Mass Effect 2 requires cheating...
Justisaur
I've spent many hours scanning planets, and this has to be the most
boring repetitive thing I've done in any game. It's worse than any
farming or camping I've ever done in any MMO. It's also been giving
me a hand cramp since you have to hold the mouse button down the whole
time. I outa sue BioWare for pain and suffering. I'd beg for
buggying around on alien planets versus this joke if I thought it
would do any good.
I've stooped to cheating by giving myself a million of every resource
because I never want to see the planet scanner again. I hate the new
ammo as well, and want my old overheating back. I tried cheating to
give myself unlimited ammo since I'd already fallen to the dark side
on this one, but I haven't figured that out yet. Even damage is
stupid as you just heal everything back instantly if you duck out of
combat for 2 seconds, as do your support NPCs, while enemies never
heal.
Even powers are crap now as you only get to do one, then everything
else is on the same cooldown, so there's no point in having more than
one.
The enemies all seem to be copies of each other with different faces,
with little variation. The tactics for every fight are the same -
blow one power off each, shoot until injured, then hide and reload,
repeat. It's boring.
I think BioWare must have said to themselves "Lets make sure we
destroy every aspect of game-play and see if we can still sell it on
Hype."
Even though the RP part of this game is somewhat good (although I
don't think any actions have any real impact on any outcomes other
than if your character acting aggressive or nice), the game-play
otherwise has been totally ruined from ME1. I'm totally bored with
this game already, and I don't think I would recommend this game to
anyone - unless Story is enough to sustain you.
I'm becoming a bitter old man due to the amount of over hyped crap of
late that keeps luring me in.
- Justisaur
Trimble Bracegirdle
I will cross it of my "When it Gets To The Bargain Bin" list.
The hard work with the Mouse is what has put me of Dragon Age ..
We seem to have to hold a Button constantly.
And just think, we are promised a 3rd Mass Effect ..How far can
'They' dum it down even further ?
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (Lets Play Summoner Now)
Insane Ranter
just adding the values as the end result cheating.
Jonah Falcon
(laughs and points behind idiots' backs)
Morgan
> Yeah, Mass Effect 2 is boring. Sure. Whatever.
> (laughs and points behind idiots' backs)
Mass Effect 2 is indeed an excellent and fun game. However if you'd
bothered to read the original post you'd have seen that he was referring
to *one* aspect of the game being boring. I whole heartedly agree with
him on the planet scanning point (though not all of the other ones). It
is boring, incredibly boring.
Morgan
> Thanks Justisaur your confirming my suspicions re: ME2 .
> I will cross it of my "When it Gets To The Bargain Bin" list.
It's actually a very good game IMHO. The planet scanning is boring as
hell though.
> The hard work with the Mouse is what has put me of Dragon Age ..
> We seem to have to hold a Button constantly.
IIRC you could control movement using keys
> And just think, we are promised a 3rd Mass Effect ..How far can
> 'They' dum it down even further ?
It is a shame that they dumbed it down in terms of stats. The character
interaction is still bloody good though.
Florian Schaetz
> ...because it's so boring.
>
> I've spent many hours scanning planets,
[..]
> I've stooped to cheating by giving myself a million of every resource
> because I never want to see the planet scanner again.
Strange. After spending many hours scanning planets you should have more
than enough resources. It's not necessary to scan every planet, as there
are much more resources than needed.
Flo
Gandalf Parker
$4D2....@newsfe12.ams2:
Actually, by reading the initial post and weeding out the obvious choices
of wording it ended up sounding like the kindof game that I would like.
Gandalf Parker
WDS
> I've spent many hours scanning planets...
Why? You don't need very many resources to complete all of the
upgrades. And you don't really need all the upgrades, either, at least
not on normal difficulty.
Justisaur
More than 3... many... I got better at it, down to about 10 minutes a
planet, It started out more like 20 to 30 minutes a planet but I had
lots of upgrades I didn't have the resources for. I swear it feels
like I was spending at least as much time scanning as playing the
whole rest of the game. My mouse hand is still hurting today even
though I didn't do any yesterday.
I also restarted the game once after getting about 1/3 through (I
think) as I wasn't happy with my character (I didn't realize you could
respec later).
I really pity the poor xbox players that have to go through this with
no way to cheat around it.
Justisaur
I started out quite impressed, but after playing it in my limited
spare time for a week, having not finished it once i'm finding all of
the game poorly done, repetitive, and boring *except* for character
interaction. It's the one thing BioWare is good at. Although even
that is a bit jarring, as it seems only about half of the preexisting
characters have the same personalities they did in ME. My character's
love interest, Liara, from the first game seems to have taken a 180 in
personality. I also don't think there's any way Sheppard would put up
with an AI on her team after fighting a war against them, and still
doing so.
I just can't get over the fact they so completely ruined the gameplay,
it just about makes me want to cry, or punch someone in the face. I'm
not sure I can even finish the game at this point I'm finding it so
bad, I will try to slog through the rest of the game, just because I
like finishing games. I'd like to try the paragon path as well to see
the different interactions, but I seriously doubt I'll be able to
bring myself to do so.
- Justisaur
Justisaur
<gand...@the.dead.ISP.of.Community.net> wrote:
> Morgan <nos...@nospam.co.uk> contributed wisdom to news:NMQen.40099
>
> > Jonah Falcon wrote:
> >> Yeah, Mass Effect 2 is boring. Sure. Whatever.
> >> (laughs and points behind idiots' backs)
>
> > Mass Effect 2 is indeed an excellent and fun game. However if you'd
> > bothered to read the original post you'd have seen that he was referring
> > to *one* aspect of the game being boring. I whole heartedly agree with
> > him on the planet scanning point (though not all of the other ones). It
> > is boring, incredibly boring.
>
> Actually, by reading the initial post and weeding out the obvious choices
> of wording it ended up sounding like the kindof game that I would like.
>
If you really like BioWare's typical good character interaction and
just don't care about anything else you'll enjoy it. Just don't buy
it for the XBox, I seriously don't see how anyone could get through
the scanning without cheating around it, although I know some have.
- Justisaur
WDS
> On Feb 17, 6:59 am, WDS<B...@seurer.net> wrote:
>> On 2/16/2010 6:50 PM, Justisaur wrote:
>>
>>> I've spent many hours scanning planets...
>>
>> Why? You don't need very many resources to complete all of the
>> upgrades. And you don't really need all the upgrades, either, at least
>> not on normal difficulty.
>
> More than 3... many... I got better at it, down to about 10 minutes a
> planet, It started out more like 20 to 30 minutes a planet but I had
> lots of upgrades I didn't have the resources for. I swear it feels
> like I was spending at least as much time scanning as playing the
> whole rest of the game. My mouse hand is still hurting today even
> though I didn't do any yesterday.
10 to 30 (!!!) minutes a planet? WTH are you doing? I haven't timed
myself but it was taking me probably no more than a minute, maybe two.
You aren't bothering with anything but the "Rich" planets are you?
Insane Ranter
If you can't play it on PC it isn't worth the time or money.
Justisaur
Wow a minute? That would make it much more tolerable. Maybe it plays
differently on different computers? I have no idea what I'm doing
"wrong". 30 minutes was when I was doing all the planets as I didn't
know about 'rich' ones being much better and I was going up and down
every other vertical line. I looked for hints on how to do it and the
best method I tried was putting the pointer at the edge of the planet
and forcing it to rotate and checking every other horizontal line,
thats when I got it down to about 10 minutes. I didn't actually time
myself, but I think it was about that as I did a system in about an
hour Monday, possibly somewhat faster, but nowhere near a minute.
- Justisaur
WDS
I do the same sort of thing albeit I have been using the horizontal
lines. Maybe you are just scanning too slowly? You can go pretty
quickly and just listen for a hit. I scan left, then down two lines,
right, down two lines, left... until I hear a hit. Then I back up and
focus in on where it is at.
Anssi Saari
> Wow a minute?
I guess I takes a little more than that for me. I just swing the
cursor back and forth as fast as I can and if I get a blip, fine tune
the location and launch. I tried going grid by grid at first, but the
more random approach seems to be OK too.
BTW, after you've completed one playthrough, you start with 50,000 of
each metal. It helps a little but right now I'm about 40,000 short of
platinum...
Florian Schaetz
> I guess I takes a little more than that for me. I just swing the
> cursor back and forth as fast as I can and if I get a blip, fine tune
> the location and launch. I tried going grid by grid at first, but the
> more random approach seems to be OK too.
Agreed. I always made Z moves (from left to right, and back again with a
little bit down), waiting for sounds. On reaching the bottom, I turn the
planet around a bit and start again. Shouldn't take that long...
Flo
Grant Anderson
> Wow a minute? That would make it much more tolerable. Maybe it plays
> differently on different computers? I have no idea what I'm doing
> "wrong". 30 minutes was when I was doing all the planets as I didn't
> know about 'rich' ones being much better and I was going up and down
> every other vertical line. I looked for hints on how to do it and the
> best method I tried was putting the pointer at the edge of the planet
> and forcing it to rotate and checking every other horizontal line,
> thats when I got it down to about 10 minutes. I didn't actually time
> myself, but I think it was about that as I did a system in about an
> hour Monday, possibly somewhat faster, but nowhere near a minute.
It'd be about a minute a planet for me as well. I only went for Good or
Rich planets, wave the mouse around vaguely, rotate the planet, repeat.
If the meter goes nuts at any point, launch probe - don't bother with
the smaller readings.
There's an upgrade that lets you scan faster, too. Talk to Miranda to
unlock it.
I really enjoyed ME2 - I've finished it twice now and I have plans for
at least one more playthrough. (Not right away, though - thanks to a
couple of big Steam sales, I have a pile of things to play!)
Cheers,
Grant
Andrew Rybenkov
LOL!!! What a crap you are playing, folks!
RPG??? ROTFL!!!
You made my day!
--
Andrew Rybenkov
Grant Anderson
>
> LOL!!! What a crap you are playing, folks!
>
> RPG??? ROTFL!!!
>
> You made my day!
>
It's an RPG, and a very good one at that. The mining minigame doesn't
take nearly as long as Justisaur thought, and after the first
playthrough it's not even necessary. (It's only even necessary on the
first playthrough if you want to get all the upgrades).
Cheers,
Grant
Trumpcard
The 1st one was an RPG.. This one, barely...
I also agree with the assessment that it was collossally dumbed down
from the 1st one. No real inventory system, the HORRIBLE planet
interactions ( I acutally enjoyed the SUV minigame from the last one,
and the feeling that you might actually FIND something on a planet).
The universe just felt tiny, and hardly worth exploring... The 1st
one felt so much more rich and full.. This one.... Sigh.... I played
it through and beat it, but I just dont have any desire to go back
and play it again.. The story was engaging, and the characters were
great. The plot and atmosphere was there, but the gameplay was just
frankly, 2 steps back in my opinion.
Dont get me wrong however, I'm not slamming the game completely, I
liked it, but really, for the RPG experience I was expecting from
the current reigning RPG purists and masters, I was vastly
disappointed by it. It could have been SO much better.
Trimble Bracegirdle
features.
The outlook for Mass Effect 3 is not to good is it ?
(\__/)
(='.'=)
Mark Morrison
<just...@gmail.com> wrote:
>I really pity the poor xbox players that have to go through this with
>no way to cheat around it.
We're made of sturdier stuff :)
I agree it was boring, though - why not just find the plans, then they
get made automatically, on the return to the ship ?
Or at the very least, let the player BUY THE ORE. Despite finding the
stuff in crates everywhere, no one appeared to sell it.
Grant Anderson
> On Feb 17, 11:59 pm, Grant Anderson<gpsander...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> It's an RPG, and a very good one at that. The mining minigame doesn't
>> take nearly as long as Justisaur thought, and after the first
>> playthrough it's not even necessary. (It's only even necessary on the
>> first playthrough if you want to get all the upgrades).
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Grant
>
> The 1st one was an RPG.. This one, barely...
>
> I also agree with the assessment that it was collossally dumbed down
> from the 1st one. No real inventory system, the HORRIBLE planet
> interactions ( I acutally enjoyed the SUV minigame from the last one,
> and the feeling that you might actually FIND something on a planet).
> The universe just felt tiny, and hardly worth exploring... The 1st
> one felt so much more rich and full.. This one.... Sigh.... I played
> it through and beat it, but I just dont have any desire to go back
> and play it again.. The story was engaging, and the characters were
> great. The plot and atmosphere was there, but the gameplay was just
> frankly, 2 steps back in my opinion.
I guess that's varying mileage then. No "real inventory system" and no
Mako were just fine in my book. Bouncing all over the planet map in the
Mako each time to make sure I'd investigated every point of interest was
at least as frustrating as the scanning.
I finished ME2 twice, consecutively - I don't think I've done that with
any other RPG.
If it helps, I believe there is actually going to be a vehicle like the
Mako added in the DLC (not sure if it's free or pay).
Cheers,
Grant
Kyle Haight
Trumpcard <dgk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>I also agree with the assessment that it was collossally dumbed down
>from the 1st one. No real inventory system, the HORRIBLE planet
>interactions ( I acutally enjoyed the SUV minigame from the last one,
>and the feeling that you might actually FIND something on a planet).
ME1 didn't have a 'real' inventory system either, IMHO. A party-global
list of weapons and armor with no weight or bulk limitations may have
cut it in the days of Ultima II, but this is the 21st century and I
expect better. As for the SUV minigame, I enjoyed it right up to the
point where I realized I *wasn't* going to find much of anything on the
planets. The universe felt more open but it was an empty, generic
openness -- more barren than open, really.
ME2 has serious flaws, yes. But don't give the original a golden halo
it doesn't deserve. I'm also willing to cut ME2 a bit of slack just for
the bit where Mordin Solus sings Gilbert & Sullivan.
--
Kyle Haight
WDS
> ME1 didn't have a 'real' inventory system either, IMHO. A party-global
> list of weapons and armor with no weight or bulk limitations may have
> cut it in the days of Ultima II, but this is the 21st century and I
> expect better.
Other recent games also do this though like the Gothics.
> As for the SUV minigame, I enjoyed it right up to the
> point where I realized I *wasn't* going to find much of anything on the
> planets. The universe felt more open but it was an empty, generic
> openness -- more barren than open, really.
The Mako thing was fun where there was more to do on a planet than just
find resources. But there were only a couple of those.
I actually think there are more (and overall larger) "unique" areas in
ME 2 as well.
> ME2 has serious flaws, yes. But don't give the original a golden halo
> it doesn't deserve. I'm also willing to cut ME2 a bit of slack just for
> the bit where Mordin Solus sings Gilbert& Sullivan.
Heh. He's my favorite character. His comments if you are flirting with
someone are great, too. And the whole genophage thing is well handled
as well.
Kyle Haight
WDS <Bi...@seurer.net> wrote:
>
>Heh. He's my favorite character. His comments if you are flirting with
>someone are great, too. And the whole genophage thing is well handled
>as well.
Yeah. Mordin's backstory is built on a genuinely difficult moral dilemma,
with reasonable arguments on both sides. There isn't a clear-cut 'good'
or 'bad' side there.
The main drawback to his character is that it's so tempting to mimic
his distinctive speech style. My wife has already threatened to hit me
for doing that. :-)
--
Kyle Haight
Trumpcard
> ME1 didn't have a 'real' inventory system either, IMHO.
> A party-global list of weapons and armor with no weight or bulk limitations may have
> cut it in the days of Ultima II, but this is the 21st century and I
> expect better.
We'll, actually finding items, and having merchants you bought/sold
from was alot closer than the weapon and armor upgrade system in ME2.
Not trying to say ME1 was perfect, but my original point was ME2 was
dumbed down from ME1
>As for the SUV minigame, I enjoyed it right up to the
> point where I realized I *wasn't* going to find much of anything on the
> planets. The universe felt more open but it was an empty, generic
> openness -- more barren than open, really.
I'm not going to argue you there, but once again, I'm not defending
ME1 as much as comparing it with ME2, They definitely could have
done a better job fleshing out the universe. ME1 would have benefited
greatly from a bit of Bethseda type quest/mission/object seeding. But
driving around, at least to me, was mildly engaging, where just
dragging a frickin cursor back and forth over a planet was MIND
NUMBING
>
> ME2 has serious flaws, yes. But don't give the original a golden halo
> it doesn't deserve. I'm also willing to cut ME2 a bit of slack just for
> the bit where Mordin Solus sings Gilbert & Sullivan.
>
Is it really Gilbert & Sullivan if you just bastardize the original
tune with completely lyrics? lol . I'll admit though, I rather
liked that..
> --
> Kyle Haight
Trumpcard
> In article <hlk511$75...@news.eternal-september.org>,
>
> WDS <B...@seurer.net> wrote:
>
> >Heh. He's my favorite character. His comments if you are flirting with
> >someone are great, too. And the whole genophage thing is well handled
> >as well.
>
> Yeah. Mordin's backstory is built on a genuinely difficult moral dilemma,
> with reasonable arguments on both sides. There isn't a clear-cut 'good'
> or 'bad' side there.
>
> --
> Kyle Haight
That was one of the better character backstories if you ask me. I
didnt really feel some of the avatar-renegade judgements were
particularly on target just because of the moral ambiguity of the
situation.. The only character I think I liked more was Tali, but I
think thats mainly because that voice-actors tone and accent in the
game give me goosebumps.. lol...
> The main drawback to his character is that it's so tempting to mimic
> his distinctive speech style. My wife has already threatened to hit me
> for doing that. :-)
>
Mine was just thankful I finished it and cut it off. My computer
setup is rigged through my 52" LCD in the living room, and hooked to a
Bose surround sound system, so she had to listen to all the
interactions in surround.. There were a few times she asked why I
didnt put a bullet through the heads or eject into space some of the
bitchier female personalities in the game, which would have been an
awesome addition to the game.
Kyle Haight
Trumpcard <dgk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>But driving around, at least to me, was mildly engaging, where just
I think I've crossed through mind-numbing and into Zen. Last night I
found myself mining a half-dozen planets even though I didn't need any
more resources, just because the process itself was meditative. Weird,
I know. I still think it's a bad piece of game design.
The thing that really gripes me about it is how easy it would have
been to make it better. The big problem with the planet scanning is
the lack of information. If your cursor is at a point on the planet,
and you're not getting a hit, you have no data about what to do to
find something. You have two alternatives: cast about randomly until
you get bored, or systematically raster-scan the whole planet. Neither
way is fun.
They could have extended the 'arrow to anomaly' idea to apply to
resources as well, say by letting you 'scan for platinum' and giving
you a line pointing in the general direction of the closest platinum
to the cursor. (Or perhaps do a size/distance weighting.) That way
instead of a mindless raster-scan it turns into a directed hunt. With
some information, you can make decisions about where to look next.
--
Kyle Haight