Mass Effect 2 review + Witcher 2 preview

[Darius]

I bought the latest CDA (PL game mag) yesterday, and they gave ME2 the first 10/10 since like 2008. They claim the game is better than the first one in pretty much every aspect. They particularly praise the tactical combat, epic story, fantastic graphics and the integration with part one. Looks like a must buy.

Witcher 2 should kick some ass as well, even though it's still probably a distant release. It will be based on a new engine enabling Geralt to climb, jump and swim, it's gonna have an improved, flexible camera not requiring constant switching between modes. The story is supposed to be great, minigames should rock, I just don't know how they make it possible to play as Geralt again. This guy was a powerhouse at the end of the first game, so I really don't know how they make the Witcher "levelable" without completely deviating from Sapkowski's books.

[shiram]

mass effect 2 looks like a beast of a game, and seems to really excell at blending rpg and shooter mecanics
a friend of mine without a gaming pc or xbox 360 is buying it to play on m xbox 360, he is so excited about this release

i've not played witcher, but it was on my radar... just dont have that gaming pc

[Bane]

I played ME very late, last fall, but I think it was the best game I've played in a long, long time. Looking forward to the next one more than any other game right now (even more than I await Mafia 2!).

I haven't read or seen much though, have been avoiding such things rather deliberately to not get my expectations pumped up sky high, so I don't know if the release date for PC will be the same as other versions. last time around we had to wait like a year after it's initial release before it was finally released on PC, IIRC.

Tried witcher, but as discussed in another thread in here, wasn't a big fan of the game play (leveling, skills, fighting mechanics and such), so I can't say I'll play W2.

[Bane]

Anyone tried MA2 yet? It's out now.
'
MAJOR SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!! BIGT:s POST!

edit again: ok, maybe not a major spoiler, but still, a spoiler (Drank alot of whisky yesterday, heh.. )

[shiram]

not yet
my friends playing it are all in awe though

[BigT]

I just got ME2, and so far I'm not very impressed.

Its alright don't get me wrong, but maybe i'm not at the wow factor yet. The whole intro to me seemed kind of "whats the point", i'm hoping me being killed and brought back to life in the first 5 minutes of the game has some impact in the story other than "hey, tired of how you looked in the first one? well you get to make yourself over now."

Also in the first one I felt more like a bad ass, in this game all the answers to the good stuff and bad stuff are basically the same:

Good: Can't talk now gotta save the world
Bad: My time is important, gotta go

seems kinda sloppy in my opinion.

I hope it gets better.

[Bane]

Played the first two real missions (Edit: roughly 6,5 hours in now), and so far I feel:

Dislikes:
-They changed the weapons, you no longer have to worry about over-heating, isntead you use "ammo" and reloading, but they try to tell you it's "universal clips that can cool down weapons" or something like that. It's basically ammo, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't fit with the rest of ME universe or with the first game, so I can't say I like that change.
-They changed the skills alot. I picked soldier since my first Shep was that and I want to play 'in character', but you no longer choose what weapons you prefer and level up those, instead Shep can use all weapons equally good and you level up other things. From the beginning you only have 6 different skills you can level up, as a soldier three of'em gives different ammo-damage bonus, one vs shields and one vs flesh which affects all weapons. No explanation on how you can level up that skill and use it on your weapons though? Seems rather weird since the first game had a whole diff skill setup which was IMHO, better. I guess they did this so that you would use all weapons instead of just one or two though. I switch weapons all the time since i run out of ammo for my sniper rifle after a couple of seconds :-/
-Scanning planets for resources are BOOOORING, even more boring then driving the frickign Mako from MA1. The mouse is so inanely insensitive too so I get a fucking ache in my arm and shoulder from moving the mouse around so much.
-Alot of glitches in the movement. More than once I have seen Shep suddenly stand upon tables or slowly ascend into the ceiling. Annoying as hell, but most of the times I can manouver out of it without having to reaload at least.
-No inventory! No looting of items, no swapping gear. Instead it seems you upgrade the items you have from the beginning in specific upgrade and research terminals (you use the resources you mine or find). You can find new weapons but you have access your "weapon loadout" terminal in the ship to change. HUGE DISLIKE. I liked the old system in MA1 where you found better version of the same armors and changed and where you could have diff types of armors, light, medium and heavy. In this game it seems nothing of that is implemented.

Likes:
-Shep is still Shep! I don't agree with BigT above. So far the renegade dialogue options have offered some amusing conversation. My Shep in ME1 was very much like the organisation I work for in ME2 is, humanity comes first, all others are expendable. And so far the options in conversations reflect this. They have also added renegade/paragon chances in the middle of conversations, meaning if you say something and then suddenly you see that if you click the mouse, Shep can perform a ren/para move. For instance, heal a wounded or shoot some guy. Adds even more to the already superb dialogues. It was the story and the dialogues which made ME1 the best game of the year, and so far ME2 has not disappointed me. I have only played a few hours into the game though.
-More kinds of weapons. Shep also has a heavy weapon which can be grenade or missile launcher, flame throwe, cryo-weapon and stuff like that. Looking forward to see what other kind of weapons Shep can get later on in the game.

Overall I think the game will be great and very much enjoyable, but in the future, people will say (as you almost always do, hehe*) "the first game is better"!


*except fallout2 which was far superior to the first.

[shiram]

mortal kombat, street fighter, Diablo... all those sequels better than the first one!
i think i read they changed alot of the stuff you dislike to make it more mass-appealing, to not just get rpg's fan, but to offer something to the shooter fan, and make it 'easier' to grasp than before

i havent played ME2 yet, but i already have the feeling the second one is better

[Bane]

mortal kombat, street fighter, Diablo... all those sequels better than the first one!

I liked MK1 though, and the rest was kinda the same. Never tried SF1 so dunno about that one, but I guess you are right since SF2 was one of the best fighting-games ever made.

i think i read they changed alot of the stuff you dislike to make it more mass-appealing, to not just get rpg's fan, but to offer something to the shooter fan, and make it 'easier' to grasp than before

i havent played ME2 yet, but i already have the feeling the second one is better

Yes, I believe they did just that, but to me those things were more appealing I'm not a big fan of straight up shooters, they get old and dull very fast. If I would have had a say in this, I'd say they should add more RPG content instead of removing it! I have found new armor peices you can add in your armor terminal now though, but it's still teh same armor you keep upgrading all the time.

The second one unfortunately forgot to fix some of the bad things about the first. Your companions are better in the fights, which is an improvement, but their pathing is still seriously fucked up and many times they get stuck behind stuff or even turn their backs against the enemy. They can hold their own though and use powers, so that is alot better than the first game.

The mining of resources is a pain in the ass! You have to scan an entire grid of each planet, holding down the right button for scan and then send down probes to collect the resrouces, often as many as 40 on each each planet! That takes AGES and you have to go back and buy more probes often since the ship can only hold 30.. and since i'm such a nerd, I have to mine everything on each planet :-/ I just can't fly away knowing there is shit left to find I would have rather seen them removing that part of the game, which can't really be appealing to ANYONE and kept more RPG stuff instead, hehe.. Ppl who like shooters and don't have much patiance will not like that anyways.

Well, enough whining! It's still a GREAT game and I have already played ~10 hours and gained a couple of really cool companions.

[Darius]

Being a tr00 n3rd, it looks like I'm gonna spend a whole lot of precious time scanning all these planets for resources.

Bane, are you playing the English version or perhaps a Swedish one?

I usually play games in the original language version, which in 99 of 100 cases is the best you can get (most - EN, Witcher - PL, Risen/Gothic/Drakensang - DE). Unfortunately, even the CE of ME2 released in Poland is fully translated, with Polish voice actors. My only options are to fiddle in the ini files and enable "cinematic version", i.e. PL text and EN voices or download the Digital Dlx Ed. from EA Store. Does anyone know whether EA Store servers are fast or not? ME2 is surely a huge download...

[Bane]

Being a tr00 n3rd, it looks like I'm gonna spend a whole lot of precious time scanning all these planets for resources.

As do i :-/ I spent prolly around 30 mins for a sinlge planet yesterday, sending 70-80 probes until it was depleted of all minerals. And that was just one out of three planets in that cluster, heh.. and there's several clusters in each system! Looots of scanning for us true nerds yes

Bane, are you playing the English version or perhaps a Swedish one?

Games are never translated to swedish. Our market is so very, very small and since all swedes speak/read english good enough at age 12, there really is no need either. I would like to play all games with original voicing, but since I only know english, i stick to that. Pretty much every game I play are english in origin anyways (not necessarely made in US, but have english as primary language).

I usually play games in the original language version, which in 99 of 100 cases is the best you can get (most - EN, Witcher - PL, Risen/Gothic/Drakensang - DE). Unfortunately, even the CE of ME2 released in Poland is fully translated, with Polish voice actors. My only options are to fiddle in the ini files and enable "cinematic version", i.e. PL text and EN voices or download the Digital Dlx Ed. from EA Store. Does anyone know whether EA Store servers are fast or not? ME2 is surely a huge download...

If you paid for it once already, just download the english version on torrent, you will still go to heaven 14 gigs is nothing for your insane broadband, iirc, you bought some crazy 100 mbit or something?

Hehe, Shep's voice is really not that cool in english though It is as it should be, the same as in ME1, but he doesn't really have that cool, brutish action-voice you would like. That's part of the charm though!

[Darius]

The download itself won't be a problem I could d/l a torrent version indeed. Not that I'm in a hurry, I still have DA:O to beat and many other games as well.

In fact, I've just bought Dante's Inferno for my PS3 so I got another game to play. Looks like this winter is damn hot in terms of game releases

In Poland, most games are released with PL text or fully translated. They usually hire popular actors, especially for big ticket releases like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. The point is that I usually install the original version anyway. Sometimes, PL releases can be fantastic though. The best I remember was Baldur's Gate 2. AWESOME! Fantastic, incredible voice acting, plus very solid translation by people who like and know fantasy/D&D/FR, not only English. I think it's the only translated game I remember that was head and shoulders ABOVE the EN original. CD Projekt did a stunning job. ME2 PL doesn't even come close :/ A few actors, including the one voicing Shepard, are pretty good, but others vary from "just acceptable" to "major suckage".

[shiram]

when i bought the first Mass effect, they gave me a french only game
i tried playing it, but it just didnt feel right
i got it exchanged and all was well

games translated to french are almost always done in France since they are the bigger market, but the France accent just ruins it for me
they just dont sound badass
let us know how dante's inferno plays out, the demo was alright but it seems to get mixed reviews

[Darius]

OK but don't count on a "just beat the game" report anytime soon since I wanna beat Darksiders first and my gaming time is limited nowadays

[shiram]

darksiders fine, but not great
the best way i can explain it is that when i play it i'll always get bored of it within an hour more or less
combat could be deeper too

[Darius]

True but I still like it. I never really play it much longer anyway, since I have many other games to play right now. In my case, Darksiders gets a bit tiresome after a while as well but it's great as a "play a level, switch to something else" game

[shiram]

yea thats what im saying
the last few months have been so packed with awesome game release

[Darius]

Yep, and more are coming - just to name Heavy Rain, God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII, etc.

BTW, does anyone else think that Bioshock is a bit overrated. Sure, it was a nice game with a twisted story, great graphics and pretty exciting combat/gameplay but somehow, I didn't consider it as memorable or impressive as most of the reviewers, and consequently, I won't be jumping at the sequel anytime soon due to other releases, even though it's already available in both console and PC versions.

Assassin's Creed II PC should be juicy though. Despite being so repetitive in its gameplay, I enjoyed and finished the first AC. In AC2, they seem to have addressed most of the predecessor's shortcomings so it should be a truly awesome game, which reviews of the console version unanimously confirm.

After such a hot winter/spring season, I wonder if the typical "game summer hole" returns this year.

[shiram]

i gotta say i have very little interest in heavy rain
ff 13 well the last few ones i played seemed to be alot less fun than the good old days (ff 4 and 6)
probly won get ff 13 untill it gets discounted

god of war is a now brainer though
played the first bioshock and felt it was ok, but definately as praiseworthy as critics seems to be
i much prefered dead space, in the same kind of atmospheric shooter

i didnt play the first AC, mostly cause it seemed repetitive, and looked to borrow heavily from the prince of persia style of gameplay, which i dislike
second one is said to be tons better though

[Darius]

FF13 will be for my wife, I personally pretty much hate manga, anime, JRPGs, etc.

Yeah, I also preferred Dead Space. Bioshock was OK but it took me literally MONTHS to beat it, I was never able to play it for more than about 1 hour straight. A good, well made game but not exactly my cup of tea. BTW, I was totally disappointed in the final fight. While I'm not into retrying 100 times and "one mistake and you die" boss fights, Fontaine was ridiculously easy. I was actually surprised since I played on a pretty challenging difficulty level IIRC but the final boss was a pushover. Bang, bang, dead, I couldn't believe how fast I was mowing through his phases.

I'm definitely buying HR, since I liked Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) a lot, even though its story became quite absurd towards the end, and the really climatic, tense part of the game lasted for like 2-3 hours.