well, damnit. i guess i'll be buying this game.

1/22/2010 2:27:22 PM

Played this for about 5 hours last night. Wow. I spent like an hour alone reading parts of the codex. Game is pretty awesome. New combat system is great and runs really well on my pc. Agent Walker is great. Little cameltoe goin on in the opening scene. The new Normandy is awesome. Don't want to spoil it though. Looking forward to playing all weekend.

1/22/2010 2:28:03 PM

If you or Nacho Libre mention 1 spoiler in this thread before release I'm going to come to your house and stab you in the face with a soldering iron.

1/22/2010 2:37:41 PM

Haha I won't other than it's awesome.

1/22/2010 2:43:38 PM

I never really read the codex that much in the old game. I don't need to know unnecessary backstory shit. I just need to know what to do or kill next.

1/22/2010 4:51:54 PM

How can you has game already?

I can has too?

1/22/2010 5:36:46 PM

I like reading the codex. Bunch of cool background stuff. Already found a typo though. Games been out a few days for PC and 360. I already pre-ordered it though so I am buying it. Just wanted to play it a week before everyone else.

1/22/2010 6:02:26 PM

IGN review

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1062898p1.html

Also some british site Nowgamer

http://xbox-360.nowgamer.com/reviews/xbox-360/8967/mass-effect-2

[Edited on January 22, 2010 at 8:37 PM. Reason : ]

1/22/2010 8:20:43 PM

Quote :

"How can you has game already? I can has too? "

1/22/2010 9:10:01 PM

Steam pre-load has started!

1/23/2010 1:28:55 PM

The game is up on bitgamer.

1/23/2010 1:30:22 PM

Glad it started now, it's going to take me until tuesday to dl this at my connection speed.

1/23/2010 2:16:33 PM

U-Verse FTW

I'm at 1.1MB/s

1/23/2010 2:26:16 PM

nvm

[Edited on January 23, 2010 at 2:37 PM. Reason : f]

1/23/2010 2:37:37 PM

Quote :

"U-Verse FTW I'm at 1.1MB/s"

That's all you get with U-Verse? I thought they offered 15-20 down? I get 1.15-2MB/s (boost) with Time Warner Cable.

1/23/2010 5:21:04 PM

I had utorrent open :/

1/23/2010 5:22:35 PM

^^you can only download as fast as the source can upload

1/23/2010 5:46:28 PM

^huh? That doesn't make sense. Any server you're downloading from is going to max out your bandwidth. I've always been able to max out my bandwidth with Steam and Usenet at 2MB/s with Time Warner Cable. Back in the dorms I could max them out too. The server's got to be pretty shitty or really busy to not max out your bandwidth.

1/23/2010 5:58:59 PM

^I was referring to torrents

1/23/2010 5:59:35 PM

^Oh sorry my bad. Yeah torrents suck balls. I'm glad I graduated to usenet. Never looked back.

1/23/2010 6:02:00 PM

I just preordered it at Gamestop. I'd rather have a hard copy.

1/23/2010 6:46:04 PM

steam>>>>hard copy. Don't have to deal with updates, or disks going bad, and can install it as many times as you want. Just have to log in.

[Edited on January 23, 2010 at 6:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2010 6:48:19 PM

I like games where the hard copy can also be put on Steam. Empire: Total War was like that.

I like steam because I don't have to worry about losing stuff, but also installing from a disk is much faster.

1/23/2010 6:53:40 PM

For anyone thinking about running this on a PC it runs much better than the first Mass Effect. I'm able to max it out at 60fps at 1920 by 1200 on an older Core 2 Duo and a 8800gtx.

1/23/2010 6:57:46 PM

Okay, so I own Mass Effect 1 but I never finished it. To be honest, I quit playing it because my character was this skinny and wimpy looking dude and it just seemed out of place watching this guy go on these important missions when he looks as if he couldn't bench press a fucking toothpick.

Let's be honest here: how much ass does the first game kick, and should I play it first and then this game, or just jump into ME2?

1/24/2010 6:00:17 AM

This game is not hard to get into. Stick to the main story line to get through it faster. Its worth it.

1/24/2010 8:43:58 AM

I'm running through ME1 now in prep for ME2. definitely easy to get into.

1/24/2010 11:03:11 AM

I skipped ME1 and went straight to 2. Don't know if I want to try to run through 1 first. Feel kinda bad though.

1/24/2010 1:20:45 PM

I'm finishing up ME1 right now

1/24/2010 2:22:39 PM

How long do you think it'll take me to run through Mass Effect 1's main campaign?

1/24/2010 2:35:37 PM

If you skip most of the side quests, I'd say 15-16 hours.

[Edited on January 24, 2010 at 2:46 PM. Reason : 20-24 if you do most side quests but don't explore (which is boring anyway).]

1/24/2010 2:44:42 PM

Just beat it.

1/24/2010 3:15:02 PM

Bought ME1 through steam. Waiting for it to finish downloading. Then i'm gonna go through the main story.

^How long did it take and what did you do? I started the first one when it came out on PC, but it was glitchy so i put it off.

1/24/2010 4:56:10 PM

Quote :

"I skipped ME1 and went straight to 2. Don't know if I want to try to run through 1 first. Feel kinda bad though."

Dude. I pity you. You'll never be able to undo what you just did.

1/24/2010 5:56:40 PM

^i know I know. I stopped playing ME2 and i'm about to start ME1. Didn't even get that far into 2.

1/24/2010 6:06:51 PM

What happens if you beat Mass Effect twice??

I think i'd rather play as a Vanguard; but my Infiltrator is more advanced and I think my game choices the 2nd time around were better. For example not killing the krogan and saving the chick for the romance achievement.

1/24/2010 8:33:51 PM

You can upload any of your characters as long as you kept the save.

Also, don't quote me on this, but I think you can change your class at the start of the game.

[Edited on January 24, 2010 at 8:43 PM. Reason : ]

1/24/2010 8:43:10 PM

Quote :

"Also, don't quote me on this, but I think you can change your class at the start of the game."

I would bet you can...since you're not really importing the character itself, you're just importing the plot choices they made. Aside from that, you just get a bonus for the character level and paragon/renegade.

1/24/2010 9:24:49 PM

That's correct. You're not locked into anything from the previous game including your appearance and class. It just adds bonuses and imports the decisions you made.

1/24/2010 9:56:58 PM

some gameplay videos which inherently mean some spoilers...lol at shepherd taking a shot at the bar right after the 3 minute mark in the first video...2nd video is just combat

1/24/2010 9:59:46 PM

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1820521&page=2

$56 on Wal Mart website with free shipping, 15% cash back from Bing, and you get a $10 gift card.

1/24/2010 10:47:16 PM

Quote :

"^How long did it take and what did you do? I started the first one when it came out on PC, but it was glitchy so i put it off."

I started when it first came out on xbox then stopped playing when I was 80% through...I was doing all the side quests so it took forever. Its really hard to say how long it took and my xbox is off or I'd pull up stats

1/24/2010 11:12:17 PM

thx vulcan. i pulled the trigger and bought it. i just hope the combat and inventory systems are much better than the first one.

just plowing through the main quest in the first one, i want to say it took me maybe 10-12 hours at most. i don't think i did any of the side quests at all.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 1:13 AM. Reason : .]

1/25/2010 1:12:36 AM

i just hope they minimize the 'pointless driving around planets' aspect

1/25/2010 1:46:10 AM

Honestly I didn't mind the aimless driving segments that badly... but mostly I was just amused by how thoroughly fucked the rover's physics were, and how much I could abuse that fact.

I was also, at all times, trying to avoid large flat areas... because then the goddamned sand worms would pop out. Fuck the sand worms.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 2:15 AM. Reason : .]

1/25/2010 1:47:52 AM

Apparently there is no driving in this one.

There will be a free DLC coming sometime after release with a hovertank and a few new missions, but nothing in the main game.

1/25/2010 1:49:55 AM

Have they confirmed no more goddamned huge sand worms popping out from nowhere? Even on normal difficulty some of their attacks would one-shot you/your rover. That shit sucked.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 2:17 AM. Reason : .]

1/25/2010 2:17:23 AM

That seems like a weird thing to confirm.

Plus those things were easy, just drive around at max speed and shoot them until you get them down to low health. Then pop out of the mako to finish it off with guns for major XP.

1/25/2010 3:14:41 AM

The one thing that pissed me off was that the side missions were basically all the same, right down to the interior of every building on the "random encounter" planets being identical

Give me some varied sidequests with tangible rewards and I'll be happy

1/25/2010 9:34:55 AM

did anyone grab those DLCs while they were still free this morning?

http://kotaku.com/5456120/get-mass-effect-2s-dlc-for-free-free-[update]/gallery/

i tried, but it was too late.

1/25/2010 9:38:53 AM