Mass Effect

[Zeus]

so I finally beat it today doing all the quests I could find it was 31 hours. and I did pretty much everything possible. I'm quite impressed as at no point was I ever bored which is a damn nice thing and the length is just about perfect to allow me multiple plays. I love the systems and it's also part of my next pplaythough is gonna max out charm and sweet talk my way to victory.....

31 good hours for an RPG? Sounds about right. I don't get people's obsession with the 80+ hour RPGs. I want 20-35 or so great hours, not 80 hours with 60 of those being irritating random battles and/or useless side quests or levelling up. Heck, Panzer Saga is a short 15 hours and it's one of the best RPGs ever made

[Tessian]

Chris-- how far out of your way did you go to explore? Like... just to places that had missions or did you try to survey/land on every damned planet?

[Blotus]

Who'd ya'll shag?

I shagged Liara. Or I scissored her, I should say.

[Tessian]

Anyone use the Combat Scanner upgrades on your weapons? I want to use it but I can't stand to give up damage bonuses for it...

[Blotus]

Just put it on one of your biotic users that use a pistol. I always had one on Liara because she only shoots when she's in cooldown.

[Tessian]

Just put it on one of your biotic users that use a pistol. I always had one on Liara because she only shoots when she's in cooldown.

My only biotic is Wrex... he needs that shotgun

[Chris]

so I finally beat it today doing all the quests I could find it was 31 hours. and I did pretty much everything possible. I'm quite impressed as at no point was I ever bored which is a damn nice thing and the length is just about perfect to allow me multiple plays. I love the systems and it's also part of my next pplaythough is gonna max out charm and sweet talk my way to victory.....

I've been doing paragon / charm this round-- you did renegade / intimidate first play through?

no I did paragon and ignored the talking abilities. shouldn't have. so second time though I decided to make a scarred evil bitch and only solve problems once my intimidate skill is high enough....I'm threatened to kill like 20 people just in the citadel with my un to their face....it's awesome......and I'm an adept too. which is nice that I got the assault rifle acheivement so that now I can be an adept with a gun that doesn't suck

[Chris]

Chris-- how far out of your way did you go to explore? Like... just to places that had missions or did you try to survey/land on every damned planet?

all the mission ones and then random exploring as I filled out the collection missions. dude I found guys that update your mako and your ship.....my make is even more of a tank now.....plus I've got gamblin in my ships bedroom.....

I can't wait to seee what they add with the downloadable content....hopefull something that fixes the loading issues first and then some awesome new sidequests....maybe something on earth....maybe a magical potato....can't wait to find out

[Chris]

so I finally beat it today doing all the quests I could find it was 31 hours. and I did pretty much everything possible. I'm quite impressed as at no point was I ever bored which is a damn nice thing and the length is just about perfect to allow me multiple plays. I love the systems and it's also part of my next pplaythough is gonna max out charm and sweet talk my way to victory.....

31 good hours for an RPG? Sounds about right. I don't get people's obsession with the 80+ hour RPGs. I want 20-35 or so great hours, not 80 hours with 60 of those being irritating random battles and/or useless side quests or levelling up. Heck, Panzer Saga is a short 15 hours and it's one of the best RPGs ever made

I found it nice. if I rushed I probably coud have done all of it in 20 but I did take a lot of time out to kick some ass on random small planets and roving around once I upgraded everything on the mako. really found it enjoyable as with the length I feel like I could play it though multiple times to experiance new dialogue and different paths. hell this time around I intend to try to kill off more poeple on my team in the name of the mission. as it is I've pretty much senselessly slaughtered a whole lot of people or allowed my teammates to.

[Blotus]

once I upgraded everything on the mako.

...You can do that? Why would you need to?

I can't wait to seee what they add with the downloadable content....hopefull something that fixes the loading issues first and then some awesome new sidequests....maybe something on earth....maybe a magical potato....can't wait to find out

What would be awesome is if they could make available some way for your 360 to utilize the HDD for install or caching. We likely wouldn't have the loading/framerate/texture issues if that was the case. I understand developers have to dumb down their 360 titles somewhat so that people without hard drives (retards) can play them, but could they not just include the option to use the drive to quicken load times? Damn you multiple SKUs!

[Chris]

once I upgraded everything on the mako.

...You can do that? Why would you need to?

the armor boosts and stuff like that will come in handy when I new game plus it on insane. faster reload time for the cannons comes in really handy in taking out tanks and turrets.plus by the end you are pretty much just swimming in money. The ship upgrades are where it's at though. I love gambling a bit before a mission

[Tessian]

once I upgraded everything on the mako.

...You can do that? Why would you need to?

the armor boosts and stuff like that will come in handy when I new game plus it on insane. faster reload time for the cannons comes in really handy in taking out tanks and turrets.plus by the end you are pretty much just swimming in money. The ship upgrades are where it's at though. I love gambling a bit before a mission

Where/when do you get to do upgrades like this? I haven't even finished the first 3 main missions yet (and sometimes wonder if I ever will with these sidequests) hell I just got the blue girl.

[Chris]

...You can do that? Why would you need to?

the armor boosts and stuff like that will come in handy when I new game plus it on insane. faster reload time for the cannons comes in really handy in taking out tanks and turrets.plus by the end you are pretty much just swimming in money. The ship upgrades are where it's at though. I love gambling a bit before a mission

Where/when do you get to do upgrades like this? I haven't even finished the first 3 main missions yet (and sometimes wonder if I ever will with these sidequests) hell I just got the blue girl.

it's nt a mission and it's not n the map.....but zephyr cluster you find a garage.....he upgrades the mako and once you've bought something if you go back he tells you how to upgrade the ship so you go find another hidden enclave to upgrade shippy

[Tessian]

At what point did you guys decide you had progressed far enough in the main storyline to do all the side quests and exploring you could handle? I've done 2/3 of the planets on the main mission and then I decided to do a few side quests, went back to Citadel to finish a few and now I have like 4 more...

[Blotus]

At what point did you guys decide you had progressed far enough in the main storyline to do all the side quests and exploring you could handle? I've done 2/3 of the planets on the main mission and then I decided to do a few side quests, went back to Citadel to finish a few and now I have like 4 more...

By the time I had one story planet left, I probably had a backlog of ten side missions I could do. And it seemed like every time I'd do one, a new one would pop up. I just did them here and there, but eventually I wanted to progress the plot because my dudes were buff and I was rich enough to buy anything I needed (although anything I COULD buy was generally not as good as what I had equipped).

I'm eager to get into my new game+, since my last save is right before the end of the game (can't go back to do anything else)... it's just hard to get the TV time I had earlier this week.


So now I'm reading the Bioware boards and skimming the novel.

[Chris]

At what point did you guys decide you had progressed far enough in the main storyline to do all the side quests and exploring you could handle? I've done 2/3 of the planets on the main mission and then I decided to do a few side quests, went back to Citadel to finish a few and now I have like 4 more...

actually rigt from the start. I did most of the sidequestes before even touching a man mission.....well I did a few then went and got liara then dd the rest then finished the game

[Tessian]

At what point did you guys decide you had progressed far enough in the main storyline to do all the side quests and exploring you could handle? I've done 2/3 of the planets on the main mission and then I decided to do a few side quests, went back to Citadel to finish a few and now I have like 4 more...

actually rigt from the start. I did most of the sidequestes before even touching a man mission.....well I did a few then went and got liara then dd the rest then finished the game

That's what I'm doing now. By the way-- the Rogue VI mission SUCKS... so many freakin rocket robots running at you

Btw-- anyone else get ANY disc read errors? Mine only seem to occur on the Normandy. Happened 3x so far, real annoying. Gotta listen to everyone bitch a 2nd time.

[Chris]

At what point did you guys decide you had progressed far enough in the main storyline to do all the side quests and exploring you could handle? I've done 2/3 of the planets on the main mission and then I decided to do a few side quests, went back to Citadel to finish a few and now I have like 4 more...

actually rigt from the start. I did most of the sidequestes before even touching a man mission.....well I did a few then went and got liara then dd the rest then finished the game

That's what I'm doing now. By the way-- the Rogue VI mission SUCKS... so many freakin rocket robots running at you

Btw-- anyone else get ANY disc read errors? Mine only seem to occur on the Normandy. Happened 3x so far, real annoying. Gotta listen to everyone bitch a 2nd time.

I've gotten a few. as soon as I startfreezing to load I save and restart the system now. it's easy enough and has kept it from happening again. Which one is the rogue 4 misson> can't be as bad as the Benezia fight which is ungodly fucking cheap and makes me want to kill things.....or the third base on the moon where all thr rocket drones come at you in a tight space.....

[Blotus]

I did most of the sidequestes before even touching a man

I didn't know you had that kind of restaint.

No DREs here so far.

I died once during the Benezia fight, but it wasn't very hard the second. Keep in mind, I was a soldier, so once I beat all her goons and she got weak, I was just pumping shotgun shells into her with immunity on.

I started a game on Hardcore as a Vanguard, but I think I'm going to restart it as an Adept or whatever the true tech is called. Doesn't look like the hybrids can learn all of the magics/tech skills, so I'd have to play through the game many, many times to get all the acheivements. I'm kicking myself now because I should have chosen one of the other classes for my easier playthrough since the soldier's probably the easiest.

[Tessian]

I would just like to point out that Chris is a douchebag-- I messaged him on Live a few times asking about the thing above (would have REALLY helped during the missions in the Armstrong cluster!) but nooo... totally ignored me!

Wtf douche?

[kali o.]

God damn....I shouldn't have read this thread....almost wanna come home early to get this fucking game.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

God damn....I shouldn't have read this thread....almost wanna come home early to get this fucking game.

Checking the Shrine while you're jetsetting around the world? Jeez, you nerd .

[Tessian]

I would just like to point out that Chris is a douchebag-- I messaged him on Live a few times asking about the thing above (would have REALLY helped during the missions in the Armstrong cluster!) but nooo... totally ignored me!

Wtf douche?

[Chris]

I would just like to point out that Chris is a douchebag-- I messaged him on Live a few times asking about the thing above (would have REALLY helped during the missions in the Armstrong cluster!) but nooo... totally ignored me!

Wtf douche?

I just want to point out....do more missions go back to cities....take lots of elevators. that's the only thing I'm going to say....that and beat the game......

and the geth armstorng missions are easy as hell you pussy :p

[Chris]

ok funniest thing ever.....you know when you return to citadel after a couple missions and there is a reporter right off the elevator who interviews you.....choose time to shut you up as an option. I thought I would say something smarmy and dickish about the interview being over.....instead.....well you have to see it for yourself. suprised the hel out of me and had me rolling........take that bitch down shepard....hehehe

[Tessian]

ok funniest thing ever.....you know when you return to citadel after a couple missions and there is a reporter right off the elevator who interviews you.....choose time to shut you up as an option. I thought I would say something smarmy and dickish about the interview being over.....instead.....well you have to see it for yourself. suprised the hel out of me and had me rolling........take that bitch down shepard....hehehe

I saw that option but I'm being a pussy this time around-- I take it he beats the crap out of her? Can't wait!

[Blotus]

Looking forward to seeing that. I'm playing as a real cunt this time around and the conversations are infitely more amusing. Hardcore difficulty is rapin' me, though. There's one optional fight in the citadel that took me five tries to win (vs. a Krogan and two of his goons in the lower market).

[Chris]

Looking forward to seeing that. I'm playing as a real cunt this time around and the conversations are infitely more amusing. Hardcore difficulty is rapin' me, though. There's one optional fight in the citadel that took me five tries to win (vs. a Krogan and two of his goons in the lower market).

the funny thing is when you play as a serial killing racist sadist douche.....you actually get less renegade points than if you use threaten to solve everything.....and the threaten things are sme of the funniest things I've seen in a while....if you go flat out douchebag.....well I'm almost done with the second playthough and I actually am still below half on my uber mega douchebag-o-meter. I'm a racist fuck I cut off and hang up on the council and treat everyone like crap....it's absolutely hilarious

[Tessian]

I've never wanted to kill defenseless monkeys so badly.... WTF are they doing in mines???

[SineSwiper]

I've gotten a few. as soon as I startfreezing to load I save and restart the system now. it's easy enough and has kept it from happening again. Which one is the rogue 4 misson> can't be as bad as the Benezia fight which is ungodly fucking cheap and makes me want to kill things.....or the third base on the moon where all thr rocket drones come at you in a tight space.....

Haven't had a freeze at all. I've got an Elite, so maybe that has something to do with it.

The Benezia fight made me want to throw my controller a few times. I fought that thing 20 times, each of them having to skip through the dialogue, and then die within a minute or so. I kept trying to get rid of the Asari agents first, because they were really killing me. Finally, I just said fuck it and grenaded the hell out of Benezia, which killed her off quickly, and mopped up the rest.

The VI fight was hard because one rocket would kill you off, and since they were flying, the usual Singularity that Liara would kick ass with would not work. Most abilities like Throw, Lift, or Neural Shock didn't work either.

Maybe I'm spoiled with Half Life 2, but does anybody else think that the game doesn't auto-save worth a shit? I can go through the entire lab area without so much as an auto-save, and if I forget, I just lost about an hour of work. Isn't the point of an auto-save to remove the annoying bit of redoing the same thing again and again?

[Oracle]

Maybe I'm spoiled with Half Life 2, but does anybody else think that the game doesn't auto-save worth a shit? I can go through the entire lab area without so much as an auto-save, and if I forget, I just lost about an hour of work. Isn't the point of an auto-save to remove the annoying bit of redoing the same thing again and again?

I agree with this. I just save before ever entering a building when Im on an exploration planet now.

[kali o.]

God damn....I shouldn't have read this thread....almost wanna come home early to get this fucking game.

Checking the Shrine while you're jetsetting around the world? Jeez, you nerd .

While I am a super nerd, I should point out I'm in Pattaya, Thailand by myself at the moment. So my options consist of:

a) be a nerd at a net cafe
b) rent a Thailand girlfriend
c) rent two+ Thailand girlfriends

b and c can only be done so many times...

[SineSwiper]

Also, yeah, I'm bitching again about this game, but the 150 item limit is really unfair when you hit it. You only have the option to omni-gel the items that you got recently, not the trash that you still have. So, if you got a really good item, you have NO CHOICE. I mean, it doesn't even give you the chance to exit.

On top of that, the scrolling is really slow between items.

I would recommend after every big mission, to go to each of the characters equipment screens, equip all of the best stuff that you need (in order of who most needs the shotgun, etc.), and then sell everything else. You get some mad money from that, which is best spend on better armor. Weapons seems to get really, really plentiful, though it's hard to find good amps and omni-tools, sometimes.

[Tessian]

There are some problems with the game, yes...

I had some problems with the Matriarch fight, but even though it was the first place I went I only had to do it maybe 5 times... other forums say they did it a lot more and couldn't beat it. You just stay the f out of her way until you kill everyone else.

Autosave feature sucks ass, you need to save often. I swap around between 4 saves at any given point. Even reviews said the autosave sucked.

Inventory is a Mess, and not just for the reason you gave Sine. I HATE that I can't organize or sort it... it's so hard to tell what you do have and don't have and what should be sold and not.

Vehicle controls STILL suck ass. I've gotten better but it's become a matter of forcing myself to readjust the camera before I move or I'm cat food.


That being said the plot line so far is amazing... I'm going to go on again shortly to do the final of the 3 planets. Currently I'm 18 hours in, guess it's time to move on.

[Chris]

There are some problems with the game, yes...

I had some problems with the Matriarch fight, but even though it was the first place I went I only had to do it maybe 5 times... other forums say they did it a lot more and couldn't beat it. You just stay the f out of her way until you kill everyone else.

Autosave feature sucks ass, you need to save often. I swap around between 4 saves at any given point. Even reviews said the autosave sucked.

Inventory is a Mess, and not just for the reason you gave Sine. I HATE that I can't organize or sort it... it's so hard to tell what you do have and don't have and what should be sold and not.

Vehicle controls STILL suck ass. I've gotten better but it's become a matter of forcing myself to readjust the camera before I move or I'm cat food.


That being said the plot line so far is amazing... I'm going to go on again shortly to do the final of the 3 planets. Currently I'm 18 hours in, guess it's time to move on.

I find it funny. matriarch just raped me the first time around. but the second playthough.....shredder round on everyone bum rush the bitch then annihilate her ladies....aslo easy as hell if you do hers third. because a high level weapon rapes the shit out of her......brutal slaghter.....

Oh and I really like the adept class. especially now that I'm fighting planets full of Rachni.........with giant daddy rachni.....holy shit

Oh ad tess....I got a fuckton of evil points by killing the monekys.....it gave a bunch after I killed one....didn't give me anymore but I was bored so I made em extinct....

after 2 playthroughs....I've gotta say.....I can't wait to see what they roll out with the DLC. I did a lot more exploring and landing on random planets and found a lot of quests that spun out of shit I did throughout the game. didn't think it owuld be that awesome as almost every big important decision....led to a new planetary adventure which led to more....I'm like level 48 and just finished the third planet.....I am finding so much more this time out there

oh and if you do the fourth mission with ashley in your party and talk to her as you are rollin ' to the beach......she talks about her boomstick.....that fucking made my day.....

[SineSwiper]

oh and if you do the fourth mission with ashley in your party and talk to her as you are rollin ' to the beach......she talks about her boomstick.....that fucking made my day.....

Which mission? Right now, she's just a xenophobe who bitches as Liara for talking.

[Tessian]

God damn Chris... I'm almost 20 hours into my game and I just beat the 4th mission, I've done little the past 3-4 days except play this game... wtf have you found the time to beat it TWICE?

This first time I basically just went to every planet cause if you didn't go there for a mission you already had one would be given to you. Now that I'm done the 4th mission and I have to go back to the council... once I do that is that it for exploring and such? Cause I still have a few missions that aren't done (mainly the mineral one) that I wanted to finish... even though I'm sick of exploring and my 2nd time around I won't be doing nearly as much of it.

[Tessian]

oh and if you do the fourth mission with ashley in your party and talk to her as you are rollin ' to the beach......she talks about her boomstick.....that fucking made my day.....

Which mission? Right now, she's just a xenophobe who bitches as Liara for talking.

I think he's talking about the mission where you go after Seren's research lab.

[Chris]

God damn Chris... I'm almost 20 hours into my game and I just beat the 4th mission, I've done little the past 3-4 days except play this game... wtf have you found the time to beat it TWICE?

This first time I basically just went to every planet cause if you didn't go there for a mission you already had one would be given to you. Now that I'm done the 4th mission and I have to go back to the council... once I do that is that it for exploring and such? Cause I still have a few missions that aren't done (mainly the mineral one) that I wanted to finish... even though I'm sick of exploring and my 2nd time around I won't be doing nearly as much of it.

um.....I have no job and did 2 interviews last week....essencially, that's the only thing I've realy done....actually slowed down quite a bit on my playing....

second time through I did more and was actually able to just plow through a lot faster.....Adept is so overpowered once you level up a bit and get the custom class....I just anihilate things with push/singularity (soooo broken in power), and lift. lift is amazingly fun when it's maxed.....

[Tessian]

God damn Chris... I'm almost 20 hours into my game and I just beat the 4th mission, I've done little the past 3-4 days except play this game... wtf have you found the time to beat it TWICE?

This first time I basically just went to every planet cause if you didn't go there for a mission you already had one would be given to you. Now that I'm done the 4th mission and I have to go back to the council... once I do that is that it for exploring and such? Cause I still have a few missions that aren't done (mainly the mineral one) that I wanted to finish... even though I'm sick of exploring and my 2nd time around I won't be doing nearly as much of it.

um.....I have no job and did 2 interviews last week....essencially, that's the only thing I've realy done....actually slowed down quite a bit on my playing....

second time through I did more and was actually able to just plow through a lot faster.....Adept is so overpowered once you level up a bit and get the custom class....I just anihilate things with push/singularity (soooo broken in power), and lift. lift is amazingly fun when it's maxed.....

My 2nd play through I was going to go soldier (Engineer right now) cause I thought being a biotic would suck because you can only have 1 power mapped at a time.... you saying it's easier to play?

[Chris]

God damn Chris... I'm almost 20 hours into my game and I just beat the 4th mission, I've done little the past 3-4 days except play this game... wtf have you found the time to beat it TWICE?

This first time I basically just went to every planet cause if you didn't go there for a mission you already had one would be given to you. Now that I'm done the 4th mission and I have to go back to the council... once I do that is that it for exploring and such? Cause I still have a few missions that aren't done (mainly the mineral one) that I wanted to finish... even though I'm sick of exploring and my 2nd time around I won't be doing nearly as much of it.

um.....I have no job and did 2 interviews last week....essencially, that's the only thing I've realy done....actually slowed down quite a bit on my playing....

second time through I did more and was actually able to just plow through a lot faster.....Adept is so overpowered once you level up a bit and get the custom class....I just anihilate things with push/singularity (soooo broken in power), and lift. lift is amazingly fun when it's maxed.....

My 2nd play through I was going to go soldier (Engineer right now) cause I thought being a biotic would suck because you can only have 1 power mapped at a time.... you saying it's easier to play?

map singularity then throw a grenade.....hills pretty much everything. singularity is rediculous when it's fully powered. I put no points into weapons and go full biotics and can usually clear a room in one or 2 moves (like Kotor on the dark side wiht the force lightning) it's rediculous....plus lift is fun as hell if you get a big group....you get a ton of guys just floating around. I love it....throw is also powerful as hell once you hit the end....seriously....max all the ofensive ones and take the offensive bonus bonus class...and they should make my ability to rape everything I come across illegal.

and I'm still mad I can't get GarrAss (sorry I realized a thread hit a second page without me saying something gay....although Wrex and his 4 testicles does sound interesting......

oh god....great line though from Kaiden =so you can say "I support our troops" and coart into office on our sacrifices.= all in a horribly derisive manner....didn't expect that kind of potshot either....especially since it's to the guy whose running for office on the aliens are evil terrorists platform

[Tessian]

I finally beat it... and god damn-- whoever directed this thing deserves a medal and should do movies too... geez.

a little more than 24 hours spent playing... I reached level 48 I think

What I don't get is I didn't get any achievements for my allies... I spent almost the ENTIRE game with Wrex and I didn't get the achievement. Wtf?

[Chris]

I finally beat it... and god damn-- whoever directed this thing deserves a medal and should do movies too... geez.

a little more than 24 hours spent playing... I reached level 48 I think

What I don't get is I didn't get any achievements for my allies... I spent almost the ENTIRE game with Wrex and I didn't get the achievement. Wtf?

with the non-human ones you have to not swap them out from the point you get them until the return to the citadel at the end...for the humans I think it's the solarian camp if you keep them both in the whole time which is what I got the first time around. n second time around I only got Wrex's at the end because I swapped liarra for garrus for one single mission after I got her....

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I finally beat it... and god damn-- whoever directed this thing deserves a medal and should do movies too... geez.

The story really comes together at the end. For most of the middle of the game I was thinking, Fuck Saren, all these fucking corporations are the real bad guys!

About 2/3 through the game I bumped the difficulty down to Casual because I wanted to just get through and wrap up the story ASAP. I'm looking forward to playing through again on Hardcore.

[Chris]

I finally beat it... and god damn-- whoever directed this thing deserves a medal and should do movies too... geez.

The story really comes together at the end. For most of the middle of the game I was thinking, Fuck Saren, all these fucking corporations are the real bad guys!

About 2/3 through the game I bumped the difficulty down to Casual because I wanted to just get through and wrap up the story ASAP. I'm looking forward to playing through again on Hardcore.

pussy.....I'm going with all the regular classes on normal...then I think I'm go hardcore with my adept and see if it's any harder.....adepts are the awesomesauce....

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

pussy.....I'm going with all the regular classes on normal...then I think I'm go hardcore with my adept and see if it's any harder.....adepts are the awesomesauce....

Some of us have work (not to mention an Xbox 360-monopolising girlfriend) and so a limited amount of playtime, you bum .

I'm looking forward to beating it at a more leisurely pace now. And as an adept, too. Fear my force powers, evil robots!

[Chris]

wow. the bad ending.....that was almost wrong if you pick all the bad choices......it's quite evil.....I love it..

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Spoil it up! What happens in the bad ending?

[Blotus]

Either make a spoiler thread or make sure your text is invisible.

[Tessian]

Either make a spoiler thread or make sure your text is invisible.

What he said-- I JUST started my "total bitch" playthrough