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Mass Effect - Link to Sneak Peek trailer for ME2 at top of OP!
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Updates!
Sneak peek trailer for ME2!
IGN has the trailer right here.
Sneak peek at in-game ME2 extranet!
Alpha footage!
Check it! Gameplay footage from ME2! (Age verification required.)
Oh Fuck!
Now available at GameTrailers. [vidURL="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/45796.html"]Here[/vidURL].
Moar DLC?
BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk (Hey Jay!) has suggested we may see some DLC eventually. However, Greg Zeshuck said basically the same thing last August. A little birdie tells me this is more-or-less confirmed.
BDtS for Steam! Follow this link and BDtS can be enjoyed by those who bought this through Steam. (Thanks, Forar.)
Added: Here is a link to a list of issues the Steam version may have in general.
In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.
They called it the greatest discovery in human history...
The year is 2183.
It has been 26 years since humanity made first contact with an alien species after an accidental confrontation with the Turians exploded into open warfare.
It has been 26 years since humanity has joined the galactic community and stands amongst alien races that have called the stars home for tens of thousands of years.
You are Lieutenant Commander Shepard, XO of the SSV Normandy and an N7, the best the Alliance has to offer. Your record is exemplary and you have caught the notice of the Spectres, the most elite military branch of the Citadel Council, the largest and most powerful alien government.
For more than twenty years, humanity has wanted one of their own amongst the ranks of the Spectres. You are to be the next candidate for induction. All you need to do is prove yourself as capable as your record states under the watchful eye of the Spectre Nihlus.
What is Mass Effect?
Mass Effect is BioWare Corp's (creators of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, and Jade Empire) latest RPG venture.
Combining a relatively robust character creation system, a new dialogue system, a new reputation system, third-person tactical combat, and a sleek and stylish but harsh and unforgiving original sci-fi universe, Mass Effect has made itself one of the finest RPGs in years.
Character Creation
Facial Customization
Using a fairly easy to use character creator similar to, but more limited than, Oblivion's, you'll be able to make your Shepard look however you like.
Even this...
Classes
There are six unique character classes in Mass Effect, three of which are specialized in either combat, tech abilities, or biotics, and three of which are hybrids, utilizing the talents of two classes, though they are more limited in scope.
Class information in spoiler:
Civilian and Military Background
You can't write your own biography for Shepard, but you can select his or her background from a list. These have the benefit of actually affecting dialogue involving your character while in-game and your civilian background will even open up a background specific quest for you and will give you alignment bonuses. And while these form your life and reputation leading up to the game, it will never limit your choices in-game.
Background bonus info in spoiler:
Talents, Leveling Up, and Reputation
Like any other RPG, you will gain experience for successfully killing enemies or completing quests. As you gain levels, you'll earn talent points, which you can then invest into your talents and increase in skill.
Talent and talent point reward information in spoiler:
And you may notice those two bars around the character's face in the screenshot. Those are the reputation meters. They aren't really Shepard's alignment as similar meters have been in previous BioWare games. Shepard is always more or less good, but how you choose to conduct yourself while on your noble mission will change how you're thought of and whether you lean more towards impatience, brutality, and getting it done at any cost or more towards finding the best solution for everyone, patience, and leniancy.
Morality in Mass Effect isn't all about cartoon evil and being good isn't going to decrease your renegade meter. You'll be able to fill both at the same time and there's never a way to decrease one or the other. If you perform a ruthless act on your goody-two-shoes character, they're stuck with having done it. You can't change your past.
Reputation bonus information in spoiler:
Let's talk dialogue.
Unlike BioWare's previous games, Mass Effect utilizes a brand new dialogue wheel.
Instead of being offered completely written out dialogue options that NPCs then respond to, you're given a short thought or feeling. The options are arrayed in an obvious logical order with positive responses being on the top, neutral responses in the center, negative options at the bottom, inquisitive responses that lead to more information on the left side, and options that advance the conversation towards its conclusion on the right. Once you select an option on the wheel, Shepard will then speak a full line or lines completely voice acted.
Or maybe even interact with the NPCs in more interesting ways. Such as punching them in the face. Or shooting them in the face.
Gears of Rainbow in Arms Theft Warfighter of the Old Republic
Unlike your average and traditional RPG, Mass Effect's combat is in no way turn-based and in no way Dungeons & Dragons or JRPG.
Instead, you'll play it as if it was a third-person tactical shooter. Because it is, in essence. It has a cover system like you've seen in plenty of games, but you can pause at any time and tell your squadmates to change their weapon or use their abilities.
You can also give them move and attack orders as a group in real-time. Or if you're playing on the PC, while paused you can give them individual move and attack orders.
Epic Scope burns more than it should.
Early in the game, you will gain command of the SSV Normandy, a small state of the art recon frigate.
Using the Normandy to get around the galaxy, you'll be able to travel to many different star clusters and solar systems, land on 32 alien worlds, and read about scores of others.
The Milky Way is a large place and you might not be able to go everywhere, but there's plenty to see in Mass Effect.
Vehicular Combat and Exploration
But you won't have to explore on foot. The planets you land on are vast and covered with rough terrain.
To compensate, you'll be able to drive the Mako, a heavily shielded and armed light all-terrain APC that is able to drop from high altitude from the Normandy for quick and relatively quiet insertions.
Drew Karpyshyn wrote a Mass Effect book once and his weird name is on the cover.
That's right, there's a novel!
Drew Karpyshyn was lead writer of Mass Effect the game and has written a prequel novel to the game. No, it's not a novelization of the game which wipes out everything you knew and loved about your Shepard by making something else canon.
Instead, it tells the story of Captain Anderson and his fateful mission with Saren twenty years ago.
There's also another book currently available under the title Mass Effect: Ascension.
Here's a brief quote from the Del Ray Books website:
Downloadable Content
Available for 400 MS points for the 360 version, "Bring Down the Sky" adds one explorable planet, a new quest line, about 90 minutes of gameplay, and a new alien race: the Batarians.
Bring Down the Sky, along with the first patch, has been released for the PC at this here site here. Installing Bring Down the Sky requires a BioWare Community account and a registered Mass Effect CD key.
BDtS for Steam! Follow this link and BDtS can be enjoyed by those who bought this through Steam.
BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk (Hey Jay!) has suggested we may see some DLC eventually. However, Greg Zeshuck said basically the same thing in August '08. A little birdie tells me this is more-or-less confirmed.
Hey! Therum is missing textures!
A PC game with bugs? That's unpossible!
Sadly, many have had issues with the PC version of the game. Obviously, make sure you have the latest drivers available. And while we're happy to help in this thread, contacting 'official' support personnel may have better results.
Here is a link to a list of issues the Steam version may have in general.
But this seems to work best for the Therum issue:
If you find you'd rather delete the files manually, you might have to do it more than once before success.
As of Feb. 11, there hasn't been a patch released to deal with this, though a patch is mentioned as coming soon (we don't know when yet). This may address the issue once and for all.
* All screenshots are from the PC version and all class, talent, and reputation information is courtesy of LookFreeGrenade because I stole them from him and didn't even pay him for it because he doesn't deserve it.
Also, because we're super-awesome forum people, we have been blessed with a link to awesome Desktop Wallpapers. Check them out here.
Sneak peek trailer for ME2!
IGN has the trailer right here.
Sneak peek at in-game ME2 extranet!
Alpha footage!
Check it! Gameplay footage from ME2! (Age verification required.)
Oh Fuck!
Now available at GameTrailers. [vidURL="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/45796.html"]Here[/vidURL].
Moar DLC?
BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk (Hey Jay!) has suggested we may see some DLC eventually. However, Greg Zeshuck said basically the same thing last August. A little birdie tells me this is more-or-less confirmed.
BDtS for Steam! Follow this link and BDtS can be enjoyed by those who bought this through Steam. (Thanks, Forar.)
Added: Here is a link to a list of issues the Steam version may have in general.
In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.
They called it the greatest discovery in human history...
The year is 2183.
It has been 26 years since humanity made first contact with an alien species after an accidental confrontation with the Turians exploded into open warfare.
It has been 26 years since humanity has joined the galactic community and stands amongst alien races that have called the stars home for tens of thousands of years.
You are Lieutenant Commander Shepard, XO of the SSV Normandy and an N7, the best the Alliance has to offer. Your record is exemplary and you have caught the notice of the Spectres, the most elite military branch of the Citadel Council, the largest and most powerful alien government.
For more than twenty years, humanity has wanted one of their own amongst the ranks of the Spectres. You are to be the next candidate for induction. All you need to do is prove yourself as capable as your record states under the watchful eye of the Spectre Nihlus.
What is Mass Effect?
Mass Effect is BioWare Corp's (creators of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, and Jade Empire) latest RPG venture.
Combining a relatively robust character creation system, a new dialogue system, a new reputation system, third-person tactical combat, and a sleek and stylish but harsh and unforgiving original sci-fi universe, Mass Effect has made itself one of the finest RPGs in years.
Character Creation
Facial Customization
Using a fairly easy to use character creator similar to, but more limited than, Oblivion's, you'll be able to make your Shepard look however you like.
Even this...
Classes
There are six unique character classes in Mass Effect, three of which are specialized in either combat, tech abilities, or biotics, and three of which are hybrids, utilizing the talents of two classes, though they are more limited in scope.
Class information in spoiler:
Soldier
Starting Talents
Pistol
Assault Rifle
Combat Armor
Assult Training
Soldier Unlockable Talents
Shotgun - 4th point in Pistol
Sniper Rifle - 7th point in Assault Rifle
First Aid - 6th point in Combat Armor
Fitness - 6th Point in Assault training
Engineer
Starting Talents
Pistol
Decryption
Electronics
First Aid
Engineer Unlockable Talents
Basic Armor - 6 points in Pistol
Hacking - 7 points in Decryption
Damping - 4 in Electronics
Medicine - 5 in First Aid
Adept
Starting Talents
Basic Armor
Throw
Warp
Barrier
Adept Unlockable Talents
Pistol - 5 in Basic Armor
Lift - 6 in Throw
Singularity - 7 in Warp
Stasis - 4 In Barrier
Infiltrator
Starting Talents
Pistols
Tactical Armor
Electronics
Decryption
Infiltrator Unlockable Talents
Sniper - 5 in pistol
Fitness - 6 in Tactical Armor
Damping - 4 in Electronics
First Aid - 7 in Decryption
Sentinel
Starting Talents
Throw
Barrier
Decryption
First Aid
Sentinel Unlockable Talents
Lift - 7 in Throw
Stasis - 6 in Barrier
Electronics - 4 in Decryption
Medicine - 5 in first aid
Vanguard
Starting Talents
Pistol
Assault Training
Throw
Warp
Vanguard Unlockable Talents
Shotgun - 6 in Pistol
Tactical Armor - Assault Training
Lift - 7 in Throw
Barrier - 4 in Warp
Starting Talents
Pistol
Assault Rifle
Combat Armor
Assult Training
Soldier Unlockable Talents
Shotgun - 4th point in Pistol
Sniper Rifle - 7th point in Assault Rifle
First Aid - 6th point in Combat Armor
Fitness - 6th Point in Assault training
Engineer
Starting Talents
Pistol
Decryption
Electronics
First Aid
Engineer Unlockable Talents
Basic Armor - 6 points in Pistol
Hacking - 7 points in Decryption
Damping - 4 in Electronics
Medicine - 5 in First Aid
Adept
Starting Talents
Basic Armor
Throw
Warp
Barrier
Adept Unlockable Talents
Pistol - 5 in Basic Armor
Lift - 6 in Throw
Singularity - 7 in Warp
Stasis - 4 In Barrier
Infiltrator
Starting Talents
Pistols
Tactical Armor
Electronics
Decryption
Infiltrator Unlockable Talents
Sniper - 5 in pistol
Fitness - 6 in Tactical Armor
Damping - 4 in Electronics
First Aid - 7 in Decryption
Sentinel
Starting Talents
Throw
Barrier
Decryption
First Aid
Sentinel Unlockable Talents
Lift - 7 in Throw
Stasis - 6 in Barrier
Electronics - 4 in Decryption
Medicine - 5 in first aid
Vanguard
Starting Talents
Pistol
Assault Training
Throw
Warp
Vanguard Unlockable Talents
Shotgun - 6 in Pistol
Tactical Armor - Assault Training
Lift - 7 in Throw
Barrier - 4 in Warp
Civilian and Military Background
You can't write your own biography for Shepard, but you can select his or her background from a list. These have the benefit of actually affecting dialogue involving your character while in-game and your civilian background will even open up a background specific quest for you and will give you alignment bonuses. And while these form your life and reputation leading up to the game, it will never limit your choices in-game.
Background bonus info in spoiler:
Earthborn - Grants a Renegade point bonus
Spacer - Grants Paragon point bonus
Colonist - Grants Paragon and Renegade point bonus
Ruthless - Grants a Renegade point bonus
War Hero - Grants Paragon point bonus
Sole Survivor - Grants Paragon and Renegade point bonus
Spacer - Grants Paragon point bonus
Colonist - Grants Paragon and Renegade point bonus
Ruthless - Grants a Renegade point bonus
War Hero - Grants Paragon point bonus
Sole Survivor - Grants Paragon and Renegade point bonus
Talents, Leveling Up, and Reputation
Like any other RPG, you will gain experience for successfully killing enemies or completing quests. As you gain levels, you'll earn talent points, which you can then invest into your talents and increase in skill.
Talent and talent point reward information in spoiler:
Level 1-5 Shep earns 3 points per level squad earns 2 points per level gained
Level 6-20 Shep and squad earns 2 points each level
Level 21-35 Shep earns 2 points squad earns 1 point each
Level 36-60 Shep and squad earn 1 point per level
Shepard's Talents
Spectre Training - Elite agents of the Council the Spectres have access to special training unavailable elsewhere in the galaxy. Increases health, accuracy and the effectiveness of all attacks and powers.
Biotics
Barrier - Bolsters your kinetic shields with a mass effect field that can absorb a massive amount of damage. Attacks that penetrate the shields also penetrate this barrier.
Lift - Projects a sphere of powerful contra-gravity. Any object or creature struck is lifted into the air Enemies are temporarily immoblized untill they fall back to the ground.
Throw - Projects a mass effect field powerful enough to hurl objects and enemies out of the way.
Singularity - Projects a sphere of dark energy that creates an intense mass effect field. nearby enemies and objects are drawn into the singularity unable to escape its gravitational pull.
Stasis - Creates a powerful mass effect field that immobilizes a single target.
Warp - Projects a powerful mass effect field that wreaks havoc on a subatomic level. It weakens armor and inflicts damage over time on enemies.
Combat
Assault Training - Increases melee and weapon damage, also grants Adrenaline Burst talent.
Armor - Enables use of better armor, increases damage protection in battle.
Assault Rifles - Increases accuracy and damage with assault rifles.
Pistols - Increases accuracy and damage with pistols.
Shotguns - Increases accuracy and damage with Shotguns.
Sniper Rifles - Increases accuracy and damage with Sniper Rifles.
Fitness - Increases health and grants the invaluable immunity ability.
Tech
Damping - Increases the explosion radius on your tech proximity units. Use damping to shut down your enemies’ tech and biotic abilities.
Decryption - Allows you to open secure containers increases tech mine explosion damage and grants Sabotage talent.
Sabotage - Overheats enemy’s weapon so they cannot fire, and burns them for damage over time.
Electronics - Increases the strength of your shields and lets you use the electronics skill to repair or bypass objects.
Hacking - Recharges your tech proximity mines more quickly and grants AI hacking ability.
First Aid - Increases squad healing by improving the effectiveness of the medigel.
Medicine - Improves the recharge time of squad healing and grants the neural shock ability that devastates organic enemies.
Class Talents
Soldier - Front line warriors that are trained to withstand the physical punishment that comes with combat. Increases health at higher levels and gives limited health regeneration.
Engineer - Tech specialists can use innovative tricks to get the most out of every resource.
Adept - Focuses training to optimize their abilities.
Infiltrator - Increases damage done by tech mines and reduces overheating on sniper and pistols.
Sentinel - Increases damage and accuracy with a pistol and grants marksman ability.
Vanguard - Can use abilities to counter enemy biotic attacks and get into short range positions Increases biotic resistance and damage with shotguns and pistols.
Level 6-20 Shep and squad earns 2 points each level
Level 21-35 Shep earns 2 points squad earns 1 point each
Level 36-60 Shep and squad earn 1 point per level
Shepard's Talents
Spectre Training - Elite agents of the Council the Spectres have access to special training unavailable elsewhere in the galaxy. Increases health, accuracy and the effectiveness of all attacks and powers.
Biotics
Barrier - Bolsters your kinetic shields with a mass effect field that can absorb a massive amount of damage. Attacks that penetrate the shields also penetrate this barrier.
Lift - Projects a sphere of powerful contra-gravity. Any object or creature struck is lifted into the air Enemies are temporarily immoblized untill they fall back to the ground.
Throw - Projects a mass effect field powerful enough to hurl objects and enemies out of the way.
Singularity - Projects a sphere of dark energy that creates an intense mass effect field. nearby enemies and objects are drawn into the singularity unable to escape its gravitational pull.
Stasis - Creates a powerful mass effect field that immobilizes a single target.
Warp - Projects a powerful mass effect field that wreaks havoc on a subatomic level. It weakens armor and inflicts damage over time on enemies.
Combat
Assault Training - Increases melee and weapon damage, also grants Adrenaline Burst talent.
Armor - Enables use of better armor, increases damage protection in battle.
Assault Rifles - Increases accuracy and damage with assault rifles.
Pistols - Increases accuracy and damage with pistols.
Shotguns - Increases accuracy and damage with Shotguns.
Sniper Rifles - Increases accuracy and damage with Sniper Rifles.
Fitness - Increases health and grants the invaluable immunity ability.
Tech
Damping - Increases the explosion radius on your tech proximity units. Use damping to shut down your enemies’ tech and biotic abilities.
Decryption - Allows you to open secure containers increases tech mine explosion damage and grants Sabotage talent.
Sabotage - Overheats enemy’s weapon so they cannot fire, and burns them for damage over time.
Electronics - Increases the strength of your shields and lets you use the electronics skill to repair or bypass objects.
Hacking - Recharges your tech proximity mines more quickly and grants AI hacking ability.
First Aid - Increases squad healing by improving the effectiveness of the medigel.
Medicine - Improves the recharge time of squad healing and grants the neural shock ability that devastates organic enemies.
Class Talents
Soldier - Front line warriors that are trained to withstand the physical punishment that comes with combat. Increases health at higher levels and gives limited health regeneration.
Engineer - Tech specialists can use innovative tricks to get the most out of every resource.
Adept - Focuses training to optimize their abilities.
Infiltrator - Increases damage done by tech mines and reduces overheating on sniper and pistols.
Sentinel - Increases damage and accuracy with a pistol and grants marksman ability.
Vanguard - Can use abilities to counter enemy biotic attacks and get into short range positions Increases biotic resistance and damage with shotguns and pistols.
And you may notice those two bars around the character's face in the screenshot. Those are the reputation meters. They aren't really Shepard's alignment as similar meters have been in previous BioWare games. Shepard is always more or less good, but how you choose to conduct yourself while on your noble mission will change how you're thought of and whether you lean more towards impatience, brutality, and getting it done at any cost or more towards finding the best solution for everyone, patience, and leniancy.
Morality in Mass Effect isn't all about cartoon evil and being good isn't going to decrease your renegade meter. You'll be able to fill both at the same time and there's never a way to decrease one or the other. If you perform a ruthless act on your goody-two-shoes character, they're stuck with having done it. You can't change your past.
Reputation bonus information in spoiler:
Paragon bonuses
5% - Opens 2 charm ranks and gives 1 free charm point
25% - Opens 2 charm rank, gives 1 charm point, and 10% first aid cooldown
50% - 10% Bonus health
75% - Paragon achievement, opens 2 charm rank, 1 free point, and 5% Shorter cooldown on all powers.
Renegade Bonuses
5% - Opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point
25% - Opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point, 10% weapon powers cooldown
50% - 1 health regeneration per second
75% - Renegade achievement, opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point, and 5% damage/duration on all weapons and powers
5% - Opens 2 charm ranks and gives 1 free charm point
25% - Opens 2 charm rank, gives 1 charm point, and 10% first aid cooldown
50% - 10% Bonus health
75% - Paragon achievement, opens 2 charm rank, 1 free point, and 5% Shorter cooldown on all powers.
Renegade Bonuses
5% - Opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point
25% - Opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point, 10% weapon powers cooldown
50% - 1 health regeneration per second
75% - Renegade achievement, opens 2 intimidate ranks, gives 1 intimidate point, and 5% damage/duration on all weapons and powers
Let's talk dialogue.
Unlike BioWare's previous games, Mass Effect utilizes a brand new dialogue wheel.
Instead of being offered completely written out dialogue options that NPCs then respond to, you're given a short thought or feeling. The options are arrayed in an obvious logical order with positive responses being on the top, neutral responses in the center, negative options at the bottom, inquisitive responses that lead to more information on the left side, and options that advance the conversation towards its conclusion on the right. Once you select an option on the wheel, Shepard will then speak a full line or lines completely voice acted.
Or maybe even interact with the NPCs in more interesting ways. Such as punching them in the face. Or shooting them in the face.
Gears of Rainbow in Arms Theft Warfighter of the Old Republic
Unlike your average and traditional RPG, Mass Effect's combat is in no way turn-based and in no way Dungeons & Dragons or JRPG.
Instead, you'll play it as if it was a third-person tactical shooter. Because it is, in essence. It has a cover system like you've seen in plenty of games, but you can pause at any time and tell your squadmates to change their weapon or use their abilities.
You can also give them move and attack orders as a group in real-time. Or if you're playing on the PC, while paused you can give them individual move and attack orders.
Epic Scope burns more than it should.
Early in the game, you will gain command of the SSV Normandy, a small state of the art recon frigate.
Using the Normandy to get around the galaxy, you'll be able to travel to many different star clusters and solar systems, land on 32 alien worlds, and read about scores of others.
The Milky Way is a large place and you might not be able to go everywhere, but there's plenty to see in Mass Effect.
Vehicular Combat and Exploration
But you won't have to explore on foot. The planets you land on are vast and covered with rough terrain.
To compensate, you'll be able to drive the Mako, a heavily shielded and armed light all-terrain APC that is able to drop from high altitude from the Normandy for quick and relatively quiet insertions.
Drew Karpyshyn wrote a Mass Effect book once and his weird name is on the cover.
That's right, there's a novel!
Drew Karpyshyn was lead writer of Mass Effect the game and has written a prequel novel to the game. No, it's not a novelization of the game which wipes out everything you knew and loved about your Shepard by making something else canon.
Instead, it tells the story of Captain Anderson and his fateful mission with Saren twenty years ago.
There's also another book currently available under the title Mass Effect: Ascension.
Here's a brief quote from the Del Ray Books website:
Del Rey Books wrote:Scientist Kahlee Sanders has left the Systems Alliance for the Ascension Project, a program that helps gifted “biotic” children harness their extraordinary powers. The program’s most promising student is twelve-year-old Gillian Grayson, who is borderline autistic. What Kahlee doesn’t know is that Gillian is an unwitting pawn of the outlawed black ops group Cerberus, which is sabotaging the program by conducting illegal experiments on the students.
Downloadable Content
Available for 400 MS points for the 360 version, "Bring Down the Sky" adds one explorable planet, a new quest line, about 90 minutes of gameplay, and a new alien race: the Batarians.
Bring Down the Sky, along with the first patch, has been released for the PC at this here site here. Installing Bring Down the Sky requires a BioWare Community account and a registered Mass Effect CD key.
BDtS for Steam! Follow this link and BDtS can be enjoyed by those who bought this through Steam.
BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk (Hey Jay!) has suggested we may see some DLC eventually. However, Greg Zeshuck said basically the same thing in August '08. A little birdie tells me this is more-or-less confirmed.
Hey! Therum is missing textures!
A PC game with bugs? That's unpossible!
Sadly, many have had issues with the PC version of the game. Obviously, make sure you have the latest drivers available. And while we're happy to help in this thread, contacting 'official' support personnel may have better results.
Here is a link to a list of issues the Steam version may have in general.
But this seems to work best for the Therum issue:
The solution is usually quite simple - without doing anything else after landing on Therum - save your game, exit, go to the Steam\steamapps\common\mass effect\Binaries folder, and run the MassEffectConfig.exe
(if you are running Vista you will first have to right click on this file, and have it run in XP compatibility mode)
Once you run the config file, click on the Repair option, and then click on "Delete Local Shader Cache Files".
Restart the last saved game on Therum, and it should work.
Don't try to manually delete the shader cache files - you shouldn't have to if you use the config tool.
As of Feb. 11, there hasn't been a patch released to deal with this, though a patch is mentioned as coming soon (we don't know when yet). This may address the issue once and for all.
* All screenshots are from the PC version and all class, talent, and reputation information is courtesy of LookFreeGrenade because I stole them from him and didn't even pay him for it because he doesn't deserve it.
Also, because we're super-awesome forum people, we have been blessed with a link to awesome Desktop Wallpapers. Check them out here.
Santa Claustrophobia on
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Posts
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Can't wait to see some more ME2 information.
In my mind it's already a contender for GOTY 2010.
What was the problem?
Actually wait, PC or 360?
From what I heard the Mako was a lot more tolerable on the PC version. Guess it was the mouse aiming. I never tried the 360 version so I can't comment on that, but I didn't really have any issues with it.
360. Controlling it was terrible. It would just go flying in any direction, like it was a giant helium balloon with wheels and a turret.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Sometimes it worked out fine, and sometimes I accidentally rolled down a mountain or flew off the side of a walkway.
Just like pig wrestling.
Good god this is tedious.. I wish I had done this first, because after Feros this is just dull.
GM: Rusty Chains (DH Ongoing)
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Well, I had it on PC so it was free, but it was a good hour of mission.
I'd pay 5$ for it, I'd say.
GM: Rusty Chains (DH Ongoing)
That's the day some cats from BioWare appear at GDC to talk about level design in ME2.
The thing really wasn't a bother. Only problem I had is that the tires didn't have enough traction so I couldn't go straight up mountains. Really, having to take a wide arc around a field was very annoying.
Or they could have changed the landscape a bit so that there weren't as many steep peaks everywhere. IIRC the maps for random planets were mostly fractally generated weren't they?
But how in the hell did it beat Mass Effect for the 'Story and Character' award at the British Academy Video Game Awards?
I'm going to guess because most of CoD4 was just them fellating the SAS
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Naw...he dies of a nuclear explosion. Slowly.
I just finished my Insanity playthrough of ME. I still need all the tech skill and sniper rifle achievements, and since I can't overlap those it looks like I'm still multiple playthroughs away from 100%.
I was trying that with my Adept and he couldn't hit shit, even with explosive rounds. Even when he did, it would barely put a dent in them. Maybe that's because I was on Insanity though...
Speaking of that - do you get more exp on higher difficulties? My Adept is 57 so I still need him to hit 60.
"It's hard to miss when you're this close."
Not sure about more XP in higher difficulties, but you DO get more XP if you kill things outside of the Mako rather than inside it with the cannon. Geth Colossi give massive XP if you soften them up with the Mako then finish them on foot (so do thresher maws, but finishing them on foot is a bit.....hazardous).
And the Mako on the PC was fine. Not great, but tolerably useful. The Mako on the 360 (with its direction-sensitive control scheme) was a crime against humanity. :x
I think the game was designed so you can get to 60 in two playthroughs, but you have to kill EVERYTHING, and never use the mako for the kill (well, except to drain most of the health).
Not really.
I suspect there may be more on Banes in ME2.
Toward the end of my first playthrough, when I was level 40something, I took a Thresher Maw out on foot. It was awesome. And really wasn't that hard.
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Not that awesome though.
Are you sure about that? I thought there wasn't any XP difference in difficulty.
Like took it down from full health on foot? or just finished it off? Finishing them off really isn't that difficult, but taking them down from full health....that would take a while.
Test it out yourself.
Load a level, kill it in normal. Re load, kill in insane.
The hugeness in XP gain is mostly visible on the Thresher Maw etc. the big hard targets.
If you do all of the following, you can actually hit stuff
Get a Spectre rifle
Put a +max accuracy in one of the slots
Max out Spectre Training
Crouch
Or ignore all that, rush in, and use it as a shotgun.
Singularity plus Carnage means good times for me.