I'm not so sure about that. Giant Bomb tracks the number of people who've got certain achievements in certain games. For the 8,000+ in their database, only about 50% of the people that have completed the game have managed to keep everyone alive. And those are presumably pretty hardcore videogame fans, so if they're batting .500, imagine what it's like for Joe Consumer who picked up the game because he saw the trailer during the NFC Championship game.
So I just activated my Cerberus account, jesus EA accounts are a joke
I accidentally activated my Gamertag to an email I don't know the name of when I played 1943.
So today I activated my Ceberus account to my Email that's LINKED to my 360 and when I go to Down to get my colector armor it doesn't exist.
My EA and Cerberus account are now completly seperate, Thanks EA
Oh yeah, absolute bullshit. I was finally able to get mine by creating an XBL silver account and linking that to my bioware social network, and using the same email for my EA account. I'm worried i might just be screwing myself up the ass for later EA games with DLC though. Anyway, i just download them through the silver account and i can still access them on my main gold, it might make it harder for me in future EA games with DLC, but it was easier than dealing with some asshole customer service rep who tells me to use option on their website that dont fuckin exist! I have no idea how to permanently remedy it, I must have registered my gamertag to a previous EA account because whenever i try to add a new "persona" it says that gamertag is taken, but by ME!
So you guys can't remember your shit and that's EA's fault?
I mean, the system is somewhat convoluted, but if you're linking accounts you forgot or using e-mail addresses you can't remember that's your own damn fault.
This mission actually wasn't too bad for me. Those flashlight heads can be seen long before you can see their bodies. Also the targetting brackets appear at a decent distance.
So you guys can't remember your shit and that's EA's fault?
I mean, the system is somewhat convoluted, but if you're linking accounts you forgot or using e-mail addresses you can't remember that's your own damn fault.
The fact that anyone has to go through this ridiculous process in the first place is EA's fault.
It's really dumb that every game that EA releases with substantial DLC winds up requiring me to manage about five user accounts with different services and websites.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
It is incredibly easy to be perfect. It's not even open for discussion.
You get everyone loyal, you buy the ship upgrades, just like the game tells you to do over and over. Then, you pick characters for missions where the correct choice might as well be in glowing letters. Tech specialist? I pick Grunt!
If people aren't getting the achievement, my guess is it's often because they chose to skip the oh-so-boring planet scanning and didn't get the ship upgrades.
Making a standard, cut-and-dry account is ridiculous? If you accidentally activate your gamertag to an e-mail you don't remember and then connect your Cerberus thing to a different e-mail, expect problems.
From my memory the only account I ever had to make for this game was the one on Bioware, which I then linked to my 360, then typed in the Cerberus code on Bioware's site and bam done
Come to think of it, it'd be nice if the medbay upgrade allowed you to do a few minor cosmetic alterations, or at the least let me CHANGE MY GODDAMN HAIR.
I thought the biggest issue with the "difficulty" of the final encounter was that
the game doesn't really do anything to disincentivize being "perfect." It would have been interesting, for example, if the reaper IFF mission occurred at such a time that you couldn't make everyone loyal (or it was harder), or that there was more interaction between characters' loyalty missions that made it harder to get everyone on the same page. Aside from the ship upgrades it seems like a near "perfect" ending is the result of actually playing the entire game and making semi-obvious choices correctly during the endgame.
that being said it was also fun to play a shepard who screws things up in every way possible
I agree. ME1 promised a more complex universe than Star Wars, in which moral choices can sometimes be murky and have unexpected results. Unfortunately, they seem to be backing off this a bit. With changes to the charm/persuasion system and (Nearly?) every Paragon choice leading to positive results, chances at good, satisfying drama are being lost.
How much more interesting would it be where you didn't know that the right action to take morally would also lead to inevitable practical benefit?
So I just activated my Cerberus account, jesus EA accounts are a joke
I accidentally activated my Gamertag to an email I don't know the name of when I played 1943.
So today I activated my Ceberus account to my Email that's LINKED to my 360 and when I go to Down to get my colector armor it doesn't exist.
My EA and Cerberus account are now completly seperate, Thanks EA
Oh yeah, absolute bullshit. I was finally able to get mine by creating an XBL silver account and linking that to my bioware social network, and using the same email for my EA account. I'm worried i might just be screwing myself up the ass for later EA games with DLC though. Anyway, i just download them through the silver account and i can still access them on my main gold, it might make it harder for me in future EA games with DLC, but it was easier than dealing with some asshole customer service rep who tells me to use option on their website that dont fuckin exist! I have no idea how to permanently remedy it, I must have registered my gamertag to a previous EA account because whenever i try to add a new "persona" it says that gamertag is taken, but by ME!
So you guys can't remember your shit and that's EA's fault?
I mean, the system is somewhat convoluted, but if you're linking accounts you forgot or using e-mail addresses you can't remember that's your own damn fault.
The problem is that I remember the shit that I forgot, they just wont let me change it.
How much more interesting would it be where you didn't know that the right action to take morally would also lead to inevitable practical benefit?
The only choice I can recall off the top of my head is on the Justicar mission. But even then it's just like a 'it'll be resolved offscreen later, no worries' kind of thing.
I dunno, I have one EA Account that I made for Tiger Woods on the Wii. I used it for the Tiger Woods PC beta a couple months ago too. And I used it to download BDtS and Pinnacle a couple months back when I bought ME on sale for Steam. And so they accounts were all in order and it was just a matter of logging in and bam, Cerberus no problem.
I guess the baffling thing to me about the complaints is EA makes a shit-ton of games, how could you have possibly not had an EA account by now? Ah well.
Stele on
Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keels. Makes her home.
Why is anyone defending EA accounts? Seriously. I mean, if you think it's not a problem, ok. But to actively defend them? That just seems crazy.
They seem fine to me on the PC.
You don't have to link your EA Account to a gamer tag. That can be the big pain in the ass.
But it is linked to a gamertag. I had an EA account from Mirror's Edge and then started a new BioWare account. I merged that with my EA account and everything came together just fine.
It is incredibly easy to be perfect. It's not even open for discussion.
You get everyone loyal, you buy the ship upgrades, just like the game tells you to do over and over. Then, you pick characters for missions where the correct choice might as well be in glowing letters. Tech specialist? I pick Grunt!
If people aren't getting the achievement, my guess is it's often because they chose to skip the oh-so-boring planet scanning and didn't get the ship upgrades.
There's a lot of things that can trip people up. There's a number of paragon/renegade checks throughout the game required to get people loyal, and some of them can be quite hard, as we've discussed repeatedly in this thread. Even the ship upgrades can be tricky, because IIRC, you have to go into three specific character's 'investigate' dialogue options to be told about them. And regarding the end game choices:
I don't think those are necessarily obvious. I think many people probably thought Mordin was a tech specialist, consider he's a genius and full tech. And Jacob and Miranda both make some sense for the barrier. Jacob is the only squad member to actually have an improved barrier, and Miranda specifically says she could do it. And it seems like Mordin can die at the end if you don't kill the final boss quick enough.
Like I said, there's a lot of places for even hardcore gamers to get tripped up. It's certainly not incredibly tough to keep everyone alive. But if 50% of hardcore gamers are losing some squad members, BioWare has probably struck a pretty good balance.
Why is anyone defending EA accounts? Seriously. I mean, if you think it's not a problem, ok. But to actively defend them? That just seems crazy.
They seem fine to me on the PC.
You don't have to link your EA Account to a gamer tag. That can be the big pain in the ass.
But it is linked to a gamertag. I had an EA account from Mirror's Edge and then started a new BioWare account. I merged that with my EA account and everything came together just fine.
This is apparently crazy, but look outside your own experience. There's been a lot of people that have been hassled by the process, and I'm assuming that among them are some smart people. It's a process that is unnecessary convoluted.
It is incredibly easy to be perfect. It's not even open for discussion.
You get everyone loyal, you buy the ship upgrades, just like the game tells you to do over and over. Then, you pick characters for missions where the correct choice might as well be in glowing letters. Tech specialist? I pick Grunt!
If people aren't getting the achievement, my guess is it's often because they chose to skip the oh-so-boring planet scanning and didn't get the ship upgrades.
I dunno, my first play around I lost two people. Thane and Zaeed. I picked Thane because even with Miranda screeching TECH EXPERT into my ear, all I could hear was INFILTRATION. So I went with the guy with the most experience infiltrating stuff via pipes. Also, I picked him because he's dying of croakers disease or something.
Now, after listening to a few of Zaeed's tales about how none of his fellow squad mates survived on SEVERAL missions he'd been on, I realize he wasn't the greatest choice. But at the time all I knew was that he founded one of the most prolific mercenary bands in the galaxy and could survive headshots (too bad he couldn't switch places with Thane BOOM! "ZAAAEEE-" "Nah I'm alright mate!" ":D"). Plus he sounded completely badass over the radio as he commanded the fire teams.
It was these misinterpretations, and a complete unwillingness to risk Tali/Garrus, which led to the less than perfect ending.
C0urtland on
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
After all, you can't really expect to get a good sample on this board or most gaming boards, that accurately represent the experience of everybody who's bought ME2.
Regarding Mass Effect 1.
For Tali's "Loyalty" quest, if you want to call it that.
At the end of Geth Incursions you get a copy of some data that you can give to her.
I don't remember if I gave it to her or not, I can't remember.
I have the PC version so maybe this decision can be designated by a 1 or a 0
On juggling game-related accounts (MMO subscriptions, PSN, DLC services, etc), here's the extremes I went to about a year ago to make sure I always have things aligned:
Step 1: I created a new gmail account dedicated to this purpose. I immediately saved the credentials of the account on my laptop, iPhone, and desktop browsers. I then took a backup of the profiles and registry on both computers, burnt them to a CD, and stowed it away in the same place that I keep my system restore disks
Step 2: Consolidated existing accounts to this new e-mail account
Step 3: Obtained a little notepad with metal covers (got it from some SAN company during a training class) and record all credentials in there. Everything goes in here: banking, my wireless router credentials, important service accounts, important forum accounts (like Bioware's), accounts for utility sites (like natural gas, auto insurance, etc). This notebook is considered my hard copy and is kept in my fireproof safe.
All this because I got tired of jumping through hoops to resubscribe to MMOs or acquire DLC.
You know what's funny, looking back on it: I value my gaming accounts as highly as my investments and savings. Haha. Ehh......
The problem isn't that managing an EA account is ohmigodhard or something, it's that every stupid agency involved needs to have its own account process. In addition to your XBLA account, EA needs to have one, bioware's social site needs to have one, fucking drpepper.com needs have one, etc. You're just asking for user difficulties.
I understand why they do it; everyone wants to use the carrot of DLC to drive the collection of precious, precious consumer/contact information so that they can build a list they can use to cross-market shit to me. It's just fucking annoying.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Why is anyone defending EA accounts? Seriously. I mean, if you think it's not a problem, ok. But to actively defend them? That just seems crazy.
They seem fine to me on the PC.
You don't have to link your EA Account to a gamer tag. That can be the big pain in the ass.
But it is linked to a gamertag. I had an EA account from Mirror's Edge and then started a new BioWare account. I merged that with my EA account and everything came together just fine.
This is apparently crazy, but look outside your own experience. There's been a lot of people that have been hassled by the process, and I'm assuming that among them are some smart people. It's a process that is unnecessary convoluted.
But it seemed pretty easy. My EA account was automatically created using the email address and password I use to log into Xbox Live. Then merging my BioWare account with it was as simple as telling it to do so and then providing that same email address and password. Now they're both the same and my gamertag is right there.
Why is anyone defending EA accounts? Seriously. I mean, if you think it's not a problem, ok. But to actively defend them? That just seems crazy.
They seem fine to me on the PC.
You don't have to link your EA Account to a gamer tag. That can be the big pain in the ass.
But it is linked to a gamertag. I had an EA account from Mirror's Edge and then started a new BioWare account. I merged that with my EA account and everything came together just fine.
This is apparently crazy, but look outside your own experience. There's been a lot of people that have been hassled by the process, and I'm assuming that among them are some smart people. It's a process that is unnecessary convoluted.
But it seemed pretty easy. My EA account was automatically created using the email address and password I use to log into Xbox Live. Then merging my BioWare account with it was as simple as telling it to do so and then providing that same email address and password. Now they're both the same and my gamertag is right there.
It seemed pretty simple to me.
It is pretty simple, until something gets fucked up. I first created an EA account for Battle field Bad Company. I had wanted to link my gamertag to it so I could check my BC stats. I did everything i was suposed, and yeah, it was pretty simple, but for some reason whenever i tried to check my stats at the BFBC website, it would tell me to sign into my EA account, no matter how many times i signed in. Eventually, i just decided to create a new EA account, the one i have now, assuming that my gamertag properly linked, but it actually had, and it just didnt god damn work. So now, I have my Bioware account linked to my EA account linked to my email, while my gamertag is linked to another EA account that i cant get it off of.
I was pretty bored of planet scanning until I bothered to read one of the descriptions in the Krogan DMZ, it detailed an awesome story about how there was an uninhabitable planet that the Krogan kept trying to get onto.
Attention to detail Bioware 8-) attention to detail
Although I am sick of seeing Jupiter re-colored for nearly every gas giant I scan.
I don't even scan gas giants anymore. I just click them to mark them scanned and make sure there isn't an anomaly there (which afaik there never is.) Little rocky planets have lots of resources and there is one or more in every system, no reason to waste time staring at useless planets
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I was pretty bored of planet scanning until I bothered to read one of the descriptions in the Krogan DMZ, it detailed an awesome story about how there was an uninhabitable planet that the Krogan kept trying to get onto.
Attention to detail Bioware 8-) attention to detail
Although I am sick of seeing Jupiter re-colored for nearly every gas giant I scan.
It is pretty simple, until something gets fucked up. I first created an EA account for Battle field Bad Company. I had wanted to link my gamertag to it so I could check my BC stats. I did everything i was suposed, and yeah, it was pretty simple, but for some reason whenever i tried to check my stats at the BFBC website, it would tell me to sign into my EA account, no matter how many times i signed in. Eventually, i just decided to create a new EA account, the one i have now, assuming that my gamertag properly linked, but it actually had, and it just didnt god damn work. So now, I have my Bioware account linked to my EA account linked to my email, while my gamertag is linked to another EA account that i cant get it off of.
For me, the process went something like this:
-I created an EA account
-Then I tried to link my gamer tag to account
-I was informed my gamer tag was already linked to an account, which was news to me, considering I didn't remember signing up for an EA account
-Then I read that an account can automatically be made by playing an EA game online. I had never used any online functionality in an EA game, but I did have the console connected when I played, so I assumed an account had been linked
-Then I had to figure out how to get into my already-made EA account. See, it was made to the email address of my Live account. But when I signed up for Live, it required me to have a Hotmail account, so I created a stupid Hotmail account and didn't bother to write any of the information down. I failed to foresee that I would need that information some four years later.
Eventually I got it all sorted out, but it was an unnecessary pain, especially when there's already much-easier, established ways to redeem stuff on Live using codes.
I was sort of a planet-scanning apologist until it let me down hardcore.
I was reading the description of a planet, which told a cool story of how the planet has a tourist attraction that was created when a disgruntled miner used the orbital drill to carve a Russian phrase that means "stop looking here" (or something like that) into the planet's surface. The description said, and I quote, that the landmark is "easily visible from space."
15 minutes of searching later, and I finally, sadly, conceded that there was no such phrase visible on the planet.
I was sort of a planet-scanning apologist until it let me down hardcore.
I was reading the description of a planet, which told a cool story of how the planet has a tourist attraction that was created when a disgruntled miner used the orbital drill to carve a Russian phrase that means "stop looking here" (or something like that) into the planet's surface. The description said, and I quote, that the landmark is "easily visible from space."
15 minutes of searching later, and I finally, sadly, conceded that there was no such phrase visible on the planet.
Hated resource probing from then on.
They re-used most of the planets and just re-colored them, and randomly added Saturn rings to some of them.
I was sort of a planet-scanning apologist until it let me down hardcore.
I was reading the description of a planet, which told a cool story of how the planet has a tourist attraction that was created when a disgruntled miner used the orbital drill to carve a Russian phrase that means "stop looking here" (or something like that) into the planet's surface. The description said, and I quote, that the landmark is "easily visible from space."
15 minutes of searching later, and I finally, sadly, conceded that there was no such phrase visible on the planet.
Hated resource probing from then on.
Haha I did the same thing, though not for more than a couple of minutes. Figured they'd remember we can look at planets and have that small detail for us to see. What a shame.
It is pretty simple, until something gets fucked up. I first created an EA account for Battle field Bad Company. I had wanted to link my gamertag to it so I could check my BC stats. I did everything i was suposed, and yeah, it was pretty simple, but for some reason whenever i tried to check my stats at the BFBC website, it would tell me to sign into my EA account, no matter how many times i signed in. Eventually, i just decided to create a new EA account, the one i have now, assuming that my gamertag properly linked, but it actually had, and it just didnt god damn work. So now, I have my Bioware account linked to my EA account linked to my email, while my gamertag is linked to another EA account that i cant get it off of.
For me, the process went something like this:
-I created an EA account
-Then I tried to link my gamer tag to account
-I was informed my gamer tag was already linked to an account, which was news to me, considering I didn't remember signing up for an EA account
-Then I read that an account can automatically be made by playing an EA game online. I had never used any online functionality in an EA game, but I did have the console connected when I played, so I assumed an account had been linked
-Then I had to figure out how to get into my already-made EA account. See, it was made to the email address of my Live account. But when I signed up for Live, it required me to have a Hotmail account, so I created a stupid Hotmail account and didn't bother to write any of the information down. I failed to foresee that I would need that information some four years later.
Eventually I got it all sorted out, but it was an unnecessary pain, especially when there's already much-easier, established ways to redeem stuff on Live using codes.
But redeeming codes through the live system doesn't get you the content for both versions (PC/360). For instance, I bought the PC CE of Dragon's Age and was able to use the bonus armor for the 360 version of ME because the code gives it for both. And if I were to ever buy the PC version of ME2, I would have the CE and preorder bonuses for that version (without having to buy a CE). As it stands I'll take this system any day.
Rakai on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
They re-used most of the planets and just re-colored them, and randomly added Saturn rings to some of them.
Right, that's fairly evident, but it seems exceedingly silly to put such a thing in the description.
I read another one where there was a crater that was "visible from space", looked and the planet was 100% craters everywhere.
Ouch. Yeah, it's too bad they didn't have more unique planets. I understand that it might be a waste of development time, but why, then, put in such specific and unique features in the planet descriptions?
Posts
I'm not so sure about that. Giant Bomb tracks the number of people who've got certain achievements in certain games. For the 8,000+ in their database, only about 50% of the people that have completed the game have managed to keep everyone alive. And those are presumably pretty hardcore videogame fans, so if they're batting .500, imagine what it's like for Joe Consumer who picked up the game because he saw the trailer during the NFC Championship game.
So you guys can't remember your shit and that's EA's fault?
I mean, the system is somewhat convoluted, but if you're linking accounts you forgot or using e-mail addresses you can't remember that's your own damn fault.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
The fact that anyone has to go through this ridiculous process in the first place is EA's fault.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
It is incredibly easy to be perfect. It's not even open for discussion.
If people aren't getting the achievement, my guess is it's often because they chose to skip the oh-so-boring planet scanning and didn't get the ship upgrades.
From my memory the only account I ever had to make for this game was the one on Bioware, which I then linked to my 360, then typed in the Cerberus code on Bioware's site and bam done
No DH references, it's a shame.
You also lose Thane's loyalty. Double shame.
I agree. ME1 promised a more complex universe than Star Wars, in which moral choices can sometimes be murky and have unexpected results. Unfortunately, they seem to be backing off this a bit. With changes to the charm/persuasion system and (Nearly?) every Paragon choice leading to positive results, chances at good, satisfying drama are being lost.
How much more interesting would it be where you didn't know that the right action to take morally would also lead to inevitable practical benefit?
They seem fine to me on the PC.
You don't have to link your EA Account to a gamer tag. That can be the big pain in the ass.
The only choice I can recall off the top of my head is on the Justicar mission. But even then it's just like a 'it'll be resolved offscreen later, no worries' kind of thing.
I guess the baffling thing to me about the complaints is EA makes a shit-ton of games, how could you have possibly not had an EA account by now? Ah well.
But it is linked to a gamertag. I had an EA account from Mirror's Edge and then started a new BioWare account. I merged that with my EA account and everything came together just fine.
There's a lot of things that can trip people up. There's a number of paragon/renegade checks throughout the game required to get people loyal, and some of them can be quite hard, as we've discussed repeatedly in this thread. Even the ship upgrades can be tricky, because IIRC, you have to go into three specific character's 'investigate' dialogue options to be told about them. And regarding the end game choices:
Like I said, there's a lot of places for even hardcore gamers to get tripped up. It's certainly not incredibly tough to keep everyone alive. But if 50% of hardcore gamers are losing some squad members, BioWare has probably struck a pretty good balance.
This is apparently crazy, but look outside your own experience. There's been a lot of people that have been hassled by the process, and I'm assuming that among them are some smart people. It's a process that is unnecessary convoluted.
Now, after listening to a few of Zaeed's tales about how none of his fellow squad mates survived on SEVERAL missions he'd been on, I realize he wasn't the greatest choice. But at the time all I knew was that he founded one of the most prolific mercenary bands in the galaxy and could survive headshots (too bad he couldn't switch places with Thane BOOM! "ZAAAEEE-" "Nah I'm alright mate!" ":D"). Plus he sounded completely badass over the radio as he commanded the fire teams.
It was these misinterpretations, and a complete unwillingness to risk Tali/Garrus, which led to the less than perfect ending.
For Tali's "Loyalty" quest, if you want to call it that.
At the end of Geth Incursions you get a copy of some data that you can give to her.
I don't remember if I gave it to her or not, I can't remember.
I have the PC version so maybe this decision can be designated by a 1 or a 0
Step 1: I created a new gmail account dedicated to this purpose. I immediately saved the credentials of the account on my laptop, iPhone, and desktop browsers. I then took a backup of the profiles and registry on both computers, burnt them to a CD, and stowed it away in the same place that I keep my system restore disks
Step 2: Consolidated existing accounts to this new e-mail account
Step 3: Obtained a little notepad with metal covers (got it from some SAN company during a training class) and record all credentials in there. Everything goes in here: banking, my wireless router credentials, important service accounts, important forum accounts (like Bioware's), accounts for utility sites (like natural gas, auto insurance, etc). This notebook is considered my hard copy and is kept in my fireproof safe.
All this because I got tired of jumping through hoops to resubscribe to MMOs or acquire DLC.
You know what's funny, looking back on it: I value my gaming accounts as highly as my investments and savings. Haha. Ehh......
I understand why they do it; everyone wants to use the carrot of DLC to drive the collection of precious, precious consumer/contact information so that they can build a list they can use to cross-market shit to me. It's just fucking annoying.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
But it seemed pretty easy. My EA account was automatically created using the email address and password I use to log into Xbox Live. Then merging my BioWare account with it was as simple as telling it to do so and then providing that same email address and password. Now they're both the same and my gamertag is right there.
It seemed pretty simple to me.
You've established that.
It is pretty simple, until something gets fucked up. I first created an EA account for Battle field Bad Company. I had wanted to link my gamertag to it so I could check my BC stats. I did everything i was suposed, and yeah, it was pretty simple, but for some reason whenever i tried to check my stats at the BFBC website, it would tell me to sign into my EA account, no matter how many times i signed in. Eventually, i just decided to create a new EA account, the one i have now, assuming that my gamertag properly linked, but it actually had, and it just didnt god damn work. So now, I have my Bioware account linked to my EA account linked to my email, while my gamertag is linked to another EA account that i cant get it off of.
Attention to detail Bioware 8-) attention to detail
Although I am sick of seeing Jupiter re-colored for nearly every gas giant I scan.
[EDIT] Kruban
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Yeah that was pretty cool, i just dont get how going outside naked translates to INSTANT BROKEN BONES
For me, the process went something like this:
-I created an EA account
-Then I tried to link my gamer tag to account
-I was informed my gamer tag was already linked to an account, which was news to me, considering I didn't remember signing up for an EA account
-Then I read that an account can automatically be made by playing an EA game online. I had never used any online functionality in an EA game, but I did have the console connected when I played, so I assumed an account had been linked
-Then I had to figure out how to get into my already-made EA account. See, it was made to the email address of my Live account. But when I signed up for Live, it required me to have a Hotmail account, so I created a stupid Hotmail account and didn't bother to write any of the information down. I failed to foresee that I would need that information some four years later.
Eventually I got it all sorted out, but it was an unnecessary pain, especially when there's already much-easier, established ways to redeem stuff on Live using codes.
I was reading the description of a planet, which told a cool story of how the planet has a tourist attraction that was created when a disgruntled miner used the orbital drill to carve a Russian phrase that means "stop looking here" (or something like that) into the planet's surface. The description said, and I quote, that the landmark is "easily visible from space."
15 minutes of searching later, and I finally, sadly, conceded that there was no such phrase visible on the planet.
Hated resource probing from then on.
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
They re-used most of the planets and just re-colored them, and randomly added Saturn rings to some of them.
Haha I did the same thing, though not for more than a couple of minutes. Figured they'd remember we can look at planets and have that small detail for us to see. What a shame.
Right, that's fairly evident, but it seems exceedingly silly to put such a thing in the description.
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
But redeeming codes through the live system doesn't get you the content for both versions (PC/360). For instance, I bought the PC CE of Dragon's Age and was able to use the bonus armor for the 360 version of ME because the code gives it for both. And if I were to ever buy the PC version of ME2, I would have the CE and preorder bonuses for that version (without having to buy a CE). As it stands I'll take this system any day.
I read another one where there was a crater that was "visible from space", looked and the planet was 100% craters everywhere.
Ouch. Yeah, it's too bad they didn't have more unique planets. I understand that it might be a waste of development time, but why, then, put in such specific and unique features in the planet descriptions?
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Hopefully they take out planet scanning and bring back the crescent like view they had in ME1. At least that was stylish.
Also, scanning sucks. It's practically the same as mineral hunting in ME1, except I don't have to drive over mountains.