Mass Effect

[BraveDave2]

Definately worth the buy. I'm on my third playthrough which brings up my only gripe. It's damn short. Even with all the sidequests I was done in less than 20 hours BUT the replay value is so high that it almost makes up for this. Can't wait another 2 years for the sequal.

The only thing that worries me is that Bioware will be under the iron fist of EA games by the time Mass Effect 2 comes out... this I do believe was their final game before folding under the gaming world's equivalent of the evil empire. 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Definately worth the buy. I'm on my third playthrough which brings up my only gripe. It's damn short. Even with all the sidequests I was done in less than 20 hours BUT the replay value is so high that it almost makes up for this. Can't wait another 2 years for the sequal.

Not sure how you could do ALL of the side mission in under 20 hours.  I took me about 50 though I imagine I had a few lost hours of idle time their.

What level did you make it too when you finished the first time through?

The only thing that worries me is that Bioware will be under the iron fist of EA games by the time Mass Effect 2 comes out... this I do believe was their final game before folding under the gaming world's equivalent of the evil empire. 

Yes it, maybe their best to date but I wouldn't worry too much about the ME trilogy.  Though important to EA the real reason they bought Bioware was because of its MMORPG it has in development.  (Rumor is they have the deal with Lucas Arts to make the new Star Wars: MMORPG and now EA does.)

The technology is built, Microsoft has the right to first purchase of any new ME titles, (and with a million copies sold you know they will buy the sequels) and if you piss of the Bioware boys then a few years down the road you have any studio that is great in name only.

EA does own the rights to the franchise so you could be seeing the equivalent of Halo Wars in the Mass Effect universe and/or other genres

I think EA has gotten smarter of late.  Their new CEO seems to realize that movie titles and rehashes of last years games are not always the way to go.

Anyhow, I just finished the game.  Simply amazing all of the way through.  The sequel cannot come soon enough…

[Ikoma]

Only 18 days to ME2!

Who is going back through ME to finish any miscellaneous playthroughs to bring into ME2?

[Sacremas]

Playing it right now actually, both to refresh my memory and get my Soldier character (with Electronics bonus skill) up to level 60. Unfortunately the level don't carry over because they've totally redone the character creation system apparently along with the combat system (which now features the ability to swap ammo types in combat without switching mods around, shooting off the target's legs making geth come crawling at you instead, etc), but you do get bonus abilities by uploading your character that you won't get by simply starting a new ME2 game.

Also in case you haven't seen it yet;

And yes that's Martin Sheen you hear as Cerberus's leader the Illusive Man, and Carrie-Ann "Trinity" Moss as his lovely assistant, other cast members include Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from BSG (Caprica and Tigh, back at it again? Maybe, sorta, she's the voice of the Normandy computer's VI, and he's Captain Bailey of possibly the same ship) while Yvonne Strahowski and Adam Baldwin drops by from Chuck, with Michael Dorn and Shohreh Aghdashloo as frosting on the cake.

EDIT: Never mind, Yvonne Strahowski is the assistant, a genetically engineered "perfect woman", love interest perhaps? Interesting considering the alternative (Subject Zero) is anything but perfect. Also Michael Hogan is obviously not the captain of the Normandy, that role falls to Shepard clearly.

Check out this video for an overlook and interviews of the Stars of Mass Effect;

[Sacremas]

Here's the full version of the above cinematic trailer, gore included.

[Ikoma]

Yvonne Strahowski is the assistant, a genetically engineered "perfect woman", love interest perhaps?

I am so glad I placed a pre-order in that case!   

BTW, is that supposed to be a more masculine looking asari in the trailer.  In ME, all the asari were portrayed as very... full-figured females.  Despite technically being an mono-sexual race.

[Sacremas]

Nah, new species, Asari are still fully figured female-looking monosexuals, and an Asari that's especially full figured and knows how to use it is btw a third love interest apparently, one that I'm guessing goes both ways like Liara did... Anyway, there's going to be about half a dozen new species at least apparently, including the insectoid Collector species that seems to be the main badguys. Main badguys in addition to some fully sentient and speaking Geth that is, and then there's the people you work for that I by chance spent more time hunting for in ME1 than I did spend on hunting for Saren, so you know. And then there's the Reapers, and I kinda doubt Unicron, sorry, Sovereign were the only one we'll see before the whole lot of them presumably arrives in ME3...

Lots of cool stuff in the new videos released by the way but I think I've had the opening story spoiled well enough already so I'm just going to wait for the game... but some of them featured some really cool gameplay; in addition to the aforementioned different ammo types (and ammo numbers btw, you no longer have infinite ammo) and shooting off limbs, and of course the mini-nuke guns, there's some really cool changes to the engineer and adept side of things. Engineers can create mini-drones that fly around and attack things, scare them out of cover, or just go kamikaze and explodes, while Adepts can now make those biotic fields send their enemies wherever they go, and they can combine multiple biotic fields for much greater effect than before as well. Oh yeah, and at least one of the classes is apparently going to have bullet curving, as in Wanted-style bullet curving.

BTW, just took on a Thresher Maw (the sandworm things, same one the Krogan in the trailer faces off against) with my soldier character in ME2, took three shots to the chest from it without problem, that's two more than my tank can usually take take, then I killed it with my shotgun. I think I like playing high level characters.

[Lord of Bones]

I only played through Mass Effect once and I haven't been keeping up on the benefits of porting a previous character over to ME2, but new skills sounds good to me. Are there any other bonuses?

[Ikoma]

I understand some of the decisions you made in ME are going to have some kind of continuing impact on the ME2 storyline.  I assume this is stuff like saving/killing the rachni and/or saving/sacrificing the council.  But I don't know.

[Sacremas]

Even stuff like if you let Administrator Anoleis remain in power on Noveria is supposed to matter some to ME2, same with which companions you left behind, either on the Citadel never bringing them along, on on Virmire. Though I'm guessing that it'll be mostly the details that changes, the overall strokes and story line staying the same... otherwise keeping track of all the options through two games before ME3 would be one massive undertaking. Since I don't think this game takes place in Citadel space (I noticed "Omega" somewhere in a trailer, and that's the Terminus Systems equivalent of the Citadel, from the Mass Effect: Revelation novel which takes place right after the end of ME2 and mentions the new badguys and Martin Sheen's character the Illusive Man) the Council probably won't play as much a part in this one as they did in ME1, but they probably should in ME3 which is supposed to be the grand war scenario against the Reaper invasion, so if you saved them in ME1 you'll probably hear about it still in ME3... which is kinda cool.

[Ikoma]

I hold ME2 in my hands.  I cannot wait to get out of the office and get home tonight!  I think... <cough> I may be... <cough> coming down with something.   

[Lord of Bones]

I envy you Ikoma. 

[Ikoma]

Pretty awesome intro.  I like the new controls (cover) although I don't like the reload mechanism, mainly 'cause now you have to 'pick up' thermal clips all the time.  I preferred the overheating but that might change as I play.  But everything else feels like an extension of previous commands.  And not a single elevator ride yet.

[Sacremas]

Currently about 24 hours into the game, and still haven't recruited the full squad and I don't think I've gotten halfway through the story yet, so this is a pretty big game...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go faint now as I got the game only yesterday... Oooh, my preorder code arrived in the mail while I was playing, go for 48? Eh, no, probably not, getting seriously light-headed, and I just laughed myself half to death almost over a certain Hanar Spectre movie commercial. ("Enkindle this." In Shepard's voice. Still gives me the funnies.) And I can't stop giggling over the fact that I currently have a miniature giant space hamster in my cabin, who's "squeak" sound when I touch him is almost a guaranteed reuse of the sound effect from touching another certain hamster about 15 years ago...

[Sacremas]

Mission complete as male Soldier with equal Paragon and Renegade scores, total runtime 37 hours, not nearly long enough but this is a kind of game that if it was 300 hours it still wouldn't be enough. And the final sequence, in fact everything from the moment you pass by the Omega 4 Relay... Oh my *BEEP*ing God. And it just builds up again and again until those final, final moments come and your jaw unhinges.

Easily game of the year.