Mass Effect 2

[Charismatic]

I can't even remember any convos with my Liara/Tali team I rolled with.

[The Blackrose]

And my Garrus vs Wrex conversations D: How I loved those :/

More like Wrex and anyone else.

"Now that I'm done shittalking your species, so who would win a fight, you or Shepard?"

[Arnwulf]

Voice cast announced.

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=38081

Guildford, UK., (December 10, 2009) – BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today revealed the voice actors performing in Mass Effect 2, the second act of the award-winning science fiction trilogy. The game features Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Martin Sheen (“The West Wing”, “Apocalypse Now”), 2009 Emmy Award-winner Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Saddam”), comedic actor Seth Green (“Austin Powers”), “Chuck” stars Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin, Keith David (“Crash”) and sci-fi favorites Michael Dorn (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”), Michael Hogan (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix”).

“Emotionally engaging narrative is a key design pillar for BioWare, and the top-notch voice talent in Mass Effect 2 helps drive this goal,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “Credible, powerful personalities are vital to delivering a compelling story experience in BioWare’s games, and we have assembled an amazing ensemble cast that surpasses the very high bar set in the original Mass Effect!”

Esteemed actor Martin Sheen stars as the mysterious Illusive Man who commands Cerberus, a secretive paramilitary organization dedicated to protecting human interests in the galaxy. Yvonne Strahovski plays deadly Cerberus operative Miranda Lawson, who has been genetically engineered for superior mental and physical traits. Returning to the cast from the original Mass Effect is Seth Green as Joker and Keith David as Admiral David Anderson. And rounding out the vocal roster are Tricia Helfer as EDI, the voice of the new Normandy; Carrie-Ann Moss as Aria T’Loak, the crime lord who rules the planet Omega; Shohreh Aghdashloo as Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay; Michael Hogan as Captain Bailey; Adam Baldwin as Kal ‘Reegar; and Michael Dorn as Gatatog Uvenk.

The Mass Effect trilogy is an emotionally charged science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets. In Mass Effect 2, players will once again step into the role of the heroic Commander Shepard, commanding their crew of some of the most dangerous operatives from across the galaxy on a mission so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal. Featuring intense shooter action, a rich futuristic storyline, space exploration and emotionally engaging character interaction, the game delivers an unparalleled cinematic experience.

[Atreides]

Bioware has always been really good about having top-quality voice talent, and this appears to be no exception. I wonder if Nolan North will have some sort of role in this, since he's in just about everything.

[Mizango]

Bioware has always been really good about having top-quality voice talent, and this appears to be no exception. I wonder if Nolan North will have some sort of role in this, since he's in just about everything.

No doubt.

[Qalbert]

http://kotaku.com/5423816/mass-effec...er-on-your-ass

In this video, you can get a look at the in-game bonuses for preordering Mass Effect 2 from GameStop: the Terminus Assault Armor, which does more than look good, and the Blackstorm Heavy Weapon, which does more than look bad.

See, this is what everyone said those folks in Switzerland were gonna do, create a bunch of Junior Mint black holes that will tear up this dimension. Apparently, in the year 2185, they have figured out how to safely create beachball-sized singularities. Well, they're not safe for the bad guys who get caught up in it, but that's their problem.

vid at link

[Atreides]

I just realized I'm going to be on vacation until the 26th, boo

[Kurp]

I played ME1 on a PC, but I recently bought a 360 and would like to know how the game controls on a console. I'd rather play it on 360 if it controls well, but would need to run through the game for a save.

[Odesseiron]

new trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fui...layer_embedded

can't wait

[Atreides]

I was checking today and my save file/profile is currently about halfway through the game, with a lot of quests still not yet completed (I think I was replaying for one of the companion achievements), and I'm not sure if it'd be worth my time to get closer to the end of the game or if it won't even matter in terms of what carries over.

also one of those trailers about the voice cast seemed to show at least one more party member, btw, a human male

edit: yeah this one [link deleted]
towards the end, shows Shepard + Miranda + someone we haven't seen before

[Insanecyclone]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/17/ha...st-90-minutes/

With the game set to ship out on January 26, EA held one last hands-on sneak preview of Mass Effect 2 on Wednesday night in San Francisco. We were there, of course, intrigued by an invitation that promised we'd learn what something called "Project Lazarus" was -- as it turned out, it's a crucial part of the game's plot that makes an appearance in the first 20 minutes.

We know that because -- save for some optimizations here and there -- we played the first hour-and-a-half of a finished Mass Effect 2, from the title screen until being politely informed that we were about to enter forbidden plot territory. Which is surprising, considering that the opening of the game, apart from being one of the most dramatic we've witnessed in recent memory, is also chockablock with pretty huge plot twists.

That said, we must warn you that the preview after the break contains what some may consider MAJOR SPOILERS -- so if you want the beginning of the game and the surprises it holds to remain unrevealed until launch day, seriously ... don't read any further.

FIRST 90MIN SPOILERS

Spoiler: show

The game begins with a cinematic of two characters, Miranda and "The Illusive Man," talking about Commander Shepard's victory against Saren and the Geth, the downfall of the council and Humanity's rise to power at the end of the original Mass Effect. The commander, so it seems, is the only person The Illusive Man thinks can stop an even greater threat to mankind: the Reavers.

The scene transitions to a shot of the SSV Normandy screaming across a backdrop of stars, cutting to the interior to show Joker at the helm calling out techno-jargon that roughly translated into "things are a-ok!" Then they weren't. Out of nowhere, a huge, unidentified ship was bearing down on the Normandy, prompting Joker to take evasive maneuvers -- but it was too late.


If this sounds like the footage we've seen depicting the destruction of the Normandy and described as a possible ending of the game, that's because it is. Only it's not an ending; it's the beginning. We've been had. The Normandy is toast in the first five minutes.

Gameplay begins with you, as Commander Shepard, making your way to the ship's helm to rescue Joker, who's bound and determined to save the vessel. Along the way, you rush through raging fires and traverse a section of the ship that's been torn open, exposing it to the void (complete with the appropriate loss of all sound save for Shepard's breathing). Once you reach Joker, you engage in some brief dialog before pulling him from his seat and forcing him into the last remaining escape pod.

Before you're able to climb inside, a final laser volley from the unknown ship sends you hurtling backwards into debris which rips your pressurized suit. With the Normandy spitting and splintering into pieces in the background, Shepard clutches the suit's helmet, flails as the oxygen is purged, then dies. A limp, lifeless Shepard drifts across the horizon of the nearby planet and the game's logo provides an exclamation point to the scene.

In the sequence that follows, we learn what Project Lazarus is all about. As its name suggests, it's the program initiated to literally bring Shepard back from the dead. The commander's body has been recovered and -- with the aid of nanomachines, cybernetic parts and a lot of sci-fi pixie dust -- resurrected. It's at this point that you're able to create your character's appearance, unless you are importing your Commander Shepard from Mass Effect 1. The variety of facial features has been expanded to offer more diversity -- we were able to make a Shepard who looked a lot like Hong Kong action legend Andy Lau.

But while Shepard may be alive, any of the major characters that didn't survive in the first game due to your actions are dead. In fact, it was revealed that the ramifications of every major player decision in the original Mass Effect will be borne out in the sequel. Cutscenes will be entirely different, returning characters and races will treat you differently depending on your past choices, and so on. Your skills may get reset when Shepard dies, but the universe doesn't forget your actions.

When the game picks back up, the space station Shepard's been taken to is under attack, so you have to spring into action before the reconstructive process is fully complete (hence the strange scars on the male Shepard's face in the accompanying screenshot).

The space station escape serves as a "learn by surviving" tutorial, walking you through all of the game's systems, with a strong focus on combat -- as is the case with the entire game, actually. Many of the user interface elements from the first game remain, such as the talent and weapon selection radials, but as we've touched on in earlier previews the combat is far more robust and akin to that of a top-tier third-person shooter. There are also two different hacking minigames introduced: one that requires you to match snippets of "code" that scroll up the screen, the other a memorization puzzle worked into a "circuit bypass" sequence.

Shepard's joined in the escape by Jacob Taylor, a biotic user we teamed up with for an earlier hands-on, and Miranda, a new, no-nonsense female member of Cerberus, the first game's pro-human faction. The trio makes their way through waves of reprogrammed security robots and terminals in need of overriding (hence the minigames) and eventually boards a shuttle to escape.

The next sequence is Shepard's first meeting -- via hologram -- with The Illusive Man, voiced by Martin Sheen. It's during this meeting that Shepard learns of the "real threat" to the galaxy and is called upon to assemble a team to deal with it, because, of course, no one else can.

The first order of business, though, is to head for the colony of Freedom's Progress to investigate a loss of communication with the human colonists there. After touching down on the planet, Shepard and company fight through more bots and sentry turrets before running into an old friend and squad mate from Mass Effect 1, the Quarian female Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She and a team of her people are also on-site investigating what happened to Freedom's Progress, but also searching for one of their own who's gone missing. Shepard and the others join the search, which leads them to an encounter with a heavy security mech.

Once the missing Quarian is located, Shepard has to find out what he knows. During the dialog scenes, the usual Paragon / Renegade conversation choices are present, along with a new element -- a sort of quick time event. In the case of this scene, you're prompted to pull the right trigger in order to intimidate the Quarian into spilling what he knows. If you choose to do it and don't fudge the timing, Shepard draws a pistol and shoots the screen next to the alien's head. Needless to say, he snaps out of his jabbering and shows his rescuers footage of the colonists being rounded up by a race called the Collectors who use a massive swarm of wasp-like insects to poison and incapacity their quarry.


With this information, Shepard and Tali part ways. Back off of the planet, you meet with The Illusive Man again and explain what's happened. He gives you marching orders to round up a team to deal with the threat, and it's shortly thereafter that we reached the stopping point. At the conclusion of the gameplay session, Shepard was reunited with Joker, now a member of Cerberus and your pilot for the mission ... on-board a new, bigger, more advanced looking SSV Normandy.

Having to stop just when things were getting rolling wasn't great, but at least we'd gotten to experience how the game starts off with a riveting introduction and eases vets and newcomers alike into the revamped gameplay systems -- which BioWare says it's worked hard to improve across the board. From our playtime, we're inclined to say "mission accomplished." Again, this was only about 90 minutes at the start of the game, but it was enough to leave us with a really good feeling about one of 2010's first major releases.

Wow...I want this now.

[Qalbert]

Read first couple paragraphs of spoiler and stopped.
why is it still december goddamnit?

[Mizango]

Fuck Joker, I want the people who bound and gagged him to join my crew. Oh goodness, I cant fucking wait! I have this bitch already paid in full at Gamestop.

[Qalbert]

as do I

[Mizango]

W/o spoiling anything I am glad that Tali has larger role in this one, she is the one person in about 5 of my play throughs was ALWAYS on my team for every single mission from start to finish.

Hell yes.

[Diamicles]

W/o spoiling anything I am glad that Tali has larger role in this one, she is the one person in about 5 of my play throughs was ALWAYS on my team for every single mission from start to finish.

Hell yes.

I can hardly contain myself

[Qalbert]

Miz, I was playing MW2 with a BGer the other day and he was like "One of my friends has been playing ME for 7 hours straight"
To my surprise it wasn't you

[Mizango]

Miz, I was playing MW2 with a BGer the other day and he was like "One of my friends has been playing ME for 7 hours straight"
To my surprise it wasn't you

HAHA

[Diamicles]

I think I played Dragon Age for 5 hours straight at some point in the past week...

There's just something about Bioware's games that does that to me. Jade Empire, KotOR/II, ME...all of them I can just sit and play for hours.

ME2 will be more of the same, I'm sure.

[Mizango]

Yeah Bioware has a bruva hooked.