Mass Effect 2: More waxing goddamn nostalgic.

[Podge]

Managed to get through the derelict ship on my insanity run with little to no problems. A number of restarts sure, but not anywhere near as many as I thought I would need. I can now put the finale in motion and get the achievement done sometime this weekend.

[donpeartree]

My insanity run has been a nightmare so far. Decided to start a fresh, new, non-imported character. I chose sentinel thinking the tech armour would really help me out, as well as the skills that help you break through enemy defences (warp, overload).

So far, every mission has been an up-hill sruggle. I've got as far as Horizon and had to retry several times during at least three sections (just on Horizon).

It really is brutal, but I'm kind of qishing I chose a different character now. Tech armour is a bit shit (for insanity at least).

[womblingfree]

Anyone else playing 2 without finishing the first one? I'm getting a little tired of people saying it's good to see me again, or reminding me of stuff I did that I didn't do. Just stick in an optional recap of the story next time please.

[Spacehost]

I was chatting to a friend of mine about FO3 last night and he told me about his excapades in ME1 and 2 and how awesome it was. As I now have a subtantial RPG-shaped hole in my gaming life once I ace Fallout, I should totally get both, right?

[Isaac]

Anyone else playing 2 without finishing the first one? I'm getting a little tired of people saying it's good to see me again, or reminding me of stuff I did that I didn't do. Just stick in an optional recap of the story next time please.

There is an easy way to fix this problem.

[Sabreman]

I'm at 31 and a bit hours and the only things left in my journal are going through the Omega 4 relay and finding someone who needs a fake ID. No idea where to start on the ID thing, but now I'm at the endgame point I'm incredibly reluctant to push through to the end.

Even though I fully intend to just New Game+ the thing immediately I feel like I ought to rinse every last drop out of the galaxy right now. I've done a fair bit of scanning just to get upgrades done, but I've only found one anomaly that led to planet-side action. I don't suppose I'd be missing anything particularly interesting or vital if I didn't scan and deplete every single planet in the game?

[Mr Ben]

I'm at 31 and a bit hours and the only things left in my journal are going through the Omega 4 relay and finding someone who needs a fake ID. No idea where to start on the ID thing, but now I'm at the endgame point I'm incredibly reluctant to push through to the end.

Even though I fully intend to just New Game+ the thing immediately I feel like I ought to rinse every last drop out of the galaxy right now. I've done a fair bit of scanning just to get upgrades done, but I've only found one anomaly that led to planet-side action. I don't suppose I'd be missing anything particularly interesting or vital if I didn't scan and deplete every single planet in the game?

The ID thing can be found

on the Citadel in the Wards. Look for 2 Asari chatting while sitting in a corner near one of the ramps to the lower level.

As far as I know depleting planets does nothing other than score you loads of minerals which arent really needed. Maybe ME3 will make use of them though, or future DLC for ME2.

[womblingfree]

There is an easy way to fix this problem.

Don't talk to anyone? Or play the first one? I didn't enjoy the first one so much and gave up...

[Anubis]

.... I've done a fair bit of scanning just to get upgrades done, but I've only found one anomaly that led to planet-side action. I don't suppose I'd be missing anything particularly interesting or vital if I didn't scan and deplete every single planet in the game?

Nothing vital but I found quite a few of the N7 missions to be some of the most atmospheric of the whole game, it doesn't take long to visit each planet to see if there is a mission there, EDI will tell you straight away if there is an anomaly to be found.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Yeah, there's quite a few N7s to be found just from scanning systems.

Off the top of my head:

* Blue Sun attempting to steal a Prothean beacon

* Quarian Crash Landing

* Geth on board a crashing ship

* A chain involving the Blood Pack, including a funky misty planet

* A chain involving corrupted circuit boards/crazy mechs

* The terrifying clifftop shipwreck

* Research outpost sunshield failure (takes all of 90 seconds but hey, it looks cool)

* Batarians launching missiles at a colony

* Geth outpost in a sandstorm, awesomely atmospheric that one

* Retreiving a Cerberus agent from mercs

* Taking back a ship & cargo from Blue Sun

* A mine containing a Very Bad Thing created by Very Bad Things that make organics into Very Bad Things

And there's a few more I can't recall right now. Mostly it's a case of showing those pesky merc groups that even in the Terminus, justice has a name. And lots of bullets.

[Matt Defis]

Not really had any problems yet on my Insanity run, halfway through Horizon and the only thing that has given me any problems so far is one sub quets that I just can't get done, it's the one that has 3 mechs blowing up boxes, I just get roflstomped as soon as they look at me.

[bucket]

If you want a list of all the city and planet missions, then head over here: http://wikicheats.gametrailers.com/index.p...ct_2_-_PC_XB360

[Sabreman]

Nah, I want to find stuff myself (which is why I don't frequent this thread and went dark on coverage beyond the first trailer). Looks like I'll be spending the day mopping up the galaxy then, before heading for the grand finale tomorrow night.

[bucket]

Also, I just finished it as a female Shepard (called Kuriko - blame the gf for the name) and I spent the entire game trying to les up but nothing happened. With Kelly I had

hugs, dinner and she offered to look after my fish but then died in the end sequence

; Miranda

got pissy when I chose Jack over her, despite doing her loyalty mision;

and all other girls (Jack, Tali and Samara) had their loyalty missions done and flirted with lots, but nothing happened. Any ideas what I needed to do?

[Wiper]

Mostly? Not be female, I'm afraid.

Kelly's the only woman interested in other women on the ship. Also Liara continues as a love interest from the first game, if you'd won her affections back then

.

Still, better than the options open to gay male Shepards, who've had a grand total of no options across either game.

[Unofficial Who]

Spoiler for those fem Shephard's who want to romance Jack

I actually got a bit flirty with her which resulted in her saying "Look. I'll be upfront. I'm not a 'girl's club' type, if you get what I'm saying Shephard."

[davejm]

Anyone else playing 2 without finishing the first one? I'm getting a little tired of people saying it's good to see me again, or reminding me of stuff I did that I didn't do. Just stick in an optional recap of the story next time please.

Play the first game through, or put up with it. You're playing a story/dialogue heavy game, and there are loads of references to the first game. It'd be impossible for them to have recapped every scene/conversation from Mass Effect, so there's only one solution to your problem. A recap would have been doable for the main plot/story, but some of the references point back to very small sub-quests - and there are lots of them.

I understand your frustration if you didn't like the original. Although I hope this post serves to discourage people from jumping straight into ME2. As I've said before, if you find the combat and technical problems of the first one annoying; I'd recommend just playing through the main questline on easy, just to see the story.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

womblingfree: you're only getting a tiny amount of callbacks. If you import an ME1 save, then there are at least double the number of NPCs who remember you, assuming they survived the first game.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Going well on insanity Infiltrator now - through the dreaded Ghost Ship spike after a few retries - eventually found Wrex a good position in which he stayed alive longer than usual which made all the difference there. Prior to that

Tali's and the Samara's

recruitment were both a first time doddle but again the trick is to keep moving directly forward to the objective and to take the leaders out as fast as possible to stiop spawning, Grunt's loyalty mision was tough and used a lot of grenades to deal with the varren. Should be able to complete the game on this difficulty now including all the loyalty missions.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Whut?

LOL - Grunt of course, what I would have given to have both Wrex and Grunt on board..

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Fuck you, Cosmic, getting our hopes up like that. That's just cruel.

*pouts, sulks*

[Sabreman]

I'm glad I asked if it was worth seeking out unexplored world missions, the two I've just done were quite spiffy.

Hmm.. maybe I won't be finishing this today.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Um, Sabe, when you say you're otherwise ready for the Omega-4 relay, what exactly was the last main story mission from the Illusive Man you completed? Have you recently salvaged and installed a

I-F-F module from a really old wreck near a gas giant

?

[Swallow]

I didn't dare ask him that...

[Space Renegade Ulala]

I know! I feel like I'm

watching the first 10 minutes of an episode of Casualty here...

[Gorf King]

Every great journey needs a dramatic ending. Sabe's just making sure his journey maxes that out.

[Mr Ben]

Out of interest who did people let die in the 1st game? I let Ash die in my 1st playthrough, but am thinking of letting Kaiden snuff it this time.

Am playing pure Paragon, and found out in ME2 that

letting Ash die makes her a hero and also be misquoted (racist bitch), whereas letting Kaiden die means Biotics get something beneficial, so I'm thinking this may be the true Paragon choice so to speak of the 2.

What do other people pick on their Paragon runs?

[Wiper]

True. I do wonder about how you can ignore all the warnings being thrown at you and just

carry on with your business, though! I mean, the game really gives you a sense of urgency about it. What sort of commander would go "what's that EDI? Our crew's been kidnapped? Time is of the essence! Quick, men, let us fly to some random planets and launch some probes!". Still, not as amazing as those people who complained - complained! - about Dragon Age wiping a city off the map after you left it and completed a main mission, despite it being made explicit that the darkspawn was approaching the city and bound to overrun it. Consequences, bitches!

[Sabreman]

Regarding the Omega 4 jumping-off point:

Yes, I've installed the IFF. I rather wish I hadn't done that yet as I'm now cruising the galaxy in a ghost ship. I did think it was a bit weakly arbitrary how the main squad were made to leave the Normandy to trigger that plot development.

"Let's all go out in the shuttle and then decide who's doing a mission when we get there!"

Also, I never made it with Kelly.

I killed off the Geth Heretics, though Shepard's reasoning for doing so wasn't my own. She spoke of the danger of them reverting back to Reaper-worship, whereas I was looking at it from more of a free will point of view. That splinter group of Geth did choose to side with Sovereign, so indoctrination would have been more of a crime to me than treating them as wartime hostiles. It's still not an easy choice... brainwash them or remove them as a threat, and I did get a whole heap of Renegade points for destroying them but I think I did the right thing.

It does seem to me that it was one of the major decisions in the game though, and one that will reverberate strongly through ME3.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I know! I feel like I'm

watching the first 10 minutes of an episode of Casualty here...

Bang on the money, it seems.