Mass Effect 2


Video Games

Sovereign Court

So, yeah. Mass Effect 2. Sequel to the best RPG for this current generation of consoles.. and not that I really have to say much, but anyone who's played Mass Effect knows how much this game is going to rock.

Anyway, there was a new teaser trailer released today for the game, showing off some of the new alien species, planets, combat and

Spoiler:
Shepard stranded in space, walking through the torn apart Normandy

The teaser can be found here.

Dark Archive

According to everything I've read (which isn't much I'll admit, I'm trying to stay "spoiler-free" as it were),

Spoiler:
Shephard is dead

But that might be old info.

Sovereign Court

Mac Boyce wrote:

According to everything I've read (which isn't much I'll admit, I'm trying to stay "spoiler-free" as it were),

** spoiler omitted **

But that might be old info.

Spoiler:
Nah, it was never confirmed. The video that said Shepard was dead was done from the Cerberus PoV, so it's not necessarily accurate information. Besides, doing that would be silly, especially as we need to keep our save games, since information would be read off them.

So far it looks bad ass. I'm excited.


Looks pretty good so far. Can't wait to see more on 2009 E3.

Dark Archive

Spoiler:
More Mass Effect 2 info


Shepard lives!
And he looks pissed.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

James Keegan wrote:

Shepard lives!

And he looks pissed.

All that is is a picture on the cover. Doesn't exactly tell us anything, really.

Personally, I want Shepard either dead or hiding: that way, you can start with a fresh character, following in Shepard footsteps. (Actually, what I really wanted was for the next game to take place decades later, where one of the party NPCs was the child of Shepard, who would have their class (and race) determined by how you played Shepard previously. But hey, whatever.)

Sovereign Court

Shepard is still going to be around. You don't change main characters half way through a plot. Gotta have some continuity.

Anyway, new info has leaked, allegedly from the article that'll be in OXM. Here we go.

Source

Spoiler:
# You will play as Shepard, but for how long is unknown

# There is a new species called the Drell and Thane is a new character who is an assassin and may join your party

# Planets - There will be a Krogan planet, and Illium, an Asari planet, that is like Coruscant from SW. Also there is "Omega" with is like an anti-Citadel in that it's huge and it's the bottom of the barrel whereas the Citadel is the height of civilization. Also a Cerebus mothership will act as a location of significance.

# Story - The ultimate story is still civilization fending off the Reapers, but this chapter will deal with this Cerebus corporation and it's enigmatic leader. There are human civilizations disappearing and it's up to Shepard to investigate, it's termed as a "suicide mission" which may lead to the details of the teaser.

# New vehicle that controls better than the Mako…a "new" control scheme.

# Totally revamped inventory system

# Elevator system revamped where you will get the sense of scope of where you're at and where you're traveling.

# No more texture pop in.

# Secondary races like Volus and Elcor are much more mobile, giving more depth and makes things more interesting.

# Choices are more meaningful and there is a real risk that major support characters (i.e. anyone not Shepard) can and will die.

# Also on the story, they're super-hyping the ending, saying that it's much more grand meaningful in ME2.

# More weapons, more species, more/new team members.

# Returning team members, locations, weapons.

Silver Crusade

YES to the mention of which race-dominated planets we'll get to visit.

And man, looking at that magazine cover reminded me how jarring it is to see anyone's Shepard besides your own.

Sovereign Court

Out of curiosity, who here played female Shepard? I hear the voice actor who plays her is fantastic, though I never tried it myself. I'm thinking of playing again as a female character just to see the difference!

Anyway, I'm totally excited about a sequel to Mass Effect, and the ramifications of your choices as the games progress sound really interesting; who knows how many divergent paths we may have by the end of Mass Effect 3!

Sovereign Court

My third playthrough was as a Female Shepard. Really should finish that at some point. The voice actor for her is Jennifer Hale, who's appeared in other games as Bastila Shan, MGS's Naomi Hunter and Samus Aran. She gets around a bit.

Silver Crusade

Nameless wrote:

Out of curiosity, who here played female Shepard? I hear the voice actor who plays her is fantastic, though I never tried it myself. I'm thinking of playing again as a female character just to see the difference!

Female Shepard was my first, and yeah, her voice acting is awesome. Big Damn Hero-Awesome when playing paragon.

Mine was practically Seelah with shorter hair, psychic abilities, an interest in alien women, and guns. I gave Renegade a try, but going full-renegade had so many "being-a-dick-for-the-sake-of-being-a-dick" moments that I couldn't get into it.

Sovereign Court

Mikaze wrote:
Mine was practically Seelah with shorter hair, psychic abilities, an interest in alien women, and guns. I gave Renegade a try, but going full-renegade had so many "being-a-dick-for-the-sake-of-being-a-dick" moments that I couldn't get into it.

I did my first playthrough as a male renegade Shepard. And now I think I'm going to play it again as a female paragon Shepard, as all this Mass Effect 2 buzz has me excited.

All I know is that if renegades in ME2 can't punch a harmless reporter in the face with no provocation, it will be a crime against the series.

Sovereign Court

New one minute teaser as a pre-E3 thing. More information coming at E3, of course.

High Def Vid here

Now, the big thing about this one? Other then the nice music and fun fight scenes, there's something an Asari says, namely..

Spoiler:
'Shepard? But you're dead'

Also of interest is the fact that

Spoiler:
Tali is in the video (or at least a Quarian), along with a new character, big human black guy.

Liberty's Edge

Nameless wrote:

Out of curiosity, who here played female Shepard? I hear the voice actor who plays her is fantastic, though I never tried it myself. I'm thinking of playing again as a female character just to see the difference!

Anyway, I'm totally excited about a sequel to Mass Effect, and the ramifications of your choices as the games progress sound really interesting; who knows how many divergent paths we may have by the end of Mass Effect 3!

her voice is sexy and cool, I lived it and would not change her for the world :P

besides I liked playing my Natalia Shepard :P

and yes... to begin with the hype I just read Mass Effect: Ascension... I say things would be in 5 more years and it would bring interesting things :D

when I finish RE5 i will play again Mass Effect :D

Liberty's Edge

Uzzy wrote:

New one minute teaser as a pre-E3 thing. More information coming at E3, of course.

High Def Vid here

Now, the big thing about this one? Other then the nice music and fun fight scenes, there's something an Asari says, namely..

** spoiler omitted **

Also of interest is the fact that ** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
that must be Hendel (may have the name wrong) and... I think that IS NOT a Quarian :D

I knew he wasn't dead in the first place. Because why would they kill your character off that you worked so hard for.

Anyways that trailer made me even more pumped about Mass effect 2. Can't wait to kick some outer space ass.

Dark Archive

Can't....Stop....Drooling....

Silver Crusade

Mac Boyce wrote:
Can't....Stop....Drooling....

YES.

Especially concerning this:

Spoiler:
This darker entry into the Mass Effect franchise will find Shepard making decisions that will ultimately build together into a web of your creation that can mean life or death by the end of the game. You'll only get to carry your Shepard on to Mass Effect 3 if you manage to survive Mass Effect 2.

Oh hell yeah.

Dark Archive

REALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Spoiler:
Oh crap.....that means EVERY decision could kill me!! Man... I'm going to get that heart attack my doc is warning me about from this game!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Did you really need to spoiler that, Li'l Mac?

I'm kinda sad that you don't play a new character, but yet it's still pretty cool (plus I'm tempted to try the option where

Spoiler:
Shepard dies for real at the end of the second game
). The interactive cutscenes sound awesome, too, and the storyline explains alot. The expanded weapons also sound pretty cool (that way, you can really customize the layout of your team's arsenal), plus it'll allow the player to further twink out their Shepard past what you could do with the first Mass Effect.

My psuedo Renegade/Paragon female Shepard will be pleased (she ended with the humans thriving, but the Captain in charge, and she wasn't a COMPLETE b+!+*).


Gameplay movies.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Hm... you have a new human companion, some black guy, but there's another human companion head visible on the status bar (though whether or not this is how the health/shield screen's going to work is unknown; they might be hiding the names to prevent spoilers), a human female (it's not Ashley). Also, previous videos indicate that you also have a quarian with you (I assume Tali); I wonder if the two humans replace whichever member

Spoiler:
died in the previous game...

The new weapons that they have look interesting: the primary one they have Shepard using is a dual function weapon, one mode being a highly accurate assault rifle and the other a grenade launcher.

The conversation cutscenes look really nice and slick. The texture on the Asari that you speak to looks... interesting, almost leathery rather than skin-like. I like how the cutscenes look a lot more dramatic, movie like (whenever someone spoke in the previous game, the perspective would always flip over to whoever was speaking; sensible, but less dramatic), and I like the "action commands" that pop up that you have the choice of taking. Also, that Eclipse commando's helmet that you talk to is pretty sweet looking; I wonder if you can get one.

The extremity damage system that they have is pretty nice: now you can disable legs, arms, and even headshot. They didn't show any other weapons that you could have, but Shepard still has multiple weapons on his back, so I assume you can have up to four, with some of them multifunction.

Sovereign Court

It could be that those two members are introduced if in the previous game you

Spoiler:
let the council die and enabled Humanity to take over the Galaxy, as some of the alien party members might just leave in that situation
Though that's total wild man's guessing. Also, their names are shown in the 5th Video, Jacob and Miranda (I wonder if she's going to be able to use her biotics to see things, heh)

It's interesting to see what appears to be an ammo counter too.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

I didn't notice an ammo counter: I thought for a while that Shepard was reloading, but it turned out he was switching functions.

Liberty's Edge

Sect wrote:
Hm... you have a new human companion, some black guy, but there's another human companion head visible on the status bar (though whether or not this is how the health/shield screen's going to work is unknown; they might be hiding the names to prevent spoilers), a human female (it's not Ashley). Also, previous videos indicate that you also have a quarian with you (I assume Tali); I wonder if the two humans replace whichever member ** spoiler omitted **

for what I read you get MORE crew members

and those 2 characters appear in the novel Mass Effect: Ascension... and I insist... that Quarian, might NOT really be a Quarian :D

mmm but the names you mention confuse me, i need to see this videos.. soon

Sovereign Court

Montalve wrote:


and those 2 characters appear in the novel Mass Effect: Ascension

Wait . . . there's a Mass Effect Novel?

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Guy Humual wrote:
Montalve wrote:


and those 2 characters appear in the novel Mass Effect: Ascension
Wait . . . there's a Mass Effect Novel?

There's two, actually: one's a prequel novel that, I believe, follows Saren, and the other's a novel that focuses on Cerebus (the human blacker than black ops organization) and the Quarians.

Liberty's Edge

Sect wrote:
There's two, actually: one's a prequel novel that, I believe, follows Saren, and the other's a novel that focuses on Cerebus (the human blacker than black ops organization) and the Quarians.

the 1st yes focuses on Saren and David Anderson... who as everyone will remember helped the main character in Mass Effect... all this is about the discovery of the Reapers...

Silver Crusade

Two thoughts:

1. ME2 better let me be able to run over Batarians with the Mako(or whatever we're driving now). I want to be able to cash in on my Shepard's Colonist background already and I can't be bothered to buy the DLC for the Xbox360 version(or use Live for that matter).

2. Asari lovechild. Bonus points if they manage to implement your Shepard's facial features in some way. That will certainly piss off Terra Firma.

Bonus: Bringing back the same reporter to be punched.

Bonus2: Actually getting to watch that Elcor production of Hamlet.

Liberty's Edge

Mikaze wrote:
Bonus2: Actually getting to watch that Elcor production of Hamlet.

lol

ohh yead that would be fun!

Sovereign Court

Some technical information about the transfer of characters from ME1 to 2 has come to light, which seemed important enough to share. From Chris Priestly

We know many fans of Mass Effect have been asking how their saved games would transfer between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. We have put together details you need to know about transferring your saves between ME1 and ME2.

I am sure this will create some new questions. Please ask them in this thread and, post Xmas break, I will try to get them answered for you.

Save Game Import

* Upon starting a new game from the main menu, players can import a character save from Mass Effect 1

* The Player chooses which character to bring in. Bringing in more than one character is possible, this will create a second or additional profile(s), just like in Mass Effect 1.

* For Xbox 360 players need to be signed into your profile that you used to play through Mass Effect 1.

* On PC players will select the .MassEffectSave files to import.

* The profile and save data must be present on the hard drive and not an MU.

* There is a limit of 11 end-of-game saves that can be imported into ME2. This means that if the player was to complete ME1 12 times, regardless of the number of unique playthroughs used, the 12th save will not be available for import, but saves 1 through 11 will be available.

At this point we have revealed that the save game import system will carryover all your decisions and plot decisions from ME1 into ME2. Did you save the Council? Who survived Virmire? And how did you handle your most ardent fan? We don’t want to list everything out and spoil the surprises we have in store for you, but rest assured you will be pleased when you see just how much carries over into Mass Effect 2.

Up until now we have only discussed the plot impacts of this feature, however, there are also certain gameplay perks as well. If you finished ME1 as a high level character you will receive greater bonuses than those who finished at lower levels. Ex, if you finished ME1 as a level 35 character, you will receive a bonus, but if you finished ME1 as a level 50 character, your bonus will be larger. That being said these bonuses will not put new playthrough characters at a severe disadvantage. For example, some of these bonuses include a monetary boost at the start of the game, or additional research resources for use at the Normandy’s Tech Lab. Another perk is if you finished the game as a Paragon or Renegade, part of your alignment will carry over making it easier to access certain dialogue options.

Finally, some technical information regarding the feature as well. If players start a New Game + after beating the game they will be able to re-use the same character import file they did for their first playthrough. Yes New Game + is making a return to Mass Effect 2! Additionally as mentioned above, make sure you are playing on your Xbox 360 profile that you completed ME1 on and that the profile and save data is present on the Hard Drive and not a MU. If you want to do a quick check and make sure you are good to go, load up Mass Effect 1 and see if the New Game + option appears. That will let you know your save game is ready for Mass Effect 2.

We are definitely excited to share this brand new feature with everyone, and remember what you do in Mass Effect 2, will have consequences in Mass Effect 3!

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