Will be getting it next month.

Still having its ups and downs.
If you do get it, then do make sure and get the copy with the code for the DLC inside. Should say on the box somewhere. Saves you $15. I loved the Operation Firewalker missions. You're given a ground vehicle with several missions to complete with it. Well, I call it a ground vehicle, but it hovers. It's got a boost for speed and jump jets let it fly all over the place. Adds a much needed bit of variety to the gameplay. Gun can be a bit of a pain to aim though. Also plays a part in Operation Overloard.

I really like what they've done with the conversation system. Used to you'd be picking an option and having your character say it or just remain silent and have people act as if you'd said it. Now they give you a few options which convey the point of what you want to say, but when Shepard speaks he elaborates on it. Very nice.
Every choice that will impact your Paragon or Renegade meter is highlighted in blue or gray so you always know which is which. Kinda takes a little fun out of it though.
And I don't like that the subtitles don't stand out too well. They're white and often enough on a white background. Couple that with them being meant for HD and being played on my SD TV and they're really tough to see sometimes.

In an Oblivion kind of way, the side missions continue to help make up for a weaker (though not bad so far) central story.
Really impressed with the seamless way that the story is blending perfectly with the choices I made in the open comic. The way everything's presented makes it seems like there couldn't have been any other way for the story to have played out. Really curious to see how well it would hold up if I make different choices. Only thing that might kill a replay from me is the blasted planet mining "minigame" to use the term loosely.

Oooh good it has subs, cheers for that.

They're an option, so you have to enable them, I believe.
As I said though, they sometimes blend in with the background making it really annoying to try to see. Worse when it's your conversation options that do it.

Eh I don't really mind that, I can get a full sentence from scripted segments easily enough. Nice that it has the option.

in response to some of the things cobalt was saying.

1st about the dlc, have you tried the shadow broker one yet? it is unarguably the best piece of dlc for a game with the one except possibly being rdr zombie dlc. it also gets you some awesome bonuses.

as for the choices, in me2 for the 360 there was I think 257 differences in the game that are Dependant on the choices you made in the 1st game. A lot of them real minor, some were sidequests or certain characters would appear in certain places, and if you didnt kill wrex (one of your squadmates) he was the ruler of one of the planets you visit

Typically I play as a 'good guy' first time through, so I didn't kill him in the comic. I have since encountered him. I assume that everything wouldn't have gone so smoothly there had I not.

Spoiler:

Haven't done Shadow Broker yet, but I plan to soon after I finish all my various businesses in the Citadel sector. Lord but I need a lot of money for that place. Around 3 or 4 hundred thousand. And that's with a discount.
Also, why do I feel that going to each shop and offering an endorsement is going to come back and bite me later? I mean, each place I visit in Citadel now has a recording where I say it's "my favorite shop on the Citadel."

Speaking of shops, there's a special item for Baldur's Gate fans available in one of them.

in me1 it was actually difficult to not have him end up dead. My persuasion skills werent up high enough so he ended up dead. (that and I didnt really try that hard not to kill him)

doings shadow broker might help you with your money problems

edit: how far through the main story are you? do you understand who the shadow broker is (not like who as in his identity though)

Almost through this game. Definitely a worthy purchase. I can't wait to see how many of my crew die in the end lol

nobody wrote:

edit: how far through the main story are you? do you understand who the shadow broker is (not like who as in his identity though)

Not yet. Just boarded an enemy ship, first main story mission after Horizon colony. Rest of the time has been spent running around collecting crew and doing loyalty missions. Still need to collect 3 crew and do Miranda's mission.

Double Post.

I'm really torn here because I just saw and heard something hilarious, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. All I'll say is after boarding the enemy ship I mentioned in my previous post, make sure to talk with Mordin in his lab and explore all conversation options. You will be happy.

okey dokey

CobaltMonkey wrote:

nobody wrote:

edit: how far through the main story are you? do you understand who the shadow broker is (not like who as in his identity though)

Not yet. Just boarded an enemy ship, first main story mission after Horizon colony. Rest of the time has been spent running around collecting crew and doing loyalty missions. Still need to collect 3 crew and do Miranda's mission.

the crew and loyalty missions are part of the main game, in fact you cant beat the game until youve done a decent amount of loyalty missions

During one of the loading screens it said that after completing the game all characters get an additional 25% experience. Does this mean there's a New Game+ feature, or can you run around doing missions after the end game?

in the first one you could run around after endgame if i remember correctly

CobaltMonkey wrote:

During one of the loading screens it said that after completing the game all characters get an additional 25% experience. Does this mean there's a New Game+ feature, or can you run around doing missions after the end game?

after you complete the game any character you use gets that bonuses, same thing applies with being able to use abilities gained from loyalty missions.

In the 1st mass effect there was even more bonuses

Quote :

Character Benefit Unlockables
You have to attain certain achievements to gain benefits on future plays through the game. Simply do the achievement to gain it.
Unlockable How to Unlock
+10% Experience Bonus Complete 75% of Game
+10% Hardening Bonus Complete 75% of Game with Ashley in Squad
+10% Health Bonus Kill 150 Organic Beings
+10% Shield Bonus Kill 250 Synthetics
+25% Marksman Cooldown Bonus Attain 150 Kills with Pistol
+5% Experience Bonus Reach 50th level with one character
10% Reduced Cooldown for Barrier and Stasis Complete 75% of Game with Liara in Squad
10% Reduced Cooldown for Lift and Throw Complete 75% of Game with Kaiden in Squad
10% Reduced Cooldown for Overload and Damping Complete 75% of Game with Garrusin Squad
10% Reduced Cooldown for Sabotage and AI Hacking Complete 75% of Game with Tali in Squad
10% Shield Increase Sustain More Shield Damage than Health Damage on One Playthrough
5% Increase in Weapon Damage Complete the Game Twice on any Difficulty
Assault Rifle Skill for New Characters Attain 150 Kills with Assault Rifle
Barrier Skill for New Characters Use Barrier 75 Times
Decryption Skill for New Characters Use Sabotage 75 Times
Electronics Skill for New Characters Use Overload 75 Times
First Aid Skill for New Characters Use 150 Medi-gel
Hacking Skill for New Characters Use AI Hacking 75 Times
Lift Skill (for non-biotics) Use Lift 75 Times
Medicine Skill for New Characters Use Neural Hacking 75 Times
Regenerate 1 Health per Second Complete 75% of Game with Wrex in Squad
Shielding Skill for New Characters Use Dampening 75 Times
Shotgun Skill for New Characters Attain 150 Kills with Shotgun
Sniper Rifle Skill for New Characters Attain 150 Kills with Sniper Rifle
Spectre Grade Weapons for Purchase Attain 1,000,000 Credits in your Wallet.
Statis Skill for New Characters Use Statis 75 Times
Throw Skill for New Characters Use Throw 75 Times
Unlocks "Singularity" skill for future characters Use "Singularity" 75 times
Warp Skill for New Characters Use Warp 75 Times

thats from the 1st game, just giving you an idea of how much extra bonus stuff you got.

ME2 is just that bonus XP and the loyalty abilities.

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up.

I got the option of continuing the game after I completed it and thought I would in order to get the 'alien relations' trophy, or whatever it's called... Thing is, I haven't left anything to advance the story, not even mining planets. So the conversation options won't go past, "I'm pretty busy here, maybe we should talk later..."

Any ideas how to break out of this cycle?

You said you played this on PC, right? Have you played any of the DLC? If not, you could try buying one and playing through that to try to trigger something. I can vouch that the Operation Overloard and Shadow Broker DLCs are very entertaining, helping to spice up the gameplay a bit in addition to possibly fixing your problem.

Leo_337 wrote:

I got the option of continuing the game after I completed it and thought I would in order to get the 'alien relations' trophy, or whatever it's called... Thing is, I haven't left anything to advance the story, not even mining planets. So the conversation options won't go past, "I'm pretty busy here, maybe we should talk later..."

Any ideas how to break out of this cycle?

which one is that? the romance one? You need to be talking to them between missions throughout the game

A warning to PS3 players, there's an occasional bug in our version.
Serious, but easily sidestepped.
Sometimes save files can become corrupted.
The best way around this is having multiple save files. Two or three just in case is probably a good idea.

Source.

File corruptions, the ruiners of enjoyment!

Good idea, Monkey.. Maybe I'll look into it if I ever go back to playing it.

Getting ready to start the final mission. Get through scenes, begin mission,
Freeze up.

Reload, begin again. Make it through many waves of enemies, give inspiring speech, fight more waves,
Freeze up.

This is the type of crap I was ranting about in the blog.

Still gonna get it.