I are going to split up this month's releases - Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2. He's getting ME2 cause I'm not as psyched about it.

Wow I am SO excited for this game. What I've seen from Wikipedia is that yeah there's no more Mako this time around. Instead, I think that explorable planets have multiple drop points where you immediately get into the action on foot instead of going around in a vehicle.

Oh yeah although it's not exactly the best written review, here are scans of the Xbox Magazine Review.